A Getaway

After Sam was offered the temp job, it was on condition that he be ready and available to start between the 10th and the 15th of August, they would call when the engineer was ready.  We had missed going to Arizona for my nephew's wedding the week before because we didn't know when our next money was coming in.  We're still paying off hospital bills, and we'd paid for the car for the kids, so we were trying to make the rest stretch as long as possible.  The temp job was a decent wage, but no vacation or holiday pay, so no days off after we start.  We had to miss another family function on the 16th, for which we caught some grief, but you can only do what you can do.  We aren't in a position to be turning down jobs.

However, we had about four days before his possible first day, so, we ditched Meg with a friend for a couple of  days and took off for a little road trip.  I didn't know where we were going, I told him just don't take me anywhere hot, we had a VERY limited budget for motels and gas, and I didn't want to spend hours and hours in the car.  So 2-3 hours away was the max. We packed food so we could limit eating out and headed out.   I thought we'd go up the coast...or down the coast.  But, he headed inland, where it's not just hot, it's REALLY hot.

He said that he wanted to drive over Tioga Pass to the Eastern Sierras, there were several things that he wanted to photograph there.  It's all at about 8000-9000 feet, so how hot could it be?  The drive through Yosemite was pretty, as always, but there were about three million people there.  Very crowded.  We didn't spend too much time in the Valley, but headed up to Tioga Pass and Tuolumne Meadows.  It was a little less crowded up there, and we saw a couple of huge herds of elk, which was cool.

We came down the pass to Lee Vining, where we found out that every hotel was completely full.  Nada.  (This is why I don't like traveling without reservations in the summer)  North up Highway 395 was a little town called Virginia Creek that we remembered had a really good Italian Restaurant and a little motel.  We were hungry, so we headed up that way.  We got there and the only "room" they had left was a tent cabin.  It had a bed, but that was it.  Showers and potties were communal.  It sounded pretty cheap until they told us that it didn;t come with linens, it was another $25 to rent those.  We decided to call around while we ate dinner.  Apparently, since the last time we ate there, they have changed owners.  The food was not great, but at least it was a lot more expensive.  But, while we ate, I managed to find a decent hotel up the road in Bridgeport.

The next morning we got up before dawn and head down to Mono Lake to take some sunrise pictures.  It's really a surreal place, an alkaline lake with "tufas"; towers made from mineral deposits.  A friend pointed out that since they are white and have seagulls sitting on them, they look like piles of seagull doo.  He's kind of right about that!   The sunrise was beautiful though.

We hung out at the lake until about 9 or 10 in the morning, when it started to get a little too hot for hiking around.  For us coastal-dwellers, anyway.  It was getting on up towards 90F.  My Arizona family will scoff at that, but I've been living in 65F weather for 17 years, I don't do "hot" well at all.  We decided to drive down to Mammoth Lakes as I've never been there.  There's a place near there called Devil's Postpile that Sam has always wanted to take photos of.  He hadn't been there in years....he used to ski there when he was growing up in Bakersfield.  When we got there, it was still pretty hot, even though we were at 8000-8500 feet.  But, we are definitely not used to the altitude.  I think we could have handled the heat OR the altitude, but the combination was hard on us sea-level sea-breeze dwellers.

Anyway, Devil's Postpile turned out to be a little bit over-hyped, but it was still an interesting place.  We waited until very late in the afternoon, so it would be a bit cooler and there would be fewer people around while he tried to photograph it.  Apparently, it is an area where basalt pushed up during a volcanic eruption, and then cooled slowly enough to create these long hexagonal crystals that are about 18 inches across.  It looks like a lot of columns lined up on the edge of this cliff.  At the base of the cliff is a long talus slope of hexagonal pillars.  It looks like someone carved them all.  Definitely like nothing I've seen before.

