Ander's 1st birthday

With so many family and friends nearby, Ander's first birthday turned into quite a party with about 20 guests -- though you wouldn't know it because the few pictures that were taken were of Ander (These are courtesy of Jeanette.).

We had a box of hats that guests could choose to wear with Ander wearing the crown as "King of the day." I made frog cupcakes for everyone, which made Ander giggle when he saw them all on the table. He was mostly interested in squishing the frosting through his fingers and ate very little. In fact, I'm a little disappointed he didn't get more messy, but we have plenty of years to look forward to for that.


He received some fun toys, like this one where the balls go in the top, travel some switchbacks and come out the bottom. He also got a Rockin' Pony (in the photo on the left side) that he loves to climb on and rock back and forth (from Great Grandpa Bill and Shirley). He also got some new clothes, and his first computer game with an accompanying child's keyboard, a tricycle for kids his size, and a toy that blows balls in the air and scares the very intriqued Ander each time.

Stressed out Metros

So here is one more reason confirming that the move to Arizona was a good lifestyle choice -- less stress. Check out the "Stress Rankings for Top 50 U.S. Metros" -- San Francisco/Oakland is 11th, Phoenix is 48th.

Check it out... 30% of folks in SF/OAK pay a mortgage of more than $3,000 (only 5% of Phoenicians)! Crikey!

Yes, it's snow -- and a rainbow

Today -- Feb. 4 -- is pretty cold and a storm has kept it moist most of the day. Some of the rain has turned to snow on local mountains, like this one near our house.

But within minutes, the clouds shift again and a glorious rainbow appears. There's gold at our home on 77th Place -- love.

Static cling

The winter air has made everything static-y. Here is Ander hanging upside down with his hair all pointed to the couch. Shane was rubbing his head back and forth to see how much we could get it to stand up.

Apache Trail, Part 1

In an effort to explore this beautiful country, we ventured out on the Apache Trail, the road the men used to haul materials to build the dam for Apache Lake. It is State Route 88, one of the only roads I have been on that, as a state route, is still only a dirt road.

It was beautiful. We traveled through some vast open spaces, like the area where you see our family photo and the one of Laurie. We also traveled through some gorgeous red-colored canyons (a la Sedona) and some narrow by-ways.






We happened upon a canyon which made a nice stop to stretch our legs (we were traveling only about 25-35 mph).

From Apache Lake, -- where we also stopped, but no photos -- we continued on to Roosevelt Dam/Roosevelt Lake where the road was once again paved.














We had lunch in nearby Globe, a historic (and still operating) copper mining town at the roadside El Rey. Then it was homebound on the freeway -- a much faster ride.

Apache Trail Part 2

In the canyon, we were in the shadows and, subsequently, very cold.




















They don't build guardrails like this anymore - how about a few mud bricks to help keep you from going off the edge?
If you look closely, you can see Laurie in her red sweatshirt waving from the right edge of the bridge.