President's Day Weekend

 Our usual President's Day week end was changed this year.  It's probably the beginning of it being changed forever.  Jay and Brynn usually come down and we do lots of fun family things with everyone.  This year Madi got invited to a Valentine's Day dance at school.  She's just about to turn 16 and things like this are now going to change Jay and Brynn's freedom to go.  It's ok.  Kids grow up and get busy, busy and families adjust.  Also on this week end Moss and Christie had to go out of town for his work.  While they were gone Brenden and Eliza had soccer tournaments and they asked us to go  and watch if we could. We did and spent a long, exciting day of watching soccer games in what turned into some pretty cold, windy, rainy weather by the end of it. They both got wins and medals and it was fun!  I messed up and didn't get pics of Brenden unfortunately.  Kai had a little tournament too.  We watched one of his games after Moss and Christie got home. Unfortunately they lost all of their games and didn't get medals. Didn't get pics there either sadly.  Sometimes you just get so involved in the game that you forget the pics.  

Art show and snow!

We finally made it down to see the university's annual art show!  It was wonderful as always!  We can't afford to buy any of it, but we surely do enjoy seeing it.  Paul hopes to one day participate in it.  

After that, we drove up to see  how high the water was at Baker Dam and the snow that had fallen at Pine Valley!  It was beautiful!  

A joyful day...after a sad loss.

 Elder Gilbert, the Church’s education commissioner, was called to fill a vacancy in the Quorum on Wednesday, February 11, 2026, following the recent passing of President Jeffrey R. Holland. He was ordained on Thursday, February 12, by President Dallin H. Oaks and the other members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Toe surgery, Valentine's Day at home/with Bean & Japanese Garden work

 

On Thursday Paul had some toe surgery done to hopefully correct some things and make it a bit better.  So far he's making a good recovery.  On Friday the 13th, for Valentine's Day, we used a gift cards the kids gave us and went to Nonna Ina Italian restaurant for lunch.  It was SO GOOD! They have this big wheel of Romano cheese that they light on fire to make it all melty.  They they dump your pasta carbonara in the middle of that and swish is around until it's covered in creamy cheese.  Then they twist it up and put it on you plate.  Ahhh...so wonderful.  We had enough left for dinner that night too.  

On Saturday (actual Valentine's Day) we went up to visit Bean.  We dropped off Valentines to the Randalls and the Weavers and then drove up to Parowan and had lunch at Dee Dee's Farmhouse Cafe.  It's a fun little place that's located in what used to be an old sheep barn from the beginning days of Parowan.  Not much looks old or sheepy how.  It was really good food and such a fun atmosphere.  Afterwards we took a backroad drive out to Parowan Gap where we saw a dinosaur track and lots of petroglyphs.  I hadn't seen the dinosaur track part before.  It was a really nice day and a good to spend time with Bean.  

Another cool thing that's been happening is Paul doing some stonework here at home and also doing a job for the city.  They built a new City Hall and out back they have a little area that they have decided to make into a Japanese garden.  Paul and Tim did some nice stonework there.  It's getting close to finished and looking so nice.  

And here are the photos of the Japanese Garden all done!

Cottonwood Creek hike and more

 We put in some miles on Friday.  We went down to the yard and walked the bike path up a little arroyo and got in about 3 miles.  Then later that afternoon we drove up Cottonwood Road and then hiked about 6 more miles down/back Cottonwood Creek canyon there.  It was such a beautiful day!  We were kind of dumb and didn't take any water, but the hike was mostly in the shade because of the high canyon walls, so that saved us from being very thirsty.  We could have stopped and turned back sooner, but we had a bad case of let's see what's around that next corner.  We had hoped to hike to where the canyon walls end, but didn't quite make it.  We actually hiked out faster than we came down.  We did less sight seeing and rock collecting then because we wanted to get back and get a drink.  This creek should have been running cold water from melting snow, but we didn't see any water.  There was some dampness here and there left from the last big rain.  It was a perfect spring day, too early in the year, but we loved it for what it was. We stopped for a snack as we drove out and enjoyed the peace and beauty there.  

Hiking the Highline Trail at Oak Grove...in January

 

We drove up as far as the gate to Oak Grove Campground and then walked in the rest of the way.  Spent some  time checking it out as a possible place for our Memorial Day picnic this year.  The road into the campground was completely destroyed from some erosion, but they will fix that.  But, you cannot reserve any sites ahead of time, so it probably won't work.  We hiked a tiny little trail to the Bee Tree that we had never seen before.  It's a huge old tree that's completely hollow and full of beehives, but still alive somehow!  After that we decided to take a short hike called the Highline Trail that we've never done before.  We saw some beautiful springs and views along the way as well as a really nice picnic table in the middle of nowhere!  We hiked a total that day of about 6 miles.  After that we drove down to the Children's Garden/Old Charcoal Kiln and ate a nice picnic lunch and walked around some.  Then it was time to head home.  It was a beautiful day for a hike.  It's sad that there was no snow though.  It should have been covered this time of year and too cold and muddy for hiking.  Looks like it's going to be a really dry year again for 2026, but for today, we made the most of it.  

1870 Washington County Court House - restored

 A group called United We Pledge decided to restore the original Washington County Court House (built in 1870).  They had Paul come in to help in doing some restoration work on some of the old brick features.  They had a grand opening event Saturday and he was invited to say the opening prayer.  I didn't attend the program, but went down later to see how the building turned out.  I had gone in with Paul while they were still working on it.  It turned out so beautifully.  Later that day we attended the wedding/reception of a dear ward member.  It was a 2nd marriage for both of them and we hope it will be the wonderful they need after the unwonderful that came before.  It was a lovely temple sealing and reception.  It was a really nice day!  

Owen's Loop with critters

 Saturday Paul and I made Owen's Loop our morning walk on the hill behind our house.  It got spiced up a little by some cool critters we encountered.  First we saw a coyote.  It was strange that it was still out and about in the early daylight time.  It seemed very curious about us and stayed in sight much longer than I expected it would.  On the way down we saw a pretty cool bird sitting on the edge of the cliff.  It looked like some kind of bird of prey, but we are not sure what kind.  Paul kept inching closer and closer for a better picture, until it finally flew off.  Pretty cool to see these critters in our own back yard!  Not the best pics of either one, but the best we could get.  

A ride over Cedar Mountain with Bean!

 We went up to see Bean in Cedar today.  He wanted to eat lunch at Park Place.  They have wonderful food, especially their dessert crepes.  You can also have your sandwich made into a crepe, which I did today.  It was really good.  After lunch we decided to drive over Cedar Mountain.  There's not much snow for this time of year, but it was still very beautiful.  On the way we saw some people with their Jeep stuck just off the road.  They were from CA.  We stopped to help and other people did too, and between all of us we were able to get them back on the road and on their way.  It was a good day and we enjoyed the time together.  

A little rock trip to Fredonia!

 On the last day of my Christmas/New Year's school break I went with Paul to Silver Arrow to pick up a big rock for a job he's doing for the city.  He's helping build a Japanese Garden behind the new St. George City Hall building.  It was a beautiful day for a ride in the truck and then to walk around the Silver Arrow Stone property and look at all the amazing stone.  I like just moseying around seeing all of it while the men do their business.