Desert Flowers

We thought that it would be fun to take a trip to enjoy all the desert wild flowers that are so abundant in the St George area this time of year. The Red Cliff National Recreation Area is near Leeds, on the Freeway before you go up the hill to Cedar City. It was a very good choice There are several fun trails to hike. The small meandering stream makes small pools and waterfalls as it descends to the valley below.

The wild flowers were in their best as the weather has warmed and we have had several rain storms the last few days

There was a large Tree Cholla on the trail. It is rather rare in this part of Utah.

The Scarlet Hedgenette grows near the stream where it is shady and moist.

The color of the Globe Mallow is exceptional, the plant has many many flowers and loves the Heat and Sun. They grow in large groups.

If a person looks in and around the sage type of brush you will find some Desert Primrose peeking out

The Desert Marigold is very abundant and in some locations make the whole hillside turn yellow.

It is truly amazing what the desert can look like when nature's best is all dressed up at this time of year.

Lets go fly a kite, hopefully

There is a annual Kite Festival in St George, it is a great event with thousands of people involved. They stage it in a large grassy area that is normally used as a driving range and park. Many school buses are used to carry folks from the parking lots to the Kite Flying Park. It is very much like a County Fair with entertainment, rides, lots of booths selling food ect.

Marlene and I went with some of our friends, set up our camp chairs and waited and waited and waited, no wind. It was so calm that the flags at the end of the field did not stir.

There was games for the little kids, home made ice cream, Navajo Tacos. Every one waited and waited, No wind.

The kids ran around with their kites dragging behind. Mom and dads cheered them on, no wind.

Marlene and I walked over to the pavilion where the entertainment was going on and listened to groups sing and dance. There was some groups with pre-teen age girls and boys singing their hearts out while all of the mom and dads cheered them on, no wind.

There was some helium filled balloons, that some forward thinking dads tied to kites, good idea but no go!

We went and had some Pizza, had a great time talking and sitting in the shade. We had a very successful day. When we got home the kids in on our street were running up and down still trying to get kites to fly. We found that no matter how much you run around kites will still not fly unless there is some wind.

I think this is somehow how life is? We some times try to fly a kite with no wind and are frustrated and disappointed, but we can still enjoy the sun shine and then sit in the shade and eat pizza and have a wonderful time even at a Kite Festival with out any wind.

Soccer, Birthday, and donkeys

General Conference is a time to be spent with family so Marlene and I drove to California to be with Roy and Angel's. Tyler celebrated his birthday while we were there. Angel had made a special birthday cake with a monster truck on the top of it. Tyler's main gift to to go to a Monster Truck Rally in the near future. We played Conference Bingo, Mom made notes of everything that was said. Roy, I and Nathan went to the Priesthood Session. It was Nathan's first time.

The Truck was removed before the cake was consumed.

Saturday was Soccer day for the Tyler and Megan. It was great to be there and watch them play ball. Megan's team it called the Crushers and they are really good they won the game by a score of 7-2. Tyler's game was not so competitive, at that young age they don't keep the score so it was fun to fun

On the way back to St George we spent a few days at Laughlyn, Nevada which is in the Southeast corner of the state where Nevada, California and Arizona join. We visited Oatman Arizona a old ghost type of town that is about twenty miles away from Laughlyn. They stage a gun fight in the street several times a day and there are lots of small shops that Marlene likes.

Some the Mules were left when the Gold Mining was stopped and are now wild. The Mules come in to town looking for food, many of the stores sell carrots. Marlene had fun with them even though she thought that they had too many flies.

We went on a Paddle Wheel Boat up and down the Colorado River, had lots of Buffet Meals then It was back home to St George.

garden time, and exploring

We went for an exploring trip into the area know as the Arizona Strip, that area of Arizona that is north of the Grand Canyon and south of the South West Corner of Utah. It is very isolated and can only be reached by dirt roads from the St George area. Most of the Arizona Strip is now in a National Monument created by President Clinton about the same time that he made the Grand Staircase, Escalate National Monument. There is a Gipson mine on the road. The view back towards St George is wonderful. We found and picked up some very pretty and unusual rocks.

