A Day In The Life - 11/12/2011: Kids, Lakes, And Other Tragedies

 It is Saturday. The stake is holding its Little Philmont Scout Leader Training at Roosevelt Lake.

 It is a beautiful day. Most of the leaders, some with their families, have been here since Friday afternoon.

 But we don't have to watch the little kids until Saturday after breakfast. Rather than sleep on the ground, I choose to get up a 3:45 and drive up on Saturday morning to help supervise the watching og the kidlets - our young adult ward assignment.

 I arrive in plenty of time of breakfast and opening ceremonies. It is chilly but they have a good fire going, thanks to a group of little kids who want to both play with matches and get warm.

 After the announcements it is time for those with kids to hand off to come sign them up.

 Some are still in their pajamas and blankets.

 We walk down to the play ground a couple of hundred yards down the road. The big boys really became little boys and had as much fun as the little kids, chasing them, climbing up and through the jungle gym with quite a bit more energy and speed than I would have thought possible.

 The girls were a little more sedate and several watched while the boys wore themselves out.

 The fun continued through much of the morning

 Jesse was lively as David but is doing his bouncer impression here. I guess that I am too big to play with this group.

 It was tough to keep some of the kids from climbing to heights that were less than safe. The Johnson's were much more concerned than I was, having been one of those kids who tend to break bones and get scuffed fairly often. But we most often survive and have a lot more fun in life than the others.

Finally we walk the kids down to the lake. They throw stones and sticks and collect shells and generally explore the beach for awhile. But it was quite a walk and down hill, so when it is time to return everyone wants to ride. And the Johnson's, rather than just getting them to buck up, make a few trips to haul everyone back (except me at my request - I need the exercise). By then it was about time to be done. They played some more on the jungle gym until the parents came to get their kids.

A Day In The Life - 11/10/2011: The Coolest Package Ever

We got the coolest gift yet! Kathy and Mike Gannon made and delivered this package of goodies to us. It is for us to eat as we watch morning General Conference. But it is not just a box of creatively decorated goodies. She even included a really cool booklet with recipes for each of them adorned with pictures and a little clothes pin to hold it up so that you can read it while mixing and baking. Is this not just about the coolest gift ever?

A Day In The Life - 11/09/2011: HDR

This picture, in and of itself is nothing special, but the application that I downloaded to take this picture is really cool.
The original of this picture had the bathroom all dark through the doorway and the mirror had some glare in it. What this application does is takes three pictures - one normal, one over-exposed and one under-exposed and then merges them all together in order to get everything to a better level of exposure. IT is really good for those shaded places that are hard to get right.

A Day In The Life - 11/10/2011: The Flowers Get A Home

 I finally got out to the nursery and picked up some Lantana for the year. And they sat and they sat and they sat in their poor little plastic pots lookiing like so many orphans with no home.

So I finally dug their holes and planted them in the ground. We will see how they survive the winter. I guess that I will replace them if they don't. But they sure will be pretty if they do. I got a yellow, a multi-color yellow, a red and a multi-color red. They sure spice up the yard.

A Day In The Life - 11/05/2011: Cool Mountain Views

 So, I am out taking Mom to one of her all-day Saturday classes on the far east side of Mesa, almost into Apache Junction, when I take note of the Superstition Mountains.
I must be a natural-born wanderer because I just had to get to a picture-taking view point so I headed east on Southern.

 It was a chilly morning (by Arizona standards) and the clouds were hanging low over the mountains. When I got to the end of Southern near Gold Canyon Rd., I still had a bit farther to go before I could miss most of the power lines and houses - but I finally found a spot.

 The morning light added relief to the picture making the canyons more visible than usual.

The north side was also cool but I could net get a wide enough angle to see the whole thing in one picture.

A Day In The Life - 10/31/2011: Halloween On The Driveway

 Halloween is very different without kids. So, this year I built a burn barrel. We tried it out at Halloween and it did a great job - almost too warm. But it handles the heat fine.

And Gaye and I traded off handing out candy when the kids came. Our two humungous bags of candy lasted for about an hour and a half and we had lots of kids come. Sadly, there were a lot of houses in our end of the neighborhood that did not feel obligated to give away free candy.
Quentin took Jase around the hood and Kyle and Jennie hung out for awhile and then Jennie went off to visit the Larson's and some of her other buddies. So, I guess it was a success.

