Petting Zoo and Pony Ride

A couple of weeks ago, JoAnn, Senta, and I took PJ to the Gardner Village Petting Zoo. To tell the truth, JoAnn and Senta had as much, if not more, fun than did PJ. Ever since that day, JoAnn has been thinking about getting a pony with a cart for PJ to ride in. She apparently had a childhood friend who had a pony with a cart and they had lots of fun. I am somewhat dubious because she also had a pony when she was a kid and she told me plenty of horror stories about it when we were dating (the pony was smart enough to open any gate and her dad was always in a battle with it). Anyway, after the petting zoo, the girls went shopping and the boys went to the snack bar, just the way it was meant to be.

Sleep Study

Sometime last year, one of JoAnn's doctors asked her if she was getting enough sleep. Of course she wasn't and the Dr. asked if her husband's snoring ever woke her up. Of course she said yes and the Dr. recommended that her husband endure a sleep study. So, after she bugged me about for several months, I asked my Dr. about it and he sent a referral to the Sleep Institute, and I was soon scheduled for an interview with the sleep Dr., who, by some quirk of fate, was the original Dr. who recommended the sleep study to JoAnn. After the interview, I was scheduled for a night to sleep at the sleep institute which is, how strange is this, at the Dr.'s office. When I got there, I was hooked up to a myriad of wires and tubes and expected to sleep the night away. The photo doesn't show all the sensors later stuck up my nose. After the results were reviewed, the Dr. said I had severe obstructive sleep apnea (not good). I then had to go back in and get hooked up to the wires one more time and sleep with an air pressure mask to see how it worked. The photos are me hooked up to the wires and a shot of the wires going into the computer. I'm actually looking forward to sleeping with the sleep machine (c-pap). It would be nice to wake up in the morning and feel good. We'll see how it goes.

Way Back in June

Way back in June, when Richie was visiting, we had big plans for Saturday. We were going to go down to the clay pits on the west side of Utah Lake and collect fossil rocks for JoAnn's class, and then we were going to go to the Scottish Festival at Thanksgiving Point. Since we were planning on having lots of fun, I went and picked PJ up from the Grayson's at about 10 AM and brought him back to Bluffdale. We realized that we probably wouldn't leave until about noon so I took PJ over to Bluffdale Town Days which was being held at the park. When we got there, he wanted to sit in the sports car and the National Guard helicopter.

He then wanted to get on one of the "jumping things", the inflatable, enclosed play areas that kids bounce around in. Anyway, we went to the area with the "jumping things" and were told that we had to go buy a wristband. So we headed out in search of a place to buy wristbands but couldn't find one. In the meantime, he spotted the antique tractors and wanted to go play on them.

After he drove every one of them, it was time to go home and load up for the excursion. As we left home, the clouds were getting dark to the south and as we drove through the terrible traffic in Saratoga Springs, it started pouring rain. It rained harder and harder and we finally had to turn around when we realized that even if we went to the clay pits, it was going to be very muddy. When we finally got home, the power was out so we couldn't go back to the park because the "jumping things" had all collapsed. By the time the power came back on and we went back to the park, the "jumping things" had been folded up and put away. Ever since then, when we drive past the park, he looks at me and with a sad voice says "no jumping things today".

Fleetwood Mac

Hey look, it's me, JoAnn, and Greg at a Fleetwood Mac concert in the ESA on May 27th. FM is JoAnn's favorite band and while they are not my favorite, I learned a couple of years ago that they put on a spectacular concert. The last time we went, a couple of years ago, we had upper bowl tickets, but when we got to the arena, they took our tickets and replaced them with lower bowl tickets because the arena hadn't sold enough tickets to even open the upper bowl. Must have made the people who purchased the lower bowl seats for more money mad. This time they weren't even selling upper bowl tickets. Anyway, the concert was on the night when Richie was arriving from DC. I asked Greg if he would pick up Richie at the airport and he said no way, he wanted to go to the concert. It seems he had grown up listening to FM on our trips to Arizona and other places and was a fan, so I bought him a ticket and asked Senta to go to the airport. Well, FM played their butts off for 2½ very enjoyable hours.

Just before we went into the concert, Richie called and said his plane had been delayed because of weather. They had been sitting on the runway for about 4 hours and hoped to take off soon. I eventually picked him up myself since he didn't arrive at the airport until about 1 AM. He was supposed to arrive at 8:30 PM.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

On Wednesday, we took the opportunity to attend the open house for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple in South Jordan. Dustin and PJ live pretty close to the Temple and drive by it on a regular basis. Dustin has told PJ that the Temple is "Jesus' House". PJ told JoAnn a couple of weeks ago that he drove past Jesus' House so he knows where he lives. The funny thing was that as we went though the Temple, PJ kept asking Dustin "where Jesus". Knowing Dustin's sense of humor, he probably told him Jesus had to go to work.

The Dog Walkers (and sometimes flyers)

One of our favorite TV shows is the Dog Whisperer with Cesar Milan. The guy is amazing! The changes he can make dogs undergo are incredible. Anyway, JoAnn has been working with our dogs (Boomer; Sadie does everything well), to get them to do a regular dog walk. Boomer just gets so excited. He cries and barks all the way to the park, and then he just pulls and pulls. JoAnn has made a lot of progress with him and on this particular day, PJ took Sadie's leash while JoAnn worked with Boomer. A couple of weeks later, PJ had Sadie's leash when, for some reason, Sadie just bolted. I'm told PJ literally went flying. He tells the story now that he went flying like Buzz Lightyear. He also says he wants to do it again but this time he won't cry.

The Great Hunt Panel

The agency I work for manages some 3.4 million acres which are mostly scattered around the state in one mile square sections. With that much land, there are bound to be some interesting things on some of the parcels. The first time I saw the Great Hunt Panel, was about 15 years ago and it was so close to the road, you could almost reach out the window and touch it. The Panel is located in Cottonwood Canyon which intersects with Nine Mile Canyon. Nine Mile Canyon is world famous for its petroglyphs and the Great Hunt Panel may be the most famous of all.



Several years ago, when oil & gas activity was increasing, the agency got with the county and the lessee to realign the road to get it away from the panel. We then attempted to spruce it up with some fencing and some signs. The first attempt at this by the county failed so miserably, it was torn out and removed altogether. After a couple of years of not being able to find anyone to do the job, the two foresters who work for me, Adam Robison and Cary Zielinsky, were enlisted to do it. After several weeks of planning, and a couple of weeks of hard labor by them and lots of other agency folks and volunteers, and lots of bitching and moaning by the auditors and accountants, a very nice thing happened to the panel; it is now protected and is a very nice place to visit. As always, click on the photos for a better view.