did you feel it?

We just returned from a quick trip to Cedar City to see a couple plays and have a little vacation before school starts.
Cedar City is a great little town and a lot revolves around the Shakespeare Festival. We saw The 39 Steps (hilarious spoof of Alfred Hitchcock) and Pride and Prejudice. So fun and entertaining.
Great weather, great nap under a tree on a grassy lawn, great B&B.

But there were some other "earthly / universe" things happening while we were there.
For example:
Fire. There was a wild fire between Cedar and St George. It was so close to the freeway that they had to close the freeway to only one lane! And then we spotted another mountain on fire that had started since our drive down the day before - this one not close to I-15.

Earthquake: We learned of an earthquake that occurred at 6:45 am on Wed morning while we were there. The epicenter was only 9 miles south of town! Too bad we didn't feel it - but others in our B&B did.

Sun Activity: We drove to Cedar Breaks and met a park ranger who was really excited about the sun. He had a scope set up with a filter and allowed us to look at the sun and current activity there called a Sun prominence - see a picture here. So fascinating - totally worth the trip to the park to be able to see the sun and the activity there!
Cedar Breaks was quite the sight too:
And, we stayed just through the block from our apartment where we lived when KC was born. I definitely recall sitting out on the front steps while KC cried himself to sleep inside - he must have been 5 months old. It was fun to reminisce as we walked around the block to see if we could remember any names of former ward members.
Our little get away was just what we needed. Sun, fire, and quake to remind us of what a really fascinating world we live in and yet how fragile.

Lost in translation- as a tree what has

Nicole bought these (meant to be very sincere) cards in Romania. She had a fit of hilarity in the store as she was looking at these.
You'll have to click on the photo to read the fine print, but it is worth it.
Hope they make you laugh too.

A boy and his dreams

I came across this little booklet created by KC in grade school - age 6, grade 1!!KC is my hero but I'm glad he is an engineer and not MR T.

And then he tells us his favorite foods.
Phonetic spelling is priceless.
KC, do you still like Three Muskateers?

Huh?

Just some random bits about my day:

• As I was getting out of my car in the parking lot, a BYU police officer walked past my car. In his hand was a RIFLE!! Since when do BYU Police carry or need a rifle? I thought they handled traffic citations, weirdness at the dorms, and owls in the President's Home.
• Breakfast for breakfast, breakfast for dinner, and dessert for lunch. Goodness. I enjoyed too many gourmet cupcakes from the Cocoa Bean Cafe today at a garden party at our office. Coconut lime; Better than Whatever chocolate; Chocolate Raspberry; Raspberry lemonade. Yum, but my tummy hurts.
• Remember all those bats that our neighbors shooed out of their eaves with high powered water, then the flashing light all night long since then? Umm, we saw bats leaving the very same eaves last night. They're back. I'm not going to mention it to the neighbors.
• I am excited to use my brand new Eureka hand held vacuum on my stairs.
• I heard a fascinating story about Southwest airlines and how they computer modeled ant behavior to come up with the current practice of reserving a number and then lining up, still selecting your seat on the plane. Then the best part of the story was how the CIA modeled a new way to gather information based on termites. Called Intellipedia found here on the Dian Rehm show.
  

That's the randomness for today.