Busy Day

Today we celebrated Ellie's 6th birthday. It's hard to believe it's been 6 years already!

The weather was just too nice to stay inside, and this evening was just magical. Had a good time at Phoenix Christian Reformed Church participating in the soup supper & Bunco night.

Looking for Butterflies with Oma

 

Didn't spot any butterflies, but the bees sure loved these flowers!

Stormy clearly enjoyed his outdoor time!

Ellie is very studious!

Ellie is an impressive reader!

The evening was beautiful, especially with the moon and planets visible in the early evening sky.

Bunco!

Snow!

Extol the Lord, O Jerusalem!

Praise your God, O Zion!

He sends the snow that is white like wool;

he spreads the frost that is white like ashes.

He throws his hailstones like crumbs.

Who can withstand the cold wind he sends?

He then orders it all to melt;

he breathes on it, and the water flows.

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 147 v12, 16-18, 20

I don't know what it is about snow that is so magical. I've never been tempted to ski, although tubing is pretty fun, but just looking at it is wonderful. Even shoveling is actually fun, and to see it on the San Francisco Peaks - well that is what brought Psalm 147 to mind.

 

The view from my office window this morning.

Somehow I never get tired of this view.

The "Coops" at MNA.

The evening sun from the west gives the peaks a magical glow when the trees are full of snow.

Of course, it's not all fun. This morning when I left for work the whole driveway looked like the left side. When I got home the city plow had built a wall across it like the right side and I had to shovel my way in.

Winter Returns

The photos in the last post were taken just 2 days ago. It was sunny and I went for a lunchtime walk. It was 63F/17C and my lightweight jacket felt too warm.

We got 10" of snow overnight last night and road conditions were so tricky that church services were cancelled.

The snow let up enough that I shoveled the driveway.

I don't think the 914 is going anywhere today. No city plow yet.

A couple of hours later it's a white-out!

Photo Experiments

I'm playing around with different camera settings and how it affects HDR rendering of the image.

These photos were exposed (in order) as P, Av f8, and Av f2. All images are handheld with my Canon Powershot S100.

AZ Quilt Guild Show

One of the highlights of the year is the annual quilt show by the Arizona Quilt Guild. We started the day with Bosa Donuts and Dutch Brothers coffee - a pretty good way to start any day.

Ellie accompanied us to the show. I predict we will have another quilter in the family before long!

Dutch Brothers chocolate milk, and Bosa Donuts chocolate frosting (on the face)!

Ellie tried out a longarm quilting machine.

Ellie getting a start on building her stash!

It's a quilt thing, you wouldn't understand

Linda and her customer, Sharon Angelo, won an honorable mention for Sharon's quilt "Arizona Wildfire."

Granddaughter Silliness

We're not quite sure what was so interesting in the tub, but apparently it was really funny based on the amount of giggling going on.

The silliness continued after bedtime. There was lots of singing and talking going on in Ellie & Eve's room. When Mandy went up to investigate, she discovered Eve - out of her crib, dancing on top of the dresser, with a hat on backwards, and very proud of herself!

Trip Anticipation

This year is our 40th wedding anniversary. Our gift to each other is a 3 week trip the the Netherlands. When we started planning this almost 6 months ago it seemed like it would never get here. Now it's only 3 weeks away! The excitement is incredible, but as our granddaughter Ellie once said "I think we should be panicing now!"

This will be our 4th trip to the Netherlands, which is the home where our grandparents emigrated from. It's a place where we just feel like we belong and we love being there. It's too bad that our families didn't continue to speak Dutch enough so that we'd still have that part of our heritage. Every trip is a chance to pick up a little more Dutch.

This trip we have rented an apartment for 3 weeks in Zevenhuizen so we get to be "temporary residents" instead of tourists. It isn't my dream of living the the Netherlands for a year to learn Dutch, but it's still exciting.

Here's some photos from previous trips.

 

Hindeloopen Harbor

The Bakery building on the Oudegracht in Utrecht where my grandparents came from.

"de Trouwe Wachter" - The Faithful Watchman - the molen in Tienhoven where my great-grandmother was born.