Earlier in the day, we had driven up to a lookout point called Mineret Lookout (or something like that).  As we were leaving Devil's Postpile, it was getting dark and we passed the turnoff to Mineret again.  Sam had been wanting to try and do some star photos somewhere where it was really clear and dark.  We decided this was the place.  We drove up to see if it was open at night.  Turns out that it was open, and a popular star-gazing place so we had lots of company.  We were at just above 10,000 feet, miles from any town or city. The stars were spectacular, and the Perseid Meteor shower was just beginning, so we saw many shooting stars.  It had cooled down to about 75F, with a tiny breeze so the weather was perfect for doing lots of time exposures.  This is one my favorites, the full resolution version is spectacular.  We were very pleased with our first attempt. If you click on any of these pictures, by the way, you can see a bigger version.

We spent the night in a little hotel on June Lake, with a lovely view of the lake.  The next morning we heard it was supposed to be even hotter (they had broken records in nearby Death Valley the day before), so we decided it was time to return to our ocean breeze.  

We drove home back over Tioga Pass and could NOT get over how many more people had arrived since a couple of days before.  It was still a weekday and everyplace was packed.  We rarely go to Yosemite during peak tourist season, partly because it's hot, but mostly because it's amazing and kind of disturbing how many tourists you can pack into that valley.  Yeesh!  But, we managed to find a quiet little lake/pond with ducks and dragonflies to sit and eat our lunch before we drove the rest of the way home.

It was a short trip, only a couple of days, but it did a lot to restore Sam's spirits and it was good to get away without any schedules, people to please, etc.  

About a week into his temp job, he got a call from Cisco Systems.  One of his engineer buddies had submitted Sam's resume there, and they wanted to talk to him.  He's had a couple of phone interviews there so far.  It would be nice, Cisco has nice benefits and they are willing to let him work at home part of the time.  That is especially nice, as their campus is not really in an easy-commute area.  The other possibility is that he does well for this contracting company and they keep him permanently. They don't offer benefits, so it'd be a tight squeeze because we'd have to cough up $1400/mo to keep our insurance, but it's better than nothing.  

So, we'll just keep doing what we're supposed to be doing and I'm sure the Lord will continue to look out for us one way or another, as He's always done.

Windows of Heaven

SOOO much going on, no time to post.  So, I'm going to try and do it in small bites.

First, the day after I wrote the last post, Sam was laid off of his job.  No warning, 1 week severance.  The owners of that company are not the most trustworthy of people, we weren't surprised.  Sam had a couple of altercations with one of the owners, over really stupid stuff, and where they had him working, they just didn't have enough work to keep him busy.  They wanted him there 8 hours a day, so they could bill for 8 hours, but he didn't have more than 1 or 2 hours of actual work to do.  Sam is not good at the "looking busy" thing, when there is nothing to do.  Anyway, whatever, it's done now.  

We went through our usual "Woo hoo, vacation!"  (Sam, of course) and "Oh, crud, NOW what do we do"  (me, of course).  The first few days, there was absolutely nothing showing up on any of the usual sites, but Sam mobilized his vast network of engineer and designer buddies, and we went into "money diet" mode, reducing the grocery budget, no movies, etc.  I have a huge long list of stuff that needs to be done around the house, so Sam went to work on that.  

When they laid him off, they paid him also for his accrued vacation.  So, we got a regular check and a slightly bigger vacation pay check.  I figured out how long it should last.  I worried about how long it would take him to find a job.  We had just quite a bit to fix up the Daewoo for Ry and Sue to take back to Utah.  Sunday came, the bishopric already knew about our situation and offered any help.  But we have some money in the bank, and food storage and I figured we'd be OK for a while.  I had to pay tithing on both of those checks, however, and it wasn't an insignificant amount.  Even though I have a testimony of tithing, it's hard to pay it when you don't know when or where your next money will come from.  

The next week, we got a call from someone with a temporary job.   It's for six weeks, but it's for a design house, so if they like his work, they could reassign him and keep him busy longer.  No benefits, so we'll have to figure out how to pay the health insurance premiums, but whatever, we won't starve.  Not that either of us are in danger of that for awhile, anyway.  Meg is another story.  ;0)

Yesterday, Meghan decided to finally memorize the last Old Testament scripture mastery scripture.  We went to look it up, and found that it was Malachi 3:10: 

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

The windows of heaven have been opened for us, and we are grateful.

