February 2014 we... traveled and renovated, surprise!

Our first major activity of February occurred February 1st (fitting). My niece Savanna was baptized, so Melissa and I headed up to Utah County for the ceremony. 

Afterward, Chevon and James hosted a luncheon at their house. This is 3 generations admiring the marbleworks James built a few years ago, inspired by our Dad's little zig-zag marbleworks he has had for about a million years.

On the way home we decided to visit Wilson Arch (US highway 191, south of Moab).  We have driven past this arch at least 40 times and only finally decided to hike it in February, with snow on the ground.  It actually made for some pretty spectacular views and it is always fun to hike in the snow while wearing church shoes. 

Zoe and I at the top of the path.

Zoe is actually 1/3 Mountain Goat as is evidenced by her standing still enjoying the view from a vertical wall.

Melissa wasn't really interested in the view looking into the canyon behind the arch.

Zoe noticed that Melissa was a little nervous and told her everything would be okay... with a great big kiss.

Zoe and I with a beautiful, crisp, February day behind us.

Wait, did we snap a picture of the arch from the road?  Good thinking Melissa.

The next weekend we were back "up north" again.  I had to fly out to North Carolina for a two day meeting to help redesign the BC-ADM credentialing exam. Melissa had a doctor's appointment with a fertility specialist and spent some time with my family.
 
It was a lonely and comfortable flight for me.

My cousin Sarah happened to be in Utah (from the UK) for work that weekend. Melissa, mom and dad, and Sarah went for dinner at Red Lobster one evening. Melissa and Sarah spent that Saturday clothes shopping.


After the traveling Melissa decided it was time to make our yard more water conscious. The first step is laying out a garden hose and a hula-hoop. This was our sophisticated plan for what will become a patio extension, rock bench and fire pit.

Then you try to cut out the sod and the machine won't work.

So you rototill the grass and 4 inches of dirt, prep to move a sprinkler head and start moving dirt into the area which will become a flower bed.

Melissa's preschool kids thought it was pretty fun to have a big dirt pit for recess.

We asked the help of a couple of our friends from the basement renovation (Ben and Peanut) to load my truck with sand and help spread it out.

Compacting the sand. A worthless step as we ended up removing ~1/4 of this as we laid in the sandstone.

Here are the sandstone pavers (or about a fifth of them).

Almost done.

The preschool testing the drivability of the new surface.

And Melissa's student who asked if she could please sweep the gravel back into the gaps.  We are currently shopping for a product to hold the gravel in the gaps.

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