Diane's Cat Cake

We're pretty proud of the cat cake we made for Diane's birthday. The inspiration was our Lucy, who was on the tail end of her stay with her evil aunt Tinker. Lucy and Diane didn't get along very well, probably because the goop that often drains out of her ears (Lucy's) seemed to find its way onto all of Diane's walls. We didn't include any frosting goops in the cake's ears. Any cat cake must have candles as whiskers. I think this is also a great time to point out how gigantic the veins on Randy's arms have become. Look at those things. It's like the Venice of appendages.

Lunch Brake with Randy (pun intended)

Our little Zoe very much loves her Grandpa Randy. Here they are enjoying a lunch break together back in September of 2009 (yes, I truly am that far behind in my blog posting). Every time Zoe sees a blue and white semi truck she insists that it's Grandpa's truck, and the only grocery store she ever wants to go to is Grandpa's store. It's a good thing we live in Seattle now, where Albertson's trips are a possibility, or else we'd have to become subsistence farmers. Do any of you know any other two-year-old that loves her lobster shirt as much as our Zoe does? There's something so lovable about multi-legged pinching crustaceans.

St. George Rocks!

Blogging about St. George in the middle of the winter makes me feel all warm and sweaty inside. While we were enjoying our little jaunt to southern Utah, we took some time to get in touch with our inner mountain goat and did a bit of photographic rock climbing. The red rocks of St. George provide an excellent back drop for a family photo, and I'm so glad to be married to a lady who finds a series of single-toned caves and sees a photo opportunity.

Those same red rocks also provide great toys for two-year-olds. By this I mean that Zoe wouldn't quit climbing on anything she could get her hands on. It was like we had entered a vortex where the law of gravity was reversed for all living creatures less than four feet tall. The smaller rocks were also perfect for throwing and licking...it was a veritable stone nursery for our little Zoe. Here she is fixing to leap from one cliffside to the other like a desert flying squirrel.

I tried to climb as high as I could up the little cranny under which my Sara is posing, but I was too wide to get all the way through. I did, however, find much success in banging my head and elbows on the rocks, so it wasn't a complete bust. We now know where Zoe got her climbing abilities from. Sara was smart enough to stay on the ground. I was amazed at how many ways she was able to prop up the camera just right so that the self-timer feature got all of us in the shot.

A Summer Walk Among My Progenitors

Yep, it's another graveyard visit for our little family. This time we were on a quest for relatives in the St. George cemetery, most specifically, that of my grandma on my dad's side, who died back in 2001. After a bit of searching we finally found the plot, and had the pleasure of visiting the final resting places of some of my direct relatives who helped to settle Utah's Dixie. I really like the picture of Zoe in the middle of the cemetery with the trademark St. George red hills in the background. Boy was it a hot day...I often wonder why I always end up in St. George in the summertime.

Here's a 5-generation shot with my dad and daughter, along with dad's mom, Erma, and dad's grandpa, Wilford Woodruff. About two months ago my grandpa Rudger passed away. That's his headstone on the right, with the date of death still as blank as can be. How strange it is that I was writing about the St. George cemetary at the same time period that Grandpa Rudger died. I'm so glad that Sara and I went to visit him a year before he passed away. When I finally get to the pictures of Rudger's funeral I'll have plenty more to say, I'm sure.

This is Zoe spending a bit of quality time with the great granmother she never knew. I'm very sad to say that I never really knew her as much as I would have liked either, since my mom's mom died when I was only 11 years old. I wonder if we should have given Zoe the middle name Lilly in her honour. Zoe Lilly is kind of a mouthful.

Here's the headstone marking the grave of Daniel D. McArthur, one of the original settlers of St. George, Utah and the surrounding area. Daniel D. led the second handcart company that entered the Salt Lake Valley, and is generally thought of as the biggest stud among all my forefathers. Do you see any family resemblance? Yep, same classic family scowl. I guess we should be relieved that the scowl survived the passing generations instead of the scraggly beard.