Clay and more fun times in St George

Clay, Allison and their family came to visit us here in St George for several days last week. We had a busy time with lots of fun things to do.

The City of St George's Parks and Recreation Department is very busy in finding innovative things for the folks here to do. The "Sunset on the Square" takes place every other Friday night.

Every one brings blankets or lawn chairs and enjoys a movie in Town Square Park. They have just acquired a old rebuilt Carousal for the kids to ride on. Their are group games to play before the movie starts. The "Blue Bunny Ice Cream Company", their factory is here in St George, supplies cheap Ice Cream.

We watched the Movie "Fly Boys" a new soon to be distributed movie made here in St George. It was pretty good, lots of action. Aaron really liked it because it was about a couple of kids being forced to fly and land a airplane after everyone else bailed out.

The Clay Glad's like to go to Sand Hollow lake while they are here. It is very unusual in that a large sand dune ends up in the lake. The contrast between the red sand and the blue water is very nice. The lake is quite shallow by the dune and it takes a long walk in the water to have the water come up to your shoulders, which is very good for little kids. The water is also quite warm, The lake water was almost 90 degrees when we were there.

One of the best places to visit in Zion National Park is Weeping Rock. The water from rain and snow melt, on the top of the Canyon Percolates through the sandstone until it reaches a different layer of rock that is harder and then it comes out through the interface between the two types of rock causing a area where the water drips out over a shallow cavity. The water is very pure after being filtered though the sand stone for such a long distance. They have done a study where they used the permeability of the stone and the height of the rock to come up with the time for the water to move from the top of the cliff through the stone and come out at at the bottom of the canyon, some where around 1,000 years.

We left the kids in the care of Cody and went to Tuachan to see the musical "Grease" it was very good. They several used old cars from the sixty's as props for many of the scenes. They used a picture of "South High School" , where I went, for a backdrop. The music was great but I have always been uncomfortable with the theme of the show, since I was a child of that age and did not like ending where Sandy let Her standards down.

Angel's family comes to visit

Angel, Nathan, Megan and Tyler came to St George so spend time with us as Roy had to go for a week back east for his work. We had a great time spending time with the grand kids.

We went to Town Square Park several times to cool off. The park has a fountain which changes the squirts with time. It is fun for the kids to run through. There is also a "lazy River" That the kids like to run through.

We went to a is a special place, that we know of, to collect Petrified Wood. Everyone was able to find lots of pieces, then as we went home, we drove by Gunlock Reservoir. This had been a very wet year so the lake is overflowing the spillway. This is a special treat that only comes after a very wet cycle. The spillway water is a natural flow with many waterfalls and pools in the red rock. many people come to play in the water.

We took this picture of the grand kids at the Snow Canyon over look just prior to returning from our petrified wood trip.

One of the best places to go in Zion Park is the Emerald Pools. It takes a short hike to see the waterfalls that cascade down from the middle pools to the lower pool. The trail goes behind the falls so it is a special treat. The middle pools are at the top of the cliff where the water from the pools causes the waterfalls. The pools are at the edge of the cliff so the water flows directly off causing the waterfalls.

Megan and Nathan at the Middle Pools. Tyler with his stick in the background

Marlene on the Trail.

We parked by the Visitors Center took the bus to the trail head and then returned for a nice picnic supper.

Snow Canyon overlook

Snow Canyon Over look.

We went to Razor Ridge park to fish. The kids liked to spend time with Grandpa seeing how many fish we could catch. The first trip all we caught was Bluegill. There are lots of them in the pond but are too small to eat. Nathan caught three trout on the next trip they were taken home to eat later. He cleaned one of the fish with some help from Grandpa. The last fishing trip Megan and Grandpa caught two trout each, their limit, while Nathan got lots of Bluegill. It is fun to fish at the pond because there is always lots of fish to catch even if most of them are small Bluegill.

We had a special treat in that we went out for a buffet dinner at the "Golden Corral".

There was lots of food to choose from and every one could choose his favorite. The kids had Blue cotton candy to finish off the meal. Grandpa liked the steak and the sauteed Shrimp with Alfredo sause over rice.

It was a great week for everyone.

July 4

The Fourth of July for us this year in St George was great. It was a little cooler than normal with just very light rain for a short time. We went to the St George City Parade, not a really big deal, with some commercial floats with lots of candy for the kids along the route. The Alexander family, some of our friends, went with us. Their three year old had a really great time chasing the candy. The Parade went around the city park just a block north of the Temple parking lot. There was a lot of events in the Park, Hot Dog and Water Mellon eating contest ect. Many Booths has been set up in the Park selling food and other goodies. We had a great time sitting in our lawn chairs just visiting with our friends.

We had lunch at home as it was staring to warm up outside. Mesquite, a half hour drive away, was hosting a special event. The Nevada Pops Orchestra put on a concert staring at 9:00 PM for one hour. We took our lawn chairs and were able to get in the front row. They played patriotic songs. Many John Philips Sousa numbers and some Glen Miller numbers. It was great. The Fire Works started at ten. The Orchestra continued to play as the sky was bright with the display. There was some, new to me, fire works. It was kind of cool to have unexpected stuff in the sky.