All is Well!

I know I just posted yesterday. But, I've been thinking about this for the last week, and yesterday's post was already getting too long. Today is Pioneer Day, a holiday in Utah, and celebrated by Mormon's all over the place. It's the anniversary of the day in 1847, when, after walking 1300 miles, the first Mormon wagon company reached the Great Salt Lake Valley and Brigham Young said, “This is the place!”. Between that date and the day the transcontinental railroad was completed, about 70,000 people crossed the great plains in either covered wagons, or handcarts.

I had ancestors in several of those companies, at least two several-times-great grandmothers who died on the journey. One buried “somewhere on the plains of Iowa”, another in Nebraska. I am proud of my pioneer heritage, and that my ancestors were not afraid to embrace the gospel when they heard it. Even though it meant being chased out of their homes time and again. And, finally,  journeying by foot and wagon to a place where they hoped they could live in peace and build the Kingdom of God.

I don't, however, believe that my pioneer heritage makes me better than any other member of the church.  Everyone has some “pioneer” in him. My friend who joined the church as a teenager and escaped a pretty rotten childhood to become an amazing mom is a pioneer in her family. My Jordanian friend who actually got thrown in jail for joining “that American church” is a pioneer. As is my Pakistani friend, who finally had to escape Pakistan with his family, as their lives were threatened.

President Uchtdorf, an Apostle, said “For many members of the Church, these words bring to mind valiant pioneers who abandoned the comfort of their homes and traveled by wagon and on foot until they reached the valley of the Great Salt Lake. I love and honor the faith and courage of those early pioneers of the Church. My own ancestors were living an ocean away at the time. None were among those who lived in Nauvoo or Winter Quarters, and none made the journey across the plains. But as a member of the Church, Iclaim with gratitude and pride this pioneer legacy as my own.

With the same joy, I claim the legacies of today’s modern-day Church pioneers who live in every nation and whose own stories of perseverance, faith, and sacrifice add glorious new verses to the great chorus of the latter-day anthem of the kingdom of God.”

The anthem he's referring to, is “Come, Come, Ye Saints”, which was written by William Clayton in 1846, somewhere in Iowa, as the Saints struggled through mud for several months to travel the 300 miles to Winter Quarters, where they would spend the winter. I played it Sunday for Sacrament Meeting, I love cranking the organ up for that song! And the lyrics are as appropriate today, as they were then:

Come, come ye Saints
No toil nor labor fear,
But with joy wend your way.
Though hard to you the journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
Tis better far for us to strive
Our useless cares from us to drive.
Do this, and joy your heart will swell,
All is well, all is well.


Why should be mourn,
Or think our lot is hard?
Tis not so, all is right.
Why should we think to earn a great reward
if we now shun the fight?
Gird up your loins,
Fresh courage take,
Our God will never us forsake.
And soon we'll have this tale to tell:
All is well, all is well!

My pioneer heritage is a reminder to me that we CAN do hard things, with the Lord's help. We probably won't have to walk 1300 miles with a covered wagon or handcart, but the times we live in make many things more difficult than they were 150 years ago. It's a different kind of “hard thing” we are called to do, to stand up for truth and virtue when it's not popular. To raise children who love God in a culture that sees the things of God as nothing and the Bible as a mythology. But, with faith in God, we can do all things.

This is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing "Come, Come Ye Saints". I picked this particular video, because I like this arrangement of the song, and because I like that the lyrics are there for someone who doesn't know them

Berries, berries, berries, plums...

