At the Zoo

After I got back from Arizona, Nate and I decided we needed to have some fun because he had just finished his first week at a new job and I had been away. So we went to the zoo. The Kansas City Zoo is really great if you want to see African animals or Australian animals. If you want to see North or South American animals you will have to go to some other zoo.

The African section of the zoo is like a mini safari. The animals have a lot of room to roam. Highlights in Africa included: 1) the week-old baby zebra, 2) the lions, and 3) the meerkats who all came over to say hello. We also saw this enormous African vulture. He has a 9 foot wing span.

Highlights in Australia included: 1) the soft-looking tree kangaroo, 2) the curious lorikeets, who explored our shoelaces and their food jug, and 3) the kangaroos. The kangaroo section of the Kansas City Zoo is pretty great because the kangaroos can roam throughout most of the Australian section of the zoo. Usually they just lounge around in the shade, but this kangaroo was hopping down the path like a tourist.




We also took a picture of this pig. We wanted to see if this pig was as photogenic as the pigs at the farm (pictured below). And, we decided that he does indeed take a mighty fine picture. We are starting to wonder if pigs are just naturally photogenic.

A is for Arizona

I abandoned Nate over Memorial Day Weekend and flew off to Arizona to visit my pal Jill. Jill showed me a great time. I got to meet all of her fun friends, check out her cool ward, and chill out at her condo. Jill and I had a great time just hanging out like old times. (Beware there will be a lot of self-taken pictures in this post.)

One of the greatest things about vacationing with Jill is the food. We made the famous chocolate chip cookies. We ate at Cafe Rio, The Barrio Cafe, and The Wildflower Cafe. We also made some fabulous lunches, really tasty eggs, and great waffles. We even packed an awesome lunch on the day of our hike.



Jill and I also went on some adventures. I was all for seeing some desert flora, so we went to the Botanical Gardens. A few times a week the Botanical Gardens holds a flashlight tour where the gardens stay open late and visitors can move from station to station learning about the flora and fauna of the desert. We learned about the scream of the Woodhouse Toad, a really enormous beetle, king snakes (which we got to touch), tarantulas and scorpions. We also learned all about Mesquite tree, Saguaro cacti, and Palo Verde trees. Jill could pretty much survive in the desert now.

These cacti above were really hairy--they are called the Old Man Cactus. (Note the flashlight in my hands. We are prepared to learn on the tour.) We thought the cacti below looked like big, prickly beach balls.

And these cacti look like snakes. Below, Jill and I pose after dark on the flashlight tour.

On Monday Jill and I took a roadtrip. Our first stop was Montezuma's Castle, which is an ancient cliff dwelling built by the Sinagua tribe. The 20 room, 5-storey structure is built into a recess in a white limestone cliff about 70 feet above the ground. The Sinagua (Spanish for without water) began to built the structure around 1125 A.D. and lived there until the early 1400s when they left for unknown reasons, and the tribe virtually vanished; there is no Sinagua tribe today. The name, Montezuma's Castle, is a misnomer. Early explorers thought it was constructed by the Aztecs.
Next we made our way to Tuzigoot, another Sinagua ruin. This was particularly exciting for Jill because she had been involved in a case that dealt with land disputes around the area. Tuzigoot was built on a big mesa, and visitors can climb up and see the ruins up close. You even get to go inside one of the rooms. In its heyday about 300 people lived at Tuzigoot--about the size of my high school class. Here's Jill with the rooms and the valley beyond. And then the two of us with the ruins behind.

Just like Montezuma's Castle, these structures were begun about 1000 A.D. and then abandoned around 1400. During the Great Depression they were excavated with funding from the C.W.A and W.P.A.

Next stop: Sedona. Jill and I went on a hike among the red rocks. It was beautiful and so fun to hike. Here we are getting started.

Gazing at the view from the top of the climb. Jill looks so tough and prepared with her Camelback.

We saw a Mickey Mouse cactus and some pretty awesome rock formations.



What fun! Jill, thanks for all the good times. Here's to 11 years of friendship!

