The beach or this........

Soaking up some sunshine

There's probably not words to describe this picture.  Gram had a good morning.  The afternoon she goes down hill but rally's in the morning after her Montana breakfast of 2 eggs, 4 links, hash-browns and toast.  A little hot tea to wash it down.  She is set for the day.

Saturday visitors

On Saturday we had visitors come to visit Gram .  Kristi is my oldest brothers 2nd daughter.  Her little family came also and had lunch with me.  

This is my brother and his wife Jennifer.  He cleans up pretty good. He isn't a visitor since this is his house that I'm at.  I was just practicing with my new flash.  I need one of the screen things to help block the shadows. 

Morning widlife.....

These big boys were having a little corn with their morning breakfast.  This picture was taken less than a 1/4 mile away.  There were two more that I couldn't get in the picture.  They were moving fast they could see my flash go off.  It was about 7am and still pretty dark out side.  
This bald eagle is eating on some kind of corn field road kill.  

Wood Chopping Party at Gram's House

Last Wednesday my Mom's annual wood splitting party was held at the house.  Those who had YM,YW,(teenagers) OM (old men),MW(hard working mature women) and me of course who was the photographer.  The last I had heard of wood splitting was an ax and a stump where the one with much power and force would throw the ax down on the wood piece that was end up and it would split into two pieces.  Little did I know that had been replaced with wood splitter machine.  Sorry ladies no buff men flexing their muscles.  (the one looking up in the this picture is my brother Craig) The others hadn't dared to they might loose a finger or a hand.
When I had got to my mom's place the leader of the pack asked if I was up to the task of this party and I said, sure why not and he said, "well it requires chili and cinnaman rolls and hot chocolate, hot wassal and what ever else for about 20". (good thing I over cooked, 35 showed up) I knew better. HHHAA
The tall OM is the leader of the pack and the goofy looking one is his right hand man.
This is the king of OM, my grumpy step father.
Queen of the Day, my mom. She was tired after the party was over and I told her she had done really well and she said,"yes I've been cooking all day "!!!!! I'm sure you were Gram.

The face.....

This is one of the 5 princess dresses i had made in AD.  Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderelli, Snow White and of course your favorite Bride.  
Not sure who this is but I love the face.
Same with this picture but I love the face.
Isabelle on the left and Aubrey on the right.
Merry Christmas Everyone

The troops at the concert

The newlyweds...............
The Stone Brethren.................
Uncle Paul
Uncle Bobbie 
Pappa made it to the concert by about 1 hour.  He missed his flight from Atlanta and then got routed through some small Colorado town that didn't have a hanger and he had to walk about mile he said with no coat up hill in blinding snow.  So he is going on about 48 hours of travel and we take him to the freezing weather concert but he got his Christmas present(his coat) early from the kids when he got picked up at the airport.   

Concert at the Galivan Center

This is Leah, Paul's wife.  She teaches at the Dean Kaelin Vocal Studio in Salt Lake City.  She has a Christmas Concert every year at the ice rink at the Galivan Center.  So since she has been helping with the sweet vocal skills of  Aubrey and Isabelle we all went to hear them sing in their debut concert.  Being three and very social the two got right up there and sang.   
These two are the parents of my Aubrey and Isabelle.........
They were killing time on the snow pile until it was their turn to get up and sing.
They are up and waiting for the music to start...............
This is them singing, if you go to Annaliese's blog she has a video of it on there.  They did so good and were so proud of them selves.  The most important thing they said was,"they didn't touch the microphone Auntie Leah".  We all went for hot chocolate after and tried to warm up .  

Driving down the street and look what I found!

After spinning one day I was driving home with my friend Terri and we saw these two trainers out with their falcons.  We had to run home and get the camera and hurry back.  They waited for us and we proceed to take some pictures.  I look really lovely in my after spinning clothes and hair. Yikes!!!!!! I can't believe I'm posting this picture.
This trainer was pretty good with the camera and he did great at helping me get the photos I was after.  
The falcon was 3 years old and was out on the street sunning him self.  The were tied on by the feet so they couldn't fly away and get hit by a car.
This doesn't happen in down town AD very often.  The falcons are usually seen out in the desert with their trainers and owners.  

My gardner man Brisher

AKA - Silver Back.  My friend Mohamed told me one day that the gardner in the area where I lived didn't like the way I took care of my garden and the plants.  He said everything would die if I didn't stop watering them so much.  So I told him to come and take care of them then. He smiled and said he would be back tomorrow.  He came with his dust (sand) and his tools to get to work the next morning.  He proceed to repot everything and mix all the dust together along with my dirt.  He mixed and talked to the  and and got everything the way he wanted it and smiled at me.  He doesn't speak any english at all.  I realized the chocolate is an international word and everyone knows what that is.  He smiled when I gave him chocolate each day that he came and he seemed to be pleased with him self and his work.  After about the 4th day he didn't want any more chocolate and pointed to his mouth .  I figured his rotten teeth had had enough.  So he accepted a soda?????  On Thanksgiving Day he came and cleaned and hung up lights in the garden for the party that we were having that night with the people from the office.  He could see that it was going to be a big party with lots of guests.  He left for about 15 minutes and came back carrying a hand full of bright pink petunias that were in bloom with the dust in his hands and carried it through the house to the garden to get a pot and potted me a hand full of flowers for the front door.  It was such a nice gesture for him to do that.  I was touched by his kindness.  The little bit of money that I pay him helps support his family in his country.

Cemeteries Arab Style

One of the many things that I have learned is that different countries do things differently and that is good.  I guess if we did everything the same life would be pretty boring.  My friend who went to SA took this picture of an old cemetery that is still in use today.  He said the oldest  grave there is dated 1429.