There's a lot going on here these days, none of it particularly interesting. Sue and I made a boatload of olallieberry jam. If you've never had ollalies, you've missed out. They are a cross between a blackberry, a loganberry and some other berry that I can't remember...maybe raspberry. They are almost as big as blackberries, but with a lot fewer seeds. The juice is reddish-purple, but stains everything blue (go figure...pomegranates do the same thing). Anyway, here is the “before” pic of our lovely berries. No, we did not pick them ourselves, we are much too busy for that (ha!). Actually, they are thorny, stickery bushes and you only save $1/lb that way. We bought 10 lbs: for $10, I'll let someone else get stuck, thankyouverymuch.  This pic makes them look like they have little white spots..it's just the reflection of the flash or something.

Here is the “after” picture. Lots of lovely bottles of jam, and two quart bottles of syrup that were still cooking when I took the picture.

No, we don't eat that much jam. However, since very few people even get to taste olallies (they only grow here and I think in Oregon/Washington....and they are never in the stores), we give a lot away as gifts so that people who don't live here can enjoy them, and maybe want to come visit during berry season. The syrup will be gone quickly...Sue has a “thing” for coconut pancakes with berry syrup.

Someone at work gave Ryan a huge bag of plums. They are already ripe and sometime today will probably be close to the edge of what a good Mormon girl can eat/drink....soooo....more jam is in the forecast for today. Fun. At least it isn't hot here. I remember canning stuff in the summer in Arizona with my mom. We would go out and pick grapes, or plums, or apricots, or whatever, then come home and steam up our house canning, because the 115F that it was outside just wasn't hot enough. In San Jose, I set up a big propane burner on the porch and canned my zillion quarts of tomatoes outside. It was nice because that burner could boil my big canner in about 3 minutes, and it wasn't heating up my already-hot kitchen. Here, in the morning, it's actually kind of chilly, and a big steaming pot of something is no big deal.

Even though canning/preserving is a lot of work, I get a certain satisfaction from knowing exactly what is in my jar of tomatoes, pickles, salsa etc. I especially like it when I preserve what we grow ourselves. Makes me feel like pioneer woman or something, I guess. A throwback to my Arizona/Utah pioneer ancestors. When we were building this house, and had so much room to grow things I was pretty excited. We planted several fruit trees and anticipated the garden we would have.

But, we didn't plant a garden this year. We need to get a better handle on how to keep the “neighbors” (gophers, rabbits, squirrels, deer, snails) out of it, without resorting to poisoning anything. Too many little people around here for that. We put chicken wire under the raised beds for the gophers, put a fence around it for the deer, but the snails, the rabbits and the squirrels ate the last garden to the ground in a week. Everything was growing nicely, we left for a week and came back to nothing. Very discouraging. I love all of God's creatures, but they should leave my zucchini alone. OK, they can have SOME zucchini, but NO PEAS. Or beans. Or corn. Or tomatoes.....

This picture is just because we had a lovely day at the beach last week, and Normie and Zerin got to fly kites.  ;0)

4th of July Celebrations

Sam loves taking kids out to the tidepools in Davenport.  So, even though we'd just been there, when Salah wanted to take his family, Sam offered to take them the morning of the 4th.  Unfortunately, low tide on the 4th was at 5:30 am.  Davenport is about an hour up the coast, so we met at 5:00 am (ugh) and headed up there.  Meg, Ry and Sue opted to stay home and sleep.  Party poopers.

It was foggy and overcast, but not too cold and we saw all kinds of critters.  I've decided that when it's overcast, it's better to see all the beautiful anemones because they seem to close up when the sun comes out.  These were very big, about 6 inches across.

Here is Laith, poking at some little ones.  He got a kick out of poking them and making them close.

This is Zaid.  He still wasn't walking, so Erin just plopped him down next to a little tidepool and let him play.  He looked like he was having a great time.  Such a cutie pie!

Sam tried to do some family pics while we were there, but it's hard to get two toddlers to cooperate at the same time.  I like this one, anyway.  

After a couple of hours, we decided to head home, by way of the bakery in Davenport.  We had croissants for breakfast, then headed home.  Sam, Meg and Ryan went to a movie, then managed to disappear for several hours.  Susan and I made the food for the party at The Compound, and then headed over to prepare for the real festivities.

