Happy Memorial Day!

Today we drove to Fossil Butte National Monument in south western Wyoming. It was actually only an hour and a half from Logan, just 30 minutes beyond Bear Lake. South western Wyoming has wonderful fossils and it brought back memories of looking for squid fossils with my dad. Fossil Butte National Monument has fossils of alligators, sting rays, bats, mini-horses, palm fronds, snakes, and many kinds of fish on display. Jonathan made a fossil rubbing for Autumn to take home.

I really liked the soft shell turtle fossils.

The fossils at the visitor center came from the Butte behind us in this picture. The area used to look like Florida... just 50 million years ago.

We grilled hot dogs in the picnic area for lunch. Autumn had never tasted hot dogs before. She wolfed one down! We walked the 1 1/2 mile trail that started from the picnic area and meandered up to one of the areas where the fossils are found. We made it to the "Area Closed" sign.

Autumn loves the baby backpack. I tried to catch her delight, but only caught Jonathan's. He loves the backpack too. I'm glad because I'm too out of shape to wear it.

Part of the hike that we loved was seeing the high Uintah mountains to the south of us. They are very spectacular. I enhanced (darkened) the photo below so you could see the mountains instead of the haze. Kings Peak is the highest point in Utah and is somewhere in this picture.

After our hike we drove through Cokeville, WY and Montpelier, ID to get to the Bennington Cemetery. My dad is buried there and we went to put flowers on his grave. Someone else had already put red flowers by it, so we added more.

Jonathan told Autumn about why we were there and that her grandpa was buried there. She seemed to understand.

We drove home through Emigration Canyon and Mink Creek. The school house there has a "For Sale" sign on it. Everything was green. It was a wonderful trip.

The End.

What Opera?

My friend Clara invited me and several other of her friends to an opera to which her mother had received free tickets. The funny thing was that I couldn't find an ad for the opera anywhere and Clara didn't know much about it either. Jonathan graciously offered to stay home with Autumn. Friday night came and Clara and one of her friends, Gail, came to pick me up for the opera. As we drove to the Ellen Eccles Theater where they commonly have operas, Clara handed me the flier and I began reading it to everyone.
"Come help us make a commercial...
for the Utah Festival Opera...
wear your best ..."

Everyone in the car gasped.

At the theater we met up with Clara's other friend Tiffany. We convened a quick powwow in the doorway, which inconvenienced several patrons but helped us plan our next move. Should we stay for two hours to help film the commercial, or do as Clara suggested and go catch a movie. Tiffany and I prevailed that we should stay. It would probably be fun anyway.

So Clara, Tiffany, Gail, and I got to play opera patrons in a commercial featuring Michael Ballam's daughter. There were a lot of bright lights, time being perfectly still and quiet, and time spent staring at the stage. Between scene changes Michael Ballam and another opera star sang to us.

The opera ads will air on Comcast on the Wasatch Front. The cool thing is that I am three seats away from the main actors who are in the audience saying their lines. If you can see anyone from our group in the ads, it's probably me. What a fun and unexpected evening!

Baby and Her Monster Voice

Autumn and her visitors go to the zoo

Yesterday my Mom, my sister Bethany and her daughter Celeste came down for a visit from Idaho Falls. Luckily the end of nap time and the end of the rainstorm matched up well enough that we had a great adventure. First we stopped at the zoo. Can you count the number of pictures of strollers in this post?

Here is my Mom with Autumn in a stroller.

Here is Bethany with Celeste in a stroller.

Here are Autumn and Celeste in their strollers.

Here is Celeste assisted by Bethany pushing a stroller with Autumn sitting in it.

We played for a little bit at Willow Park.

Autumn enjoyed her first swing experience.

Thanks for the visit!

Congratulations Texas A & M Grad!!!

We are so proud of my brother John who just recieved his Masters in Landscape Architecture from TAMU. Way to go John!!!

I'm a little flower pot...

Autumn is now eight months old. She waves at us, crawls, eats crackers, and checks out the underside of every rug she encounters. There is a post for our vacation coming soon.

Ma Ma Ma

Autumn finally said it and can repeat it- Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma. She's got her 6th tooth now too. Wow!