July 13 Women's hike

 Water and wildflowers. 

Only 5 people came. Three dogs. LOTS of smoke in the air from a new fire near Cedar City down by Shirts Canyon. 

Cascade Falls. Gail and her kids were just there yesterday morning! No smoke then. 

Normally, one can see Zion out that way.

 Then we drove through Cedar Breaks to the Rattlesnake Creek Trailhead /Ashdown Gorge Wilderness Area and walked down that trail for a mile or so to an overlook of Cedar Breaks National Monument. 

Trees, smoke, clouds, wildflowers and biting flies.

Look! A Butterfly!

Purples and whites and yellows.

Brian Head Peak in the distance. It wasn't quite as smokey up here.

A Lady Bug on Yarrow plant. Yes, she is upside down. I couldn't talk her into a better pose.

I was always way behind the group, as they had dogs pulling them along and I was lollygagging along, snapping photos.

It might seem like a lot of dead trees at first glance. And it's true, there ARE many dead trees. However, there are many young and healthy trees among the old dead ones, too. 

This little tree was saying, "I want to be the fence post...I will BE the fence post... I AM the fence post." Someday, Dear One. 

And here was the view that greeted us. 

That IS a smokey haze in the distance.

Liz, Jessica, Penny.

Some more wild flowers.

Columbine. It was near the overlook area.

Yarrow in bloom.

Symmetry in the forest. 

Yellow, purple, white.

Lots of Yarrow was growing in this area.

Baby trees and teen-aged trees.

Heading back to the highway. Us and the dogs. For as crowded as the small roadside parking area was, we did not encounter that many people on the trail.

Pick me! Pick me! Pick me to be your Christmas Tree!!

Tuacahn's "Frozen" by Disney

 

Yeah, I know. It's usually "Disney's Frozen." Tandy had an extra ticket so she invited me. 105 heat in  St. George. Outdoor theater in a concrete amphitheatre. Lots of little kids. Over an hour away. Start time 9 pm. 

I had to think about it, but decided to tag along. It was so worth it. Great production! Magnificent seats!!!

We stopped and ate dinner together at Iceberg.  There were just 19 of us. I only ordered a corn dog and water. I'd decided to PRE hydrate prior to the show and I'm glad I did!  However, as others got there food, I ended up eating far more than just my corn dog. The serving sizes there are way ridiculous. HUGE. A so-called shake is really just 3 1/2 cups of soft serve ice cream. Good flavors. Raspberry Oreo was what all their family selected. I tasted Damian. I helped Pam eat her fries. I shared ONE of Tandy's onion rings with Pam. Like I said-- it was A HUGE SLICE of fried onion. Then Pam and I both helped Colleen eat her caramel "Shake." We were amazed at how much ice cream those kids and others ate. 

Damian said goodbye after dinner and headed to Las Vegas airport and his red eye flight home.

The theater wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be! It should have been 99 at 9 and 10 pm, but there was a breeze that helped it to be tolerable. Yes, we all had sweaty butts, but it could have been waaaay worse!  Such a fun production. Talented actors, great set and costumes. We loved it. It is certainly easily ADA accessable and Colleen was probably really done in by the end of walking down stairs and finding elevators, which were kind of far away from seats... But she managed. 

Tandy drive me home and I was in bed by 12:30 . Not bad. Thanks for a great time, Tandy and gang!

Happy Independence Day!

 Mike and I enjoyed breakfast on the deck...so lovely in the summer. We attended the Cedar City Lions parade and Park festivities. Had a good visit with a few friends. 

Came home and had a nap!

Earlier in the morning I froze/ churned ( it's an electric ice cream maker, not like I was hand-cranking it!!) two batches of cherry-chocolate ice cream. Yummy. And I made a macaroni salad.

Damian stopped in for a visit while making fireworks preparations. 

I sewed a pretty July Tablecloth. May through August, actually. Memorial Day thru Labor Day. Gail helped me with the requisite math. I'm getting really rusty with that stuff. And she designed a table runner I can make with the scraps, for those days when a full tablecloth isn't necessary.

We took our foods and picked up my Mom around 5 and drove to Kanarraville for dinner at around 6:30 pm. Gail and her kids came. Eric and Matt came. Damian and Lexi flew in for just 2 days.  Lots of Tandy's cousins were there in Kanarraville, we had a grand feast. Tandy and crew did Dutch Oven chicken potatoes and there were beans and salads, rolls, etc. 

Only Caroline and Johnny stayed for the fireworks. As I'm typing this late on Thursday night, I can hear lots of fireworks and quite a few sirens, sadly. It's terribly dry here.  It took extra long to irrigate my garden in Wednesday morning. The soil was just so parched and thirsty. But our front lawn is still nice and green! 

Happy Fourth!

Pam, Ella, Marilyn 

to

Cheesy Dutch Oven potatoes. Cooked to perfection.