We had the Compound families there, plus two more families, so it was a pretty big crowd.  We had enough food to feed the whole town of Marina, though.  We had tri tip, hot dogs, smoked pork, hamburgers, chicken schwerma, about 10 salads, and Erin made the hugest, most beautiful flag cake with strawberries, blueberries and raspberry and pudding filling.  It was awesome.  We cranked up our sound system, had a family dance, an original song performed by the girls (Meg, Isabel, Phoebe, Tenny, Anya and Normie), and just sat around a visited.  Six yr old Normandy learned to ride her first 2-wheeler, courtesy of Shaunna's twins, who brought their bikes with them.  Fourteen month old Zaid took his first steps late in the afternoon to much cheering.  

At dusk, we turned the sound system to patriotic music and started our fireworks.  This year, instead of each family bringing a few (usually small) things, we pooled our money and bought much better stuff.  I think it was our best fireworks show since lame Monterey cancelled the city show.  It didn't hurt that there were all kinds of illegal sky rockets going up in the neighborhoods around us.  My nephew Tanner was very excited, because he'd never seen any fireworks, except on television.  First we went through about 200 sparklers:  here's Heather, handing them out.

Here's Susan, dancing with her sparklers with Zoe.

Then, we had Meg and Isabel draw a "Line of Death" in chalk to keep the kids back, and the guys set off the  other fireworks.  

It was a pretty awesome show for home fireworks.  I enjoyed it, the kids seemed to love it.  I miss the big show over the Bay that the city used to do, but this was fun, too.  Sam got a few really cool pics...I really like this one.

Happy Birthday, USA!  I love my country, even as I wonder what our future is now, with the current political polarization.  I"m grateful for the freedoms we have and for the sacrifices our predecessors made to secure those freedoms.  I have ancestors that came over on the Mayflower to escape religious persecution, and ancestors who walked across the American plains for the same reason.  I have family members who have served in the military.  I have many, many friends who serve in the military now all over the world.  I am grateful to them for the personal sacrifices they make to live the military lifestyle, who send their spouses where they are needed while they hold down the fort at home.  I've seen some of the struggles and worries and I know that it's not easy.  They are always in my prayers. 

God bless America!

Summer adventures...at home.

I was trying to post at least once a week, but I'm already failing that resolution.

So, since we got home, my nieces Jenny Bailey and Amber Waite came with Amber's adorable kids to see us. We had a lot of fun. We went to the aquarium one day, and the next morning we went tidepooling in Davenport. It was so fun to see them all, we haven't seen Amber and the kids in almost a year, and it's been longer for Jenny.  

A few pics:  First, the Aquarium's Open Sea exhibit.

Davenport tide pools, north of Santa Cruz.  Sam probably got cool pics of the critters we found, but who knows when I'll see them.  So, if you wanna see, check out this entry  a couple of years ago and you'll see what we saw.  Same place, different day.

Sam and Penelope were buddies from the start.  He is pretty "squishy", lol.

Evelyn and Preston at the aquarium.

Jenny with Penelope.

Amber and Penelope.  

  

On the afternoon before they left, we went to a local berry ranch and bought ollalieberries and Amber learned how to make jam.  We had a great time and I hope they come again soon.  

Ryan and Susan are here now, after their adventures in Santiago in June.  Ry has an internship at the Monterey County Legal Counsel office for the summer, so they'll be here until August.  Yay!  It's always fun to have them here.  Except we cook too much, eat too much and get too fat.  We're trying to be careful, with varying degrees of success.  Susan is, as I type, teaching Meghan to make chocolate mousse.