The Big S, The Big W, and the Big Z

When Jen and the kids were here, we were all really impressed with how well the kids did with the cat, and, more especially, how well the cat did with the kids. Zephyr was a big draw for Savannah and Will. They LOVED her. They followed her around the house; they called her (which didn't really work because she's a cat); they played with her. Zephyr was so into them too. She wanted to be right in the thick of things. As you can see, she's like a third kid. Zephyr was really nice to the kids too. She didn't ever scratch or bite them, and she even put up with Will's body-slams. In the process we discovered that Zephyr is like an 18-month-old. Will and Zephyr have a lot of common interests--they hate when any doors are shut; they hate when people leave them; they like the same toys; they'll eat off the floor. At one point, the two of them were even chewing on separate ends of the same toy. So, I think The Big S, The Big W, and The Big Z all made some new friends.

Stephenie Meyer

Some of my friends and I are just a little obsessed with Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series. So when we found out she was coming to Kansas City on a book tour for her newest novel, The Host, we decided to fully embrace our nerdiness and started planning. We got our tickets, we made our shirts, and we figured out rides. Thanks to all of our great planning (props to Karen and Shannon) we got awesome seats--five rows from the stage. The ten of us took up a whole row. While we waited for the event to start we talked to some of the other fans. We met one group that came for a Young Women's activity. Lots of people had shirts, but we got quite a few compliments on ours. Several strangers even asked for our pictures because they loved our shirts so much. Here are some pictures of the Vampire Girls.


All TEN of us. Back Row: Karen, Trina, Shannon, Maren. Front Row: Carolyn, Jen, Michelle, Leiann, Me, Kim.

Here are the early arrivals before we got into the auditorium. And below Jen, Trina, and I save seats.

Stephenie Meyer talked for about half an hour. She did a reading from her newest (non-Vampire) book and answered some of the questions that had been submitted by the audience. She seems like a really impressive person to me--really nice and down to earth. She talked about how she never aspired to become an author but that once she started writing she couldn't stop. After her talk we waited to get our books signed. It took a long time. I got my book signed around 9:30 and the last person in our group got hers signed around 10:30. All the waiting was totally worth it.

From Dallas To Kansas

My sister and her two children came to visit this weekend. I drove along with them from Dallas to Kansas, and I believe we made the trip in record time.
While his big sister was sleeping we let Will hold the portable DVD player--a privilege which he relished.

The kids loved the farmstead near our home. Will kept saying "Oh-oh-oh" at all the animals, including this pig shaped rocker.

Savannah went nuts crazy on her horse.

I think she also set a new land speed record for toy trackers. You can't see her intensity in this picture, but she would have made her dad proud with the way she attacked that race track.

Of course I had to take a token picture of the most photogenic animals at the farmstead, namely, the pigs.

New Car

We recently replaced the Golf with this 2002 Honda Civic we found on Craigslist. It doesn't have as much personality as the Golf, but it has airbags, an air conditioner, and a windshield that doesn't leak. We are really quite happy with our new car. The biggest problem that we have now is distinguishing the keys to the Civic from the keys to the Accord.

Springtime

That was one of the longest winters of my life! After what hopefully will be one last batch of snow flurries last weekend, we are finally getting some warmer weather. Today we noticed the first birds using our new bird feeder. We hung the feeder last fall, but as far as we know it attracted no birds until recently. We think the birds may have been coming for a while because the cat has been extremely interested in the balcony lately.

Goodbye Golf

I'm both saddened and pleased to announce that the Golf was sold on Monday to a mechanic who loves to fix up old cars and sell them. It is with high hopes that we sent the Golf to yet another owner. After nine years and trips that span many of the Western states, I have to say we really got our money's worth out of the Golf. I have to particularly mention my Father in law, Scott, who purchased the Golf for my wife when she was Sophomore in college and then turned the title over to us when we were married. Thanks, Scott; we owe you for this and a million other things you do for us. Below are our final pictures of the Golf being towed away to its new home.

I posted the Golf on Craigslist and had an offer within two hours. No, seriously, they made me an offer over the phone within two after the posting. I subsequently received two other phone calls. I think the part that got people's attention was, "Make me an offer, and it's yours."

The new owner has restored several VW's. In fact, he had an experience that was very similar to mine, so he knew what it was like to loose a faithful car like the Golf. That makes me wonder how many other VW owners are out there with similar stories.

