mother Ilean: Winter happenings

just a quick wrap up--been a little crazy since Dad and I went with Sean and Kim to Las Vegas on Wednesday for the NFR rodeo. It was another experience to be there and associate for a day with a lot of cowboy minded people. Dad took his hat off the wall, dusted it and wore it for the evening performance looking like everyone else, and very handsome (love him in that hat). Randy Stewart and family sat behind us and we enjoyed watching the rodeo performances from a distance (very high up) We learned that the lower tiers are all held by season ticket holders and only the upper bowl is basically for sale for the 10 nights of rodeoing. It is cool to see all the top notch riders and really neat to see some very very good horses. I think I appreciate that the most, having some of our own, and recognizing what it takes to have such an awesome animal to work with. It is a thing of beauty and one of the wonders of the world in my mind to see how horses can become such great working partners. I can watch them more than I do the people riding them. The pick up horses are always very good. They can do their work almost without a rider. Another phenomena was the weather in Vegas. We drove down and only had a few sprinklers along the way, and when we got to Vegas it was just low cloud cover and almost foggy. It had rained that day, but was pretty much dry pavement when we got there. The marine air smell was incredible with the chapparel smell predominating. Wonderful. Next morning we woke up to what we thought was rain through the night--but was only I guess heavy fog that saturated everything, with even standing water. It felt like you were standing on a beach with heavy moisture in the air. This persisted through out most of the morning as we drove out to Boulder City to see the dam and bridge and encountered ground fog and low clouds hanging in the gorge and around the bridge. That was amazing. In all my years of living there and visiting there I have never seen that. Anyway had to share about it. We got back Friday in time for Sean and Kim to go on up to Logan and get to their ward party and for us to attend ours. Aunt Carmen was trying to give away as much as possible as she will be selling her house and moving up to live with Sara in the spring. It was nice to be able to stay with her one more time. We went to dinner with Allen and Marcia Wednesday night. He is doing very well for having his knee replaced in November. Derek got back from Chicago Wednesday also from his interview with Praxair--learned more about that company. Whether there will be a job offer from them, I guess we'll see. He is in his last week of the Semester this coming week and finals. Mom Tiede was hosted by Angie and Holly this week-thanks kids. I know she enjoys getting out and gave Beth a break. We moved her to Bruce and Vivenne Saturday. She seems very happy to be there. So Beth's birthday is this Thursday--Happy Birthday--I'm sure she will hear from all of you in one way or the other. They came over Saturday night to roast a hot dog in the round pen over a fire. Meg and I put on some music on the ipod and proceeded to dance. Happy and Dancing in the Moonlight were the two tunes we danced to. She is a girl after my heart-hear a good beat and your body wants to move--and she wlll dance until the music stops. Doug even consented to come out and dance on the front porch with me--we couldn't find a dance to attend in Vegas that would have been appropriate with all the alcohol that everyone drinks. Anyway it was fun for me--making these small instantaneous fun moments in life. We also raked leaves (rather blew the leaves) into a pile for bagging. Kay has managed to keep her part of the yard pretty clean. We also took down the old orchard chicken pen Saturday. With a promise that he could use the sledge hammer, Jack and Emory and Hank worked on dismantling it piece by piece. Now its ready for the dump.