So, our big adventure this week was the Lobster.  My sister Julie called and wanted to send Dad a Maine Lobster for Father's Day, because Dad loves lobster and Mom hates seafood, so she never cooks it.  Also, growing up in the middle of the desert, live lobsters are rare, you know?  Anyway, she called to see if I was brave enough to cook the thing.  I wasn't sure, so I asked my other sister, Kate, who is next door at mom's this week.  She was waffling, so I called Sam and figured "he's a man", but really he gets home from work kind of late.  Finally Susan volunteered, so I told Julie to go ahead and send it.  But that was after I told her I could buy a live lobster down the street, it seemed silly to send it from Maine.  And, if she just sent me $100, I'd take Dad to Red Lobster for lunch.  She sent the lobster, Dad brought it over and Sue was the designated executioner.

And on that note, I'll wrap this post up.  I have to write a talk for church tomorrow.  As do Sam and Meghan.  It's the Bailey Show at church tomorrow.  I'll write more later.

The rest of the story....

So....the next day we drove to Boise, where we stayed with my niece, Amy and her family.  That day we had a big picnic that the Waite girls organized at an amazing park, where there was a giant waterslide.  The kids loved the slide, it was fun to visit with everyone, the weather was perfect and the park was beautiful.  I apparently took no pictures there, and I don't have time to go through Sam's pics, so oh well.

Sunday, after church, Sam, Meg and I went for a drive to find a waterfall that he'd heard of called Jump Creek Falls.  It was much further than we'd anticipated, but we got to pass an entire field of mint (which smelled heavenly) and Chicken Dinner Rd.  The waterfall was in this canyon:

 

I was still suffering from allergen overload from the Cottonwood trees at the park the day before.  So, I sent Sam and Meg to investigate.  They were still in church clothes, so Meg was wearing her spikes. Silly girl, amazing she didn't break her leg.  They found it. 

We went back to Emily's for dinner, but were so late, everyone else had already eaten.  They obviously know Sam and didn't wait for him.  (I wouldn't!)   We sat around and visited for quite awhile.  Meg got some of the 17 kids to play Sardines with her, which they apparently had a great time at, as there was much giggling and squealing.  When the adults were sitting around visiting, Nyah came in to chat.  She was very funny, trying to guess everyone's age (she guessed Grandma Bailey at 20).  Her English is amazingly good for only a few months here, and she's very outgoing, funny and loving.  We didn't get to visit with Nate much, because he's a five year old boy - he never stops moving.

When we left, Meg was sad to leave Kennedy, who is her favorite cousin.  Hopefully, now that they live closer, we'll see them more often.

The next morning, we left early to head home, via Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California.  We drove through Eastern Oregon, which we expected would be Nevada like but turned out to be a lovely drive.  Lots of rolling hills, some of them forested, some not.  

We saw a couple of pretty lakes.  This (below) is lake Abert, an alkaline lake....sort of like the Great Salt Lake.  It was raining off and on, but otherwise a pretty day.

We passed this sign somewhere in Oregon.  Sam says he'll skip Poverty Basin and go directly to Bacon Camp.

Eventually, we got into the piney forest of the Sierra Nevadas in Northern California.  But, it was raining harder now.  This was taken from a moving car, through a wet windshield, but you get the idea.

Our last stop before our hotel in Fall River Mill, was McArthur-Burney Falls.  This was spectacular, and we didnt even mind being out in the rain.  Sam hiked down the hill a bit in the rain to get a better shot.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

I could have sat there and just watched/listened forever if it wasn't so cold and wet.  I love the sound of water, I'm not sure what it is about it.  My favorite part of going to the beach is the sound of the waves.

We stayed in an old hotel in Fall River Mills, above a restaurant and bar.  It was a small suite, and was very cute with handmade quilts on the bed and 1930's furniture.  However, there was SO much noise upstairs.  We all laid in bed and speculated as to what was going on.  Some possibilities:  football game watchers, sumo wrestlers, rain dancers, tap dancers, construction, polka contest, horse wrangling, goat herding, etc etc.  