We are going to plant our garden this week. We have some friends in the Ward who have a garden spot, 100 feet long and 40 feet wide. It is huge, so we are going to share the plot. I am planting Cherry, Early Girl, and Heat Wave Tomatoes. The Heat Wave Tomatoes are very popular here in St George as they thrive in very hot weather. I also am planting Red Bell Peppers. Our Friends are going to plant Green Bell Peppers so we can share. The rest of our planting will be Cucumbers, Butter Nut Squash, Zucini and Watermelon. The Watermelon do good here as long as they are well watered. The farm has a flood irrigation system with our water turn every Tuesday so we should we alright. Most crops have two seasons with a spring planting and a early fall planting.

The weather her is turning quite warm this week. They say that we have two weeks of Spring here in St George then Summer, Hot, Summer and Cool. It is suppose to be around eighty five degrees Friday.

PIcking, Rocks and Fish

Saturday, We were driving around and and came across a sign that said that there was a "Horse Lovers Estate Sale". Mom is never one to pass a Garage, Yard, or Estate Sale so we stopped to see what was going on. Yup, it was at some Horse Barns and they were selling all kinds of gear for those large animals. I was ready go to home when Mom went out to the office in front of the barn where She found a old dirty wood carving laying on the floor. We asked what they wanted for It and they said the $ 2.00 was fair.

The piece is a hand carving of the Last Supper done in relief, every detail has been carved out by hand. It must have taken months to carve it. The wood appears to be Mahogany as the wood is reddish colored on the back where it has not been finished. We cleaned it up and it is now hanging on the wall in the Front Room.

There is a community fish pond about 3/4 miles from our home. Monday was a wonderful day Clear and warm, about 75 degrees. Mom packed a lunch and we went to find a park where could enjoy the sunshine and food. We went to several parks but they were all full, so we thought that we would go up to the pond as there are a couple to tables there. Bingo, success, a table with a cover. We sat and enjoyed the weather and watched all the families fishing. It is spring break this week. It looked like so much fun that we decided to give it a try the next day. The limit is two fish so after we got our fish and went home and had very fresh trout for dinner. They were super good. We are going to go there again soon.

Today, Wednesday, we went rock hounding. There are lots of places to go here for that kind of fun. I went on the Internet and found some promising locations. Hurricane Mesa was our choice. The Mesa is the home of a test site which was used in the 50's for acceleration test for the ejection seats in jet airplanes. The Base is still there and is restricted but there are still some locations to find Petrified Wood and Agate.

There was quite a lot of P Wood around if you looked hard enough. Mom was much better than me at finding it.

On the road back down from the Mesa We stopped to have some lunch, While Mom was still eating I thought that I would pull some of the shale apart that was on the side of the road. I found this Fossil. It is very fragile so I took some pictures of it. The flowers must have been very pretty, but you can't tell their color. I wonder if they had bees back in prehistoric times.

The Picture above is of the Agate that we found most of it is translucent and very pretty

Roads and Rocks

I found that it is possible to find Petrified Rock on the top of the Hurricane Mesa, so Mom and I decided to take a day trip to find some. The government established a test site there where research was performed in the "50s" on jet airplane ejector seats. The road to the mesa is just before the town to Virgin on State Road ""9" on the way to Zion National Park.

We got on the wrong road, the road to Kolob Lake just after the town of Virgin. The road is paved and goes up into the mountains above and through Zions Park. It was one of those Magical times when one discovers a new and wonderful world. It is a part the park that only the locals know about. The road continues on to the top of the Mountains by Cedar Breaks so there was quite a bit of snow. We turned back from where the road was closed due to snow. I took some pictures with my "I phone" but they did not turn out due to the brightness of the snow. We will have to go back with my good camera for better photos.

After backtracking we got on the correct road and spent some time looking for rocks. The area was really muddy so we could not look around as much as we would like to but we did find several small specimens. The BLM rules are that twenty five pounds plus one rock can be taken. There is suppose to be a lot there so this looks like a return trip when it is drier,

Sunday and Jazz

Today is Sunday, the end of February already and so I need to get the Home Teaching Reports completed. I think is is a conspiracy for this month to be so short, there is just not enough time to get everything done, or is it that I don't have enough time to put things off as as long as I normally do.

Marlene is excited and depressed. The Jazz traded their best, and her favorite player Daren Williams. She really feels bad about that, but they received two new and really good players. So She is excited to see how they new guys do on the team. The Jazz have been constantly loosing lately and it is hard for her to see "Her guys go down" . She really is into this Jazz thing which is OK with me because I don't have to worry about being able to watch the games. When We went to Las Vegas for a couple of days. Her biggest worry was that we would miss "two whole games". I have to set up the DVR to record all of the games when We are away from home. She is happy as long as the TV works on game day.