When we left we found that there were folks all over the hills and parking lots in the area. The traffic was so heavy that it took us twenty minuted to get back on the street. Having our lawn chair on the center front row was great. It pays to arrive early, put your chairs up and then enjoy the Barbecue Buffet before the show.

When I review the events of the day, I think the best part may have been sitting around in the shade visiting and our afternoon nap. I think that I am getting Old !!!!.

guns and bombs

Marlene and I had the assignment to clean up the Chapel. Saturday morning at 8:00 AM we were busy engaged preparing the building for Sunday, sweeping, vacuuming, taking out the garbage ect. When We left the building we found that there was a Fire engine and Ambulance parked in the Church parking lot. I thought that is a odd place to stop to eat some donuts. We got in to the car to drive home and discovered that the street between us and home was barricaded of by two Police Cars. We drove around the block to and found that all of the streets in to the area were Blocked off and there was an another Ambulance parked on the other end of the street. It got really scary as we were driving by and saw officer get out of his car with a assault gun on his shoulder.

We found out that a there was a man in the area who had a "Bomb" and there was a stand off going on. The local Swat Team was there to handle the situation. The Man was arrested and then the bomb squad moved in to take care of the situation. All was calm in by the afternoon but it was really spooky to have eight plus Police cars, a Fire Engine and two ambulances in the neighborhood.

We still don't know the full story. The local newspaper reported that a war veteran was despondent and was trying to kill himself. The rumor in the neighborhood is that he was building a bomb to kill a former wife. There is a woman in the ward that was somewhat involved in that she was in the process of moving from the house in question and the people involved had moved into her home and were using it without her knowledge.

June trip to Salt lake area

Cody graduated from High School, Marlene had a Doctors appointment and there was a Merritt Brothers and Sisters at Logan last week end. It was a very long trip.

Extended Merritt Family

Marlene's Brothers and Sisters

The picture of the extended family and the picture of just the Brothers and Sisters are not very much different. Marie and Mary are Widows, Beth is divorced. Don, Bonnie's husband is now fighting Colon Cancer. Wayne's wife Karen did not make the trip to Logan and LaVere and Diane are on a Mission. Marlene had a very nice extended visit with her Family.

We drove up on Friday for Cody's graduation that night. The Merritt Family gathering was on Saturday. Monday there was a Big Birthday Party at Clay's house as it was Calab's Birthday. Sunday evening We went to Cody's Seminary Graduation. He was one of the Speakers and was very impressive. He was very well prepared, spoke without looking at his notes and was very confident. Marlene visited the doctor on Tuesday after which we drove back home to St George.

There was some problems with the water at our home at Sandy. We could hear water leaking some where but could not find the leak. I worked most of the day Monday and half of the day Tuesday trying to solve the problems. I also could not get the sprinklers in the back yard to work. Then one of the valves would not shut off. We got the valve to shut down but it needs to be replaced. Bruce called me today to tell me that some men from the Water Department came by and told him that the pipe going from the water meter to the house is broken and needs to be replaced. They shut the water to the house down until it can be fixed. I just hope that it can be repaired soon so the lawn will not die.

It was not a good weekend. I am so glad to be back home where is can recover and rest up, I hope.

Cody and five of his Friends are now here staying at our home while they spend some time visiting some of the sights for a graduation trip. They have been really nice. They got up this morning at 4:30 AM. To hike to Angels Landing for Sunrise. We did not even hear them go, Tomorrow, Friday, they are going to attend the Temple to do Baptisms for the Dead. It is a joy to have be around such nice young people. We all spent some time last night playing Mexican Train Dominoes. We had family Prayer. Cody had me tell them the story of Harry the Grasshopper for a bed time story. It is nice that he would humor hid old Grandpa that way.

Petrified Wood

We have been collecting cool rocks in our spare time. My cousin Dave and his wife Terry were here in St George and took us to a good site to collect Petrified Wood. There was pieces of good quality rock scattered all around the area.

We were able to collect some very good pieces for our collection as shown by the Photos.

The photo above is of the complete slection of rocks that we collected.

We have placed some of the larger pieces in front of and around our Fireplace. They look really cool.

new kitchen flooring

We drove up the road to Kolob reservoir. The road is a little traveled drive through parts of Zions Park that is only known to the locals. There are many summer homes around the area of the lake. The road is paved to the lake and then continues as a up paved road until it intersect with the highway by Cedar Breaks.

There is a steep drop off to to the Canyons of Zion. The Virgin River has a series of water falls as it continues down the almost vertical drop into the Zions Narrows.

There is new kitchen flooring (tile) in the Glad house. It is very important to keep your wife happy. The tile has a rough texture to reduce slippage in the kitchen and is a marbled tan in color to match the cabinets. The old flooring was had a vinyl surface and was really cheap. When it was removed we found that it was almost a surface treatment over paper. We are going to forgo our cruse this summer to help pay for the tile.

Picture of the New Tile

Old Vinyl surface