The next morning, we had breakfast in the cafe below us, then headed towards Lassen National Park.  Sam has been wanting to go there to photograph for years, so he was pretty excited about this opportunity.  Unfortunately, while it had been raining on us, it was snowing on them.  Consequently, the pass was closed through the main part of the park.  We did get to see a volcanic lava tube cave.  We took a little hike around and through it, about 1/2 a mile, I guess.  It felt longer.  I haven't hiked anywhere above sea level in so long, and we were at about 5000 ft.  But, it was very cool, and we had fun.

When we came out of the cave, it was hailing and sleeting and colder than it was in the 48F cave.  We had been hoping that as the morning went on, the pass might be opened, but it appeared that it was getting snowier and colder.  We drove up as far as the road was open, and took a side route down the mountain into Redding.  Just before we headed down, I took this pic at about 6000 ft.

About 30 minutes later, at about 1000 ft, I took this picture.  A lot changes in a couple thousand feet.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, except for a stop at a Sonic (yay!  we don't have a Sonic at home).  

We learned on this trip that Nevada can be sort of pretty in the spring, that Idahoans like Ranch Dressing on their pizza, or at least the people at Gertie's Brick Oven think so, that we could live in Boise if we had to because they have a Sonic, a Texas Roadhouse and a Walmart.  Plus a zillion relatives as a bonus.  Eastern Oregon is not the vast wasteland we expected it to be.  And it can snow in June.  

Ranch Idaho Pizza and other stuff....

My niece Emily M, adopted two kids from Ethiopia last fall.  Today, they were all sealed in the Twin Falls, Idaho temple.  So, we decided to take a road trip to Idaho. Not our usual vacation destination.  We went via Carson City, where we stayed overnight with our friends, the Halls.  The drive over the Sierras was beautiful.

We had lovely BBQ at their house, and a couple of games of Butthead (yes, really) and BS aka Liar aka I Doubt It.  Their girls are fun, and it was fun to see them again.  I wish we lived closer. 

We were supposed to be in Twin Falls by 4:30 or so for a 5:00 pm time at the temple.  We figured it was eight hours from Carson City, so we left at about 7:30 so we'd have lots of time.  The drive through Nevada was just about as exciting as you would expect.

Although the skies were gorgeous.  We found out that Winnemucca bills itself as "The Gateway to the Pacific Northwest".  I know I always think of Winnemucca when I think of the Pacific NW.  

Unfortunately, in our planning, we forgot that Idaho is on Mountain Time, not Pacific Time.  As we crossed the border into Idaho, big sign saying "Mountain Time".  Uh Oh, now, it's not 3:00, its 4 pm and we're still 25 mins from Twin Falls.  We got there, checked in, changed quickly and headed to the temple, which was fortunately not too far away.

Em's family looked beautiful all dressed in white, and she was surprised to see us.  I didn't tell her we were coming.  Nyah and Nathaniel are fun, happy, delightful kids and it was great to finally meet them, and to catch up with their siblings, who we haven't seen in a couple of years.  

After the temple, we went to Gertie's Brick Oven Pizza for dinner.  It's a pizza buffet, but instead of a buffet table, they send servers around with different kind of pizza and you just take what you want. We got our salads and sat down.  The first pizzas by were; Hamburger Ranch, Chicken Bacon Ranch, Veggie Ranch, Chicken Cashew Ranch and Pepperoni Ranch.  I finally asked if they actually had tomato sauce...by this time Sam was speculating about the Great American Tomato Shortage.  Later, they came by with Ranch Idaho pizza...ranch sauce, hash browns, bacon and onions.  Then dessert pizzas;  strawberries and cream, Oreo, Butterfinger, Smores, Reese's.  I didn't try most of those, they seemed like sugar overload.

After dinner, we wanted to see Shoshone Falls.  It was close by, so we all went.  It was spectacular.  These pics are just with my cellphone, Sam used an actual camera and they will be much better.

Then we drove over to where the bridge goes over the gorge.  There were BASE jumpers parachuting off the bridge into the gorge, but we watched a spectacular sunset there.

Tomorrow we drive to Boise to hang out with whichever Baileys happen to be hanging out there, too.