Happy 80th Birthday Grandma!

The entire family traveled to Cody, Wyoming to celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday. Her official birthday was Sunday but we decided to have an open house for her on Saturday at one of the local hotels.

The weather was a little sketchy and several of us had quite the time getting to and from Cody however we were all able to make it by Friday evening and after some delay on the return, we all returned home and had a great time celebrating Grandma's birthday.

I have posted a few of the pictures taken on Saturday for everyone's enjoyment!

Serious Wind Storm!

I wish I'd witnessed the wind storm we had last night but unfortunately I only saw the mess it created. When I woke up this morning, Quent had left me a note telling me that the St. Patrick's Day flag that was so nicely displayed on a flag pole on the front of the house was in the backyard...I figured the flag had ripped and had gone sailing around the yard.

When I opened the screen door to retrieve my cute St. Patrick's Day Flag it was still on the pole! Apparently the wind caught the flag and pole just right and ripped it out of the holder and it sailed over the house. Now I'm not exactly sure how this happens, but we don't have any neighbors that would pull such a prank, so we can only guess it happened with the extreme wind last night.

I guess I'm going to have to remember to take the flag pole down when the wind picks up.

Things are not as they appear

First let me preface this post by adding that it was over 40 degrees here yesterday and the 24 inches of snow we received the first part of the week is melting nicely.

This morning Quent decided he needed a diet coke so being the great and wonderful wife that I am I ran down to Brigham (as the locals call it) to get him a mega 52 ounce diet coke. In my excitement of the clear blue skies and the bright yellow sun I threw on a vest and flip-flops. Not my brightest move. Once in the Jeep the outside temperature read 10 degrees (I knew it was only 5 degrees in Logan this morning so I'm not sure why I would have thought it would be warmer here.) My toes immediately froze however I did not return to get shoes, I proceeded to town and returned with ice cold diet coke and frozen toes.

On the bright side it's supposed to be almost 50 degrees here tomorrow and even warmer next week. With Spring just around the corner, I'm hoping it will be flip-flop season soon.

In other news, Quent worked all week and managed to get caught up after missing over a solid week last week with his cold. The snow storm slowed a few things down at the hatchery but they were able to stock over 3,000 pounds of fish in local ponds yesterday which is another indication that Spring is near.

Doing Better

Quent is back to work after his 12 day cold/sinus infection/bronchitis. Oh the wonders of modern medicine! We woke up to about eight inches of new snow and have had about 4-5 more since then and it's still snowing, and it isn't supposed to stop anytime soon. On the bright side it's supposed to be 50 by the weekend.

Quick Update

Well not much to report ... Quent has been pretty sick with a head cold/sinus infection and finally went to the doctor today. Hopefully he'll start feeling better soon. Other than that things are status quo.

Hardware Ranch 2009

Joe's family drove up to our house on Saturday and we went to Hardware Ranch (about 40 miles from our house) a wildlife management area east of Hyrum, Utah. There were over 600 elk in the meadow and we were able to take a sleigh ride, through the meadow and see the elk up close and personal. Morgan even witnessed one pooping and thought it was disgusting.

After we visited Hardware Ranch we hit Maddox for dinner and then spent the night watching the Jazz beat the New Orleans Hornets. The night was capped off when Morgan wanted to cook breakfast at 10:30 p.m.

Quent took a picture of us in the sleigh

A view of the elk from the boarding area.

The largest bull elk in the meadow

More Birds

Quent and I went to Farmington to have dinner with his parents and sister tonight. Prior to arriving at their house we went to Farmington Bay. Here are some of the birds we saw at the bay. We have yet to get a real good shot of a bald eagle, we've been trying but their just too far away. I'm trying to talk Quent into a zoom lens but as of yet no such luck! The last two pictures posted are of the bay facing Bountiful/North Salt Lake, I liked the reflection in the bay.












We are going to continue our weekend of picture taking tomorrow when we go to Hardware Ranch to see the elk.

The Hawk...

Quent and I went out to the Box Elder Bird Refuge today and spotted a couple bald eagles however they were too far away to get pictures. We were able to get some pretty close pictures of a red tailed hawk.

After we left the bird refuge, which by the way is closed for the winter season, we drove to the golden spike historic site and were able to see the famous meeting of the trains. On the way back to Brigham City we spotted some road kill on the side of the road that a raven, hawk and bald eagle were all feasting on. Quent took a picture of the hawk eating lunch.

Enough Already!

Quent and I woke up to about 8 inches of new snow this morning and it's been snowing ever since. Add that to the amount we received over the weekend and we're back up to a good 36 inches on the ground. Not to mention the amount that has drifted from the field just west of the hatchery. We've got snow piled up all around the hatchery and it doesn't seem to be letting up. Luckily the power came back on around 10 a.m. so we were able to have water and power.

The snow plow is broken and has to go to Salt Lake for repair so Kent, one of the guys that works with Quent, got in the tractor and started clearing off the snow with the tractor. We've got snow mounds 8-10 feet tall around our house and lining the hatchery fence. It's nuts.

The forecast calls for snow through tomorrow morning and then we're supposed to be clear until Monday...and maybe even warm enough for this stuff to melt a little bit. The pictures aren't great. It's hard to capture a good picture with blowing snow. But here's an idea of the snow mounds we've got up here in what the locals call Little Siberia.

Snow piled up and around the front fence.

The snow was so wet and heavy this morning, this tree branch broke off our 100 year elm tree in the back yard.

Valentine's Day

Quent and I spent a quiet weekend at home as he had to work all weekend. He did surprise me with flowers and a teddy bear and even had plans to take me to lunch in Brigham City. We had a fun night at home playing games and just hanging out. Other than Quent having to work, it was a nice relaxing weekend.

Note: the roses are in one of our pitchers as I'm not exactly sure where my vases are. Probably downstairs in a box somewhere.