I admit it was sad to turn over the keys to a non-working car. When people actually offered me money for the Golf, I had to make sure they understood that the car didn't actually run. The car needed a new distributor (which I actually pulled off of an old Jetta last week in a wrecking yard), so hopefully it won't take much to get it going again. My dream is to see the Golf driving around Kansas City sometime in the future. That would be awesome!

Finally, we say goodbye to the Golf. I know that families are forever, but when we die do we get to see our pets again? What about our old cars? I've always wondered what happened to a certain 1980 Mercury Zephyr or that 1984 Toyota Camry. I've been way too sentimental in this post, but I just can't help thinking I may never get another car quite like this. (Now that I think about that leaky windshield, maybe it's a good thing.)

Congratulations KU!!!

2008 NCAA Basketball Champions.

The End of an Era

The last couple weeks have been sad ones in our house because we've come to realize that it is time to say goodbye to a stalwart friend, The Golf. Lately the poor, 22-year old Golf has needed more maintenance than we can afford. This blog is a tribute to The Golf and the many years of service it gave us.

In the spring of my Sophomore year of college my Mom came to visit me from Colorado. She picked me up from the airport on my return from a track meet. On the way out to the garage she handed me a card, which I thought was strange. What was the occasion? The front of the card said "There are many things I need to teach you." I opened the card and the inside said, "but first ... how do you like your new car!" And that was my introduction to The Golf. I was so surprised. Over the next few days my Mom taught me how to drive a car with manual transmission. Here I am with The Golf during those first few days.

It became clear pretty quickly that The Golf was a real treasure with a lot of guts and pep for such an old car. The Golf made countless trips from Provo to Colorado Springs without any problem. It also made a trek from Provo to Seattle. Nicole, Jill, Jessica, and Paige and Nate all took multiple road trips in The Golf. Here's a picture of The Golf in Colorado.

It also became clear pretty quickly that The Golf had a few quirks. The door handles were a disaster. I was always coaching people on how to open the car doors, and my friends who could open the doors themselves knew they were really good friends. All of the door handles have had to be replaced. Thanks to my Dad and Sam for going to the junkyard to find some old VW door handles. Also, after I had driven The Golf for a few years the car started honking every time that I turned left, which was pretty embarrassing. My Dad disconnected the horn. I never realized how often the horn would come in handy until after it was no longer available. The speakers broke and my brother attached a new one. It doesn't fit into the car, and you can see it below just sitting on top of the backseats. Speaking of the interior, one of my favorite compliments to my car came from my friend Heather who said that she thought it was the perfect college car. Just admire that tweed interior.


After I got the car, we realized that the odometer was broken. We have no idea how many miles that car has driven. This was always difficult to explain to mechanics who usually expected me to at least guess. The broken odometer is probably my favorite quirk of the car. I started telling people that I drove a 1986 Volkswagon Golf with unknown mileage.

In 2004 I loaded up The Golf with most of my possessions and drove it to Kansas. You'd be surprised how much stuff can be crammed into that car. Here it is fully loaded.


Nate and I have been driving The Golf for three years. Every time that the car broke down we would fear it was for the last time, but it usually wasn't a big fix. After a while we started to say that The Golf wanted to be immortal. Over the years the air conditioning broke, the windshield started leaking, and various other little things went wrong, but The Golf just kept trucking along.


Even this last breakdown is fixable. The car needs a new distributer. The problem is that the part is so expensive because the car is so old. We will miss our faithful Golf.


I know many of you also loved The Golf. We invite you to post your own tribute in our comments section.

Another Visit to the Farm

After three years I think we can say with certainty that a family tradition we have is visiting the Deanna Rose Farmstead between the Sunday sessions of conference. It's fun to see the big goats and the new baby animals. Here a few highlights.

JoLee was instantly popular when she entered the baby goat pen with a bottle in hand.

The goats were all over both of us, and when we returned home Zephyr sniffed us from our hands to our feet. She has never met a goat, but I bet she would like to.

This turkey was new to the farm this year. Wow, what a big, ugly creature. It kept sneezing and shivering at us to scare us away. I guess if you were the national dinner of choice, you would be a little skiddish as well.

I can't believe this was my idea.

The new milk barn housed several new baby cows, all of which were wonderful to pet and watch. The milk barn has a few stations where you can learn about cows and practice your milking skills.