Karen's last day for this year!

Today was the last day to file taxes thus the last work day for tax professionals at H&R Block. Jay, the guy in this picture with Karen, is not coming back next year and is "retiring." Now I don't think there is any retirement plan for these people as they are only temporarily employed during the tax preparation time of the year, January 1 till April 15, so actual retirement might be a misnomer if you expect a pension or anything like that. Nevertheless, Jay says he won't be back so it was an opportunity to send him off as a retired person. It was also an end of the season luncheon and I had lunch with them which gave me a little more time with Karen in the middle of the day. I loved that!!

So today it is raining and you know what they say about April showers. I'm really going to see some green around here as soon as it warms up again. Tomorrow Karen and I are going to spend the day down at her office closing it up and getting it ready for the down season. We had to go back down there last night so Karen could finish up some last minute work and we didn't get home until after 1:00am. So neither of us had much sleep last night but I'm not dragging too much today and Karen was too busy to be tired when I was there for lunch. The end is in sight and next week we will be down in Zion and this week will be history. Time marches on, so they say. No matter what, I am a happy guy being able to spend time with the lady I love even if she's a working girl.

Lava trail

Today Karen and I took the boys and went down the road to the Blackfoot rest areas to walk the Lava trails there. There are 2 rest areas at Blackfoot one on the south bound I-15 and the other on the northbound. We ended up driving down to Blackfoot and drove around town a little bit. I was wondering about that place since I have driven by it a few times and it's a cute little town, I must say. There was something familiar about the place but I just can't put my finger on exactly what it is.

The lava trails, as they are labeled at the rest areas, are paved and fairly flat and not very long. They have benches and interpretive signs all along them and are nice for someone who is not in very good shape and are very easy walking.

I was wanting to find my first Idaho wild flowers and this yellow one was the first I saw. I should know the name of this flower, I have taken many pictures of it back in California where it is also plentiful. I used to see these all the time along the Bizz Johnson trail so now I need to figure out what they are.

So, it was a nice day, a little blustery with some wind but not too cool and there was enough sun to make it comfortable out. We have our Zion trip coming up soon so hopefully I will get to see some more wild flowers around here before we go and also some of the ones from southern Utah. Spring has sprung.