Haircut

Baby Dylan (I know, I know) requested a "buzz" so we sheared off the last of his sweet little curls. Aside from him looking older than my little barely-5-year-old should, he reminded me of someone else...

Sinead O'Connor, for you young 'uns.

BEAUTIFUL CITY

Blue skies, picturesque puffy clouds, and the Seagull Arch in downtown Salt Lake...behind the camera I view the whole thing with a new appreciation. The air smells good, too.

We drove into town to see the sights, and the first to meet our eyes was the historic BEEHIVE HOUSE, home of Brigham Young and one of his wives and children. Our tour was conducted by a young female missionary from Hong Kong. Hearing her say "polygamy" was worth the drive in. You can barely see the beehive on the top of the house.

And on to dinner in the Lion House, site of my West Coast wedding reception (one of the 3) back in 1995. Home of another of BY's wives and children, back when "we" did that. That's Maddy in the foreground.

And the kiddlies in front of the enormous statue of Joseph Smith found in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, formerly the Hotel Utah.

We happened to be there mid-march, and after a wrenching movie about the trials and persecution of the early mormon pioneers and the murder of Joseph Smith, Dylan asked "why did they hate Joseph Smith so much?" I thought I gave a pretty accurate but simple explanation. Dylan processed it and still looked perplexed. I could never have anticipated his next question: "And is St. Patrick the Lord of the leprechauns (notice his St. Patrick Day tee-shirt...)?"

Well, that one is a little harder...

STEEP SLOPE

We had the Carters in town for a visit--it was great seeing them again and getting out to do some fun things with them. Their first day in town we hit the hills to get some sledding in. Here's Nick in his nordic skull hat. Nick and Mike are real fashionistas when it comes to winter hats.

Maddy is taking a run at the steep hill...

...and she made it to the bottom in one piece...too bad the sled is still halfway up the slope.

Dylan and the little boys heades up to the starting point...

And here they are in Dylan's bed after a long, fun day getting some Spongebob in.

Playing in the waterfall

Last year the magpies chased away Robin and his family from our waterfall. This year its the starlings.

EARLY START

The band directors from our local (award-winning, of course) HS and Middle School brought all their kids together with all the kids in the band programs at the elementary schools that feed in to those schools. Its like kiddie band recruitment. BUT it was so interesting and fun. The directors are clearly PROS at this because they first let the elementary school bands play (separately), then the middle school kids, and then the HS. Incidentally, they played Incantation and Dance, for those of you who were in band. Pretty tricky stuff for teenagers.

THEN, they got all the kids together into one giant band and played. It didn't sound great, but the kids had a blast.

And then, the piece de resistance, the mark of true experience, they let the parents come GET ON THE STAGE and take pictures of their kids. MY band director never did that!

Of course I had a zoom lens and already had the above great pics. of Maddy (notice eyes open because she's too far for the flash to get her), so I ran to the back of the auditorium to shoot the herd of parents trying to get their flacid middle-aged selves up onto the stage to get photos.

More Wildlife

This CHUKAR was hanging out in Mike's parking lot at work. Apparently the junk heap on the empty lot next to his office qualifies as "arid to temperate desert" since it is flourishing there. The girl on whose car it was walking seemed startled to see it there, though.

Mideval Project

Worse than a child running for office in student government, more onerous than a last-minute science fair project, even more abjectly disheartening than the dreaded PINEWOOD DERBY, the so-called "Mideval Project" strikes fear into the heart of 6th grade parents at our local elementary school. And don't think to avoid it by strategically requesting the one teacher who doesn't require it--they have banded together (fine for them, they can reuse their costumes) and ALL 6th-graders are required to prepare a long string of labor-intensive projects which the kids, themselves, have ABSOLUTELY no hope of completing without the resources and time of the parents. Maddy's selection (the bare minimum to meet the "Nobility" requirement) included a handsewn costume (THANKS, Aunt Ellen),

A hennin (weird pointy hat constructed of a piece of poster board, various cloth and ribbon remnants, and a variety of glue, staples, tape, needle, and thread),

A wooden catapult for the contest, engineered by the "student" (dad) and built by the "student" (dad) and his power tools, which even the cub scout handbook prohibits for children.

A labeled castle, with all the parts (last project the night before until 10 o'clock)

As well as additional book reports, powerpoints, and posters. THANK HEAVENS its over for 2 more years!! Oh, and I did a little benchmarking for Nicholas, took pictures of every kid's submissions so we don't have to spend so much time in the brainstorming phase.