Tovrea Castle

 Tovrea Castle dressed up for the holidays. 

And the basement with the unusual plaster

Carrera's brother thought the depressions looked like nests, so Carrera made six little nests in the basement.   

Zoolights in the Rain

The rainy entrance to the Phoenix Zoo was a bit deserted on an evening when it is normally jam-packed.  Wed is 1/2 off with a coupon from SRP.

Didn't bring my tripod, so many of the shots were blurry.

 The big ball of lights over the water changes color
one column at a time.

 The 'new' dancing trees section had a nice display for the in-between times rather than leave it dark until the next showing.

 The rain went from a light drizzle to a bit more regular rain.

Here's Jake & Karen, Sue inbetween them, Dave behind them and the rest of the kids and Gramma somehwere behind them yet. At least it was warm enough.  The rain isn't as unpleasant as the bitter cold nights. IT did come down heavy for a short spell.  We are glad the Feenstras come from Michigan and can handle a little rain.

Erik thought it pretty funny to have a dragon setting 'fires' in the rain.

Bunches of animals in this one. 

I spun the camera for this shot of a tree

And I zoomed in on the shot in this one.

Uncle Dave's Birthday

The Feenstras are in town!! We had apple pie for Uncle Dave's birthday 'cake'

 He managed to find enough breath to blow out all the candles.

Happy birthday, Dave!!

Foggy Morning

Last week Friday morning there was fog. Not bad, but still enough to cause accidents. Some pockets were a bit thicker, but by us it wasn't too much at all.

Here's looking up & down the street

Make that down and up the street.

Erik's 14th Birthday!!

Kind of a low-key birthday for Erik, yet we celebrated on three different days.

 I don't know if you can tell on this shot, but he has red and green braces for Christmas.

 I think Jake was more excited to have presents opened than Erik, but Thursday night was the only night we could have just the family together.

 A very happy face for the one thing he really wanted - a DSI XL

Instead of a big party, he wanted a few buddies from school over for games.

His choice of cake was cheesecake.

Blowing out the candles...

After cake they retired to separate computers (thanks to Uncle Scott for giving us these!! No more fighting over computers)

And Saturday, Karen and the boys went to Gramma's and she took them out to Red Robbin for lunch.  Right next door is Krispy Kreme Donuts, and they give a free dozen to anyone on their birthday, so they had to stop there.

HAPPY FOURTEENTH ERIK!!!

THE Copper Chopper

Arizona's Centennial is aproaching, and one custom bike builder made a one-of-a-kind bike he gave to the State.  The State is raffling off the bike for $5 a ticket.  Of course, that means it has to make the rounds at major events and such. Puebloe Grande Indian Market was last weekend and I not only took pictures of the bike....

 Nice looking bike.

State flag imagery etched into the gas tank.

Side plates are 15 pounds of solid copper!!

Oil reserve has 8 pounds of copper.

Most of the rest of the copper is annodized, but still a sharp looking chopper.

I got to help get it off the platform and into the trailer!  Had to wear gloves, even.

 Leather seat looks like wood.

The bike is valued at $100 thousand and someone may win on a $5 ticket.  Of course someone may win having bought a thousand tickets, too.