Liza Downey

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Jackson Hole - Teton Village - Rendezvous Mountain

We are finally in Jackson Hole for Greg Gish's wedding! We just got back from a delicious barbeque at a really pretty home/land, and hope to do some stargazing later (maybe another shuttle sighting!) Tomorrow we will have an early start to Yellowstone and stay there all day, with the rehearsal dinner to follow tomorrow evening.

Below you will see pictures of our exploits today--we arrived in Jackson Hole by the skin of our teeth after almost missing the Nashville flight (left late, shuttle was way too slow... etc.) and then we went up Rendezvous Mountain via a tram. It's about 4000 feet up and took about 10-15 minutes to ride, but the views paid off. We even saw a mama moose/baby moose! We'll see more of those tomorrow, too, apparently. It was really cool to see snow as well--even though it gets in the 80s-90s during the day, up on the mountains the air is still much thinner and it's much more windy and cool. I am sure we'll have more pictures tomorrow--hopefully we will continue to be conscientous with our updates! :)

Also, these go from last to first--we can't figure out how to do them in order yet and there were so many. Sorry!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

The Lord may say, "Vengance is mine..."

But I think He'll give me (or Bugs) a pass for the squirrel who is responsible for this:

We should have been enjoying this with salt, cream cheese, or mozzarella and that fresh basil I just harvested. But Nooooo. I guess when they get "close" I'll be letting them ripen on the windowsill until we figure out how to fix the squirrel issue. Any suggestions?

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Flowers and Veggies

Here are some pics from today of our progress on flowers, plants, and veggies. We've had a few things die but overall we're not doing too bad!

Click on the photo for a full size version.

We got flower boxes built last month and have some "supertunias" planted there. The right side is doing a lot better than the left. But we're very pleased.

closeup of the better side

The calla lilies are coming in...

We had an elephant ear bulb in a pot for a few months and it never came up. But then it started to bud and became a freak of nature in no time!

The hydrangea below the porch has bloomed a bit with pink and purple flowers.

Geraniums on bottom and two pots of sunflowers

Our jalapeño peppers and the blooming althea bushes/trees in the background. The altheas just started blooming late last week. They were still out in the early fall last year, so we have at least a couple more months of them.

an althea flower

These are a few pics of our tomatoes that are coming in. We planted them in 5 gallon buckets and have done surprisingly well.

Our jalapeños are coming in nicely!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Lana Racing Videos!

I realized recently that we haven't posted anything about Lana since we adopted her in April. For those that didn't know, we fostered her from late October to early February. She was adopted to a great family but she was returned to the program due to a custody battle in the family. We took her back without question because she's the sweetest dog we've ever known.

It so happens than Lana was already on YouTube before we posted a video of her discovering television! I realized last night that Birmingham Race Course has a YouTube channel that goes back to when Lana raced last fall. She was only in these "schooling" races, which are exhibition races that you can't bet on. From the stats Birmingham has on her, I found videos of each of her four races.

I've included her number and silk color above each video so you can find her on the track.

September 15, 2008
#3 (white)

September 18, 2008
#1 (red)

October 23, 2008
#6 (yellow)

October 27, 2008
#5 (black)

...and just a few days later, she was enjoying retirement at our new house. Although she didn't do very well in those races, she's a much better runner than we'd thought! The few times we've seen her run fast in the back yard, she kind of scoots ungracefully, earning her the name "Scootin' Nooner."

Friday, June 12, 2009

Twins are here!

George Turner and Mary Sims Downey were born at noon on June 10th. These are Paul's brother John's babies for those that don't know. Both were 4lbs 14oz and 18" long, pretty big for twins. They're in the NICU but it's standard practice for twins, who usually come early. Both the babies and mom are doing great.

George