Flatlanders in the Snow

18 Jan 2013: My lovely niece Celesta and her boyfriend Riley came to visit!

I can't believe I never did a single blog post during the month of January!  I've been extremely frustrated with Blogspot for the past 2 months. They've suddenly become very user-unfriendly, making it impossible for me to upload pictures, even though they required me to start paying for the space to store those pictures.  So I am trying to use a different browser tonight.  It's allowing me to upload photos, but I do not like the format of this browser at all.  I'm feeling pretty resentful that I'm unable to choose my own browser so I can blog in comfort!  Why is it that every time someone tries to "fix" technology, they only manage to make it a bigger headache?

 

January 19: On their way to the cinder pits, they came across a herd of deer

including this beautiful doe.

Okay, enough of that!  I'm here to share our fun visit from my niece Celesta and her boyfriend Riley over the 3-day weekend in January.

 

Celesta takes aim!

Celesta and Riley came up on Friday evening and joined us for a dinner of grilled steaks and salad.  On Saturday morning, they headed out with Ed and Jacob to go shooting at the Porter Mountain cinder pits (an inactive volcano about 20 minutes from our house).  The cinder pits are a popular shooting range in our area.

 

Oh yeah, that's right, she bad!

Riley is very much into guns, just like Ed, and Celesta was game to experience her first shooting lesson.  Being a little intimidated by firearms myself, I waited at home, but I heard that Celesta was a straight-shooter!

 

Ed scopes out the range while Celesta tries out a rifle.

 

Jacob isn't about to be outdone by his cousin!

  

Jacob takes aim at the target.

 

Riley looks right at home with a rifle on his hip.

Riley tries out Ed's .50-caliber Barrett: it's got quite a kick!

Celesta and Riley: two "flatlanders" (folks from the Valley) enjoying the snow!

 

Some other shooters left this "Twilight" target behind for our group to shoot up.

I thought it was humorous.  Jacob and Edward got their heads blown off,

but Bella's is still intact!

Cousins Celesta and Jacob with their Grandma Butler's headstone.

(And Grandpa Butler's, too, but thankfully he is still with us!)

On Sunday, Celesta and Riley attended the singles ward at church with Jacob. After church, they stopped by Show Low Cemetery to visit the grave of their Grandma Butler (my mom).

 

 Jacob, Celesta, and the back side of the headstone,
listing all 6 of my parents' children.

 Celesta and Riley at the cemetery.

That evening, while waiting for Jacob's chicken enchiladas to bake, Celesta and Riley took a walk with Chris and Sarah down to the duck pond a few blocks from our home.  It was mostly frozen over after a week of below-zero temperatures.

Riley walks out on the ice to about the middle of the pond, 

scaring the ducks back to open water.

Chris risks walking to the center of the pond, too.  I'm not brave enough to do that!

Celesta follows suit, silly girl!

After they returned, we all enjoyed a warm enchilada dinner before Celesta and Riley packed up their stuff and headed back down the mountain before the roads could get too slick.

Riley and Celesta attempt to make snow angels, 

but the snow is frozen too hard to make a nice imprint!

We were so sad to see them go, but we sure enjoyed their company for the weekend!  Ya'll come back now, y'hear?