Mesquite

Matt and I took a small vacation down to Mesquite a few weekends ago.  It had been cold and rainy at home (still is...but that is another story) for a long time and we were excited to go spend some time in the sun.

We drove down to Nevada on Friday night.  In order to avoid Utah County traffic, which is even more awesome right now than it normally is due to construction, we decided to take a detour.  Our detour took us out through Tooele and then down a road I have never been on until we hooked up with the freeway at about Beaver.   It was a nice relaxing ride, probably added about a hour to the drive not counting traffic, so I guess we came out even in the end.  Matt says he came out ahead because driving in Utah County traffic takes years off of his life.

Saturday was a beautiful day in Mesquite.  The sun was shining and the weather was warm.  We woke up and went for a run, then headed out to the pool.  I think both of us got a little sun but we didn't get baked.  Saturday afternoon the wind started up and it just kept getting more and more windy as the day went on.  By Sunday there was a pretty constant wind blowing.  It filled the air with dust and was very effective at keeping us indoors.  I would try to go out every once in a while because it was still warm, but the dust would get in my eyes and I would quickly retreat.

 you can see the wind blowing in the trees and the dust in the air

Monday came along and it was time to go home.  The wind died down, but the air cooled down a bit.  We knew that meant it was going to be a lot cooler when we got home and we were right.  By the time we reached Ogden it was cold and rainy.  I missed the sun right away.

I did get a chance to take some pictures while we were down there.  Here are a few - they don't have people in them, just the stuff I could find to photo.

 One of the ducks

 I caught two birds flying in this shot

 flowers in the back yard

 roof line and tree in the wind

 Interesting roof tiles

 Bird taking a Bath

 Mrs. Duck

 Part of the Goose family

 Matt likes this picture.  It is part of a cactus plant

 The bee is looking at me

 We stopped at Cove Fort on the way home

I like the old warped window glass

CERTifiable

Our city offers a class to residents known as CERT. That stands for Community Emergency Response Team. The class is offered each spring, and for a couple of years Matt has seen the ads for the class and wanted to sign up, but never has. This year when we found out it was being offered we both signed up.

I had the idea that the class would teach us first aid and other important emergency information. Not Quite. The purpose of the class is to teach regular Joes how to deal with extreme situations so we can help out if asked to, but the information was a lot more basic than I expected it to be. We briefly covered basic first aid. We did get to put out a fire (Matt was way more excited about that than I was).

We attended class one night a week for 7 weeks, and really by week 3 I was already getting tired of going to class. But we persevered and made it through all the weeks. Then at the end we were given our official hats and vests and our awesome certificate! (Woo Hoo… ) We did get to participate in a mock disaster on the last night of class. A bunch of the kids in the neighborhood got all dressed up in fake wounds (they looked pretty good, wish I had taken a picture). We had to go in the building and assess them and get them out of the building and get them first aid. It was kind of fun (probably wasn’t supposed to be. I am sure I was not taking it seriously enough).

Overall – I am glad that I am now officially on the list to help if needed, but I don’t know if the time spent in that class actually got me anything – except a nice hard hat and a green vest.

Easter Weekend

Easter came late this year. Usually that means we have a better chance of really good weather on Easter. Not so this year. Winter has been hanging on tight and it seems no amount of wishing and hoping on my part is going to bring summer any sooner.

The Saturday before Easter we headed down to Salt Lake City. I had set myself up a pampering day, and Matt was coming along for the ride. I dropped him off at his Grandparent’s house in Cottonwood and went to get my hair cut. After the haircut I drove downtown to get a massage. I had purchased the massage from a daily deal site (told you I was addicted to them) but it was a two hour massage for a fairly cheap price. I was kind of expecting a relaxing couple of hours, but instead I received a sports massage. The girl spent 2 hours working the kinks out of my hamstrings (which have been very sore since I started running.) So instead of a really relaxing time, I was put through some mild torture, but it felt really good.

Once I was done being kneaded like bread I picked Matt up and we headed out to Sandy to visit his Mom. We lucked out that his niece and nephews were at Grandma’s house and it gave us a chance to hang out with them for a little while. The kids had spent the night at Grandma’s and I could tell they were running on fumes before we got there. But they light up when they see Matt come in the door. Good thing he is such a good sport. So he wore some “kid boots” around for a while. But then the kids went home and we took Bev out for a well deserved rest (and yummy food at Sweet Tomato’s)

The next day was Easter. Our church is on a late schedule this year, with meetings from 1:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon. Once our meetings were over we headed to my Mom’s house for our Easter Party. My totally amazing mom had made food for all of us (Sloppy Joes) and it was wonderful. We ate and talked until the kids just couldn’t stand it anymore and then we let them (and ourselves) loose on the backyard and the egg hunt. I will say that we were nice and gave the kids at least a 2 minute head start on the hunt.

So overall, Easter weekend was everything it was supposed to be, except it was way too short.