Renaisance Fair

Emily and left the cold north and came down to the Mesa valley. On our way down, Josh called Emily and said he and his parents were at the Renaissance Fair and that they had an extra ticket.

So, off we went to the Fair! I mainly wanted to see the naughty nuns, which I was told that it was the 'Hey Nunnie Nunnie' show...they are hilarious! While sitting there, a gentleman in a wheelchair at the side watched Emily and I. He said later that he wasn't always staring at us, as we were sitting next to his daughter, but said that he was an old photographer and Emily and I needed to go get our portrait done as our resemblance was uncanny! We laughed, but did one of our own.

We then dragged Josh to ride the elephants with us. His dad took pictures...of a fly, himself, the elephant's forehead...but he did manage to get some of us! When we were waiting for our elephant to finish drinking, the one next to us decided to 'sniff' us out. Josh and Em were not too thrilled at this!

We saw the wild mud men and the sword swallower, who managed to completely swallow a 4-foot long balloon. He burped and told us we didn't want to be around when it came out!

Em and I are now waiting for the roads to be cleared of snow before traveling back north.

Gila Valley Arizona Temple Groundbreaking

So, since I was baptised in the Gila Valley, almost 25 years ago, Kevin and I went down for the Gila Valley Arizona Temple Groundbreaking. It was a beautiful ceremony and very peaceful.

Christmas and Justin

So, this was our first Christmas without Justin. My cousin Skylar (currently serving in the Air Force) came out with his dad, Jacky. Judy, my parents, grandmother and Becky along with multiple dogs enjoyed all of the excitement.

We were able to talk with Justin for the first time since we dropped him off at the MTC. He is doing very well and is loving his mission and the people that he is serving. Besides the stiches early on in his mission, I don't believe that he has had any other injuries, but of course I will be the last person in the world that he would tell!

He has had many baptisms and has met many people with ties to Arizona and to individuals that we know. A pair of missionaries were stranded at their apartment near Christmas time, one of the missionaries lived just a few miles from us in Colorado!

Emily's Winter Formal

Emily was very excited to attend her first Winter Formal with an official

'boyfriend'. Two of her friends came to the house to get ready.

Catastrophic Structural Failure in Flagstaff

So, when I was last in Houston, I received a call from Kevin stating that we had suffered a 'catastrphic structural failure'. He said that the top of our storage shed had partially collapsed. This past weekend, we received a record 28" of snow in 24 hours, causing further collapse. The photo shows that the entire top of the shed has now collapsed!

Emily ROCKS the 80's!

So, the 80's are not gone, it lives on in the fashion and in the hair of another generation!

Emily's comment about her Halloween outfit was that she would have ROCKED the 80's.

Hurricane Ike

I just returned from a whirlwind (not tornado, but hurricane related!) trip. I went from snow on the San Francisco Peaks, to over 100 degrees on a Phoenix warehouse, to Houston, Texas. I ended up looking at damage from Hurricane Ike to the Houston and outlying areas. Many included damage from falling trees, windborne debris and others from simple poor construction. I had to condemn a church and I had one guy threaten to tell his momma on me as I told him his damage wasn't storm related.

While I didn't travel out to the island at Galveston, I did have time during my CAT work to take a trip to the town of Galveston.

All of the 'beachfront' properties were pretty much uninhabitable, with the storm surge being over 20 feet.

This was a different experience than being in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Things were a little more organized, with the clean up of the city.

I made it out of Houston area and to the sands of Galveston Beach, where I added some sands and shells to my 'Sands of Time' Collection.

This collection began after the losses of my relatives on my 40th birthday and I traveled up the Pacific Coast Highway for work. I collected a small bag of sand, not knowing why...part of the whole 'midlife crisis thing'. I came home and found several colored and shaped bottles. They now remind me of where I've been and where I want to go.

This little guy kept me company while the rest tromped all over the beach.

His larger relatives were dive bombing the ocean in search of fish. It was quite entertaining to watch.

Access to the beach was down the stairs at the seawall and then across a 2x6 board over the water.

These houses were part of the peninsula, which had survived the stormsurge, relatively unscathed.

Many structures did not.

I visited the Fort San Jacinto Historic Point. The beach is just covered, on either side of the jetty with debris from the houses and buildings that used to be near this area.

Several container ships were out on the ocean, waiting to move into the ports...probably some difficulty with that as a lot of the port area was damaged.

Within the town of Galveston, this 4 block area has been made into a temporary location for all of the debris that people have removed from their structures. It gets piled up outside of their businesses or houses and the city dump trucks are working the streets, removing each pile and bringing it to this location where semi trucks are lined up to be filled by excavators and trucked out to be burned.

You may have to look closely, but the opposite side of the road is littered with broken and beached boats.

This condition was common for several miles along the roadway.