A Day In The Life - 10/30/2011: Ward Halloween Party

 The term Ward Halloween Party is not what it seems. First, it was multiple parties and second, they weren't really our ward...kind of.

The first to arrive was Darth "Jase" Vader, who was a bit shorter than I had pictured him in the movies.

 Then there was "Twitter" Jennie with her twitter wings...

 .. and eye work I wonder if she Tweets.

 And Kyle as a mobile hot spot. It took me awhile, also.

 We went to Jennie's ward (Amberwood) Halloween party. It was great with food and games and lots of fun.

After that we went to the Peralta ward party. It was also very fun and although we are part of that ward, since we are currently assigned to the Hartford Young Single Adult ward, it was like visiting, not having attended there for the past two years (almost). But we got enough candy to last Jase until Christmas. And we got to see a lot of people that we don't get to see too often.

A Day In The Life - 10/26/2011: A Surprise From The Scouts

I got a surprising knock on the door tonight. It was a bunch of the older scouts and leaders. They had been making cookies and brought some by for me for helping them do knives and wood projects. That was very nice of them.

A Day In The Life - 10/16/2011: New Orleans

 We drove the 90 miles back to New Orleans from Biloxi. The hardest part of the New Orleans tour was finding a parking place. But we finally found one that only cost an arm because I needed both legs for walking.

 We headed for the river a few blocks away. There is a walk way along the river that is not only scenic but also takes us to the middle of the French Quarter where there are scenic buildings and some books stores that we want to check out.

 It was fun to watch the big ships and tug boats working out in the Mississippi river.

And we watched a paddle boat running along the river that might not be interesting to anyone else but me, but that is why it is on this blog site - so I can watch it whenever I want.

 When we got to the French Quarter, there is a square. It has a great park with flowers and statues and benches and an interesting variety of people. There is a walk way ont he south side where artists display and sell their pieces.

Around the square there are these old buildings that are really interesting to look at. This one is the church.

 This is a museum.

And in the center of the park is a statue . . . of Major General Andrew Jackson, as I recall. And there were people doing yoga and picnics and tourists taking pictures. It was very fun just to watch what was going on around us.

 We finally found the first book store, in Pirates Alley, no less. It was the Faulkner House where William Faulkner wrote many of his books and stories . . .

 . . . or so the plaque says.

 And the sign.

 But I loved the sign to the store next door which proclaims "Tony Seville's Pirate's Alley Cafe' and Olde Absinthe". Sorry, the day was still young and not time for eating yet.

 After much more walking and visiting antique stores with little lead soldiers and book stores with little old men and winding stairways covered in stacks of books, we finally settled on a little cafe.

 It was named Antoine's Annex and was a cute little place with an odd menu. It was probably mostly vegan but whatever I ended up with at the server's suggestion was very tasty.

 And lots of chips came with everything, including the cute lady who ate across from me.

There were tons of antique shops with the most elaborate furniture I have ever seen outside of a movie or television show. But now I know where to find some if ever I decide that I need something in gold and curves. Click on the picture so that it gets big and look at some of the stuff in this window.

And then we were off to home, through Denver again, getting into our bed about 1 am.

A Day In The Life - 10/16/2011: Saying Goodbye

Our only sad day of our trip, as with all of our travels, was the day that we had to leave. I could have stayed for many more days, enjoying the surrounding area and more of the food. A few more trips to The Shed are certainly in order.

A great picture of Drew and Gaye.

 Drew and some old guy.

And Drew and Beth. What a fun, fun trip this was. Thank you for hosting us.

A Day In The Life - 10/14/2011: Riding The Waves

 I almost forgot another very fun activity on our trip to the South - The beach bikes. They were very different than I had expected. You see, I was hoping for something that we could ride on the sand - you know, like on the beach!

 But these beach bike don't roll down the beach at all. You paddle them across the water. And it was hard! I nearly broke a nail or got a cramp.

 And to top it off, you had to get it out into deep enough water that it did not bottom out on the sand bars below. And being in my traditional long pants with the bottoms rolled up, I was trying my best to get going without being entirely soaked. I wasn't entirely successful.

 But we finally set sail . . . or should I say, set feet. And we are pedaling like mad and hardly going anywhere at all. And when you want to turn it takes for ever. It was very fun.

 I think that we made it out about a hundred yards or so to a buoy and then another hundred yards to another buoy before heading back.

 Don't we look warn out? Totally wasted?

Drew is even listing to one side. I think his leg went to sleep from the hard seats.