Smoke in our Canyon

 After living through the worst fire season in Utah for years we thought we were out of danger and then smoke appeared on the mountain up canyon from our house, probably from an old lightning strike that smoldered for weeks under the thick carpet of needles and roots.  Here are photos.

Water drop from helicopter. 

Helicopter in field at bottom of canyon, smoke seen half way up the back mountain.

Smoke seen from road below our property. 

Only entrance or exit to our box canyon with the Fall brilliant red leaves showing. 

We live in a paradise, but it is not without danger.  However we never felt the fire was a threat.  We never saw flames.  Our neighbors Alex Scobell and Mitch Kay hiked up and worked on getting a fire break around it until the helicopter started dropping water.  They helped to keep it contained. The fire fighters have been working on it since Thursday when we first noticed smoke.  A crew has hiked up and the helicopter has dropped water.  It is hard to put out because everything seems fine and then the next day you can see smoke again, so they sit and watch from below and when the smoke starts getting bad they start fighting it. . 

Bruce's reunion with siblings

Bruce & me, Jeff & Leslie (Meyers), Dennis & Lana, Shelley & Peter (Harris), Becky & Paul (Terry), Julie & John (Primb) at the Taylor reunion on September 15th

Bruce with his siblings.
Once a year at least thanks to Leslie, we try to get together with his siblings and children.  This year there were less children and the visit was more with just the siblings.  Christina came down with her family and I spent most of the time watching grandkids.  Shelley showed us old photos that she had scanned of the family from the 40's & 50's.  There were some cute ones of Bruce as a kids.  We had not seen any of these photos before.  Shelley sent me the link on google +.   Bruce was a cute kid

Becky, Julie, Leslie & Bruce

Bruce the baseball player, love the socks

Bruce, the growing boy, love the turned up cuffs on his jeans

Bruce by a creek, love the spontaneous smile.  He reminds me of Ben as a kid. 

Ezra's blessing

Ezra Benson Taylor was blessed on Sunday August 26th in Lehi.  Ben and Shera's family and friends were all there.  Ben gave a lovely blessing for his son.   

Christina, Ryan and Lena, Esther & Amy also came for the blessing. It was great to visit with them too. 

Sharissa's visit

Sharissa flew out for the weekend and we drove to Logan and went to dinner with Christina, Ryan, Jenny & Serge at the Elements.  

We also toured temple square gardens on top of the conference center and the city creek center. 

Ben, Shera, Rylee & Ezra came to visit on Sat. morning. 

                                  Sharissa enjoyed holding her baby niece, Lena & nephew Ezra.

I love photography

I love photography, especially the immediate reward of digital photography.  Here I am sharing my camera with Andrew.  He likes it too.  My house is full of photos and I love being able to remember things from photos.  Shera is a talented photography and I really enjoyed using her newer camera.  Jenny also likes taking photos.  So it runs in the family. 

bees and hummingbirds

The bird bath is really the bees drinking fountain. 

closeup of bees 

The  hummingbirds are back including some golden ones.

Full lunch counter.

grandkids

I went up and helped Christina for several days while Ryan was in Boston.  Here are some photos.

Christina and Lena asleep in the hammock swing. 

Amy playing at the neighbors in their play house. 

Esther at the neighbors.