Where's the Baby Quail???

You've heard of "Where's Waldo?"- this one is
"Where's the Babies?"

I was getting Sunday dinner ready, and as I looked out
into the back yard, I saw a rustling in the grass. Pretty
soon a mother quail came out from in back of the
playhouse & as I looked closer, I saw her 2 baby quail!
So...can you find the babies & the mother in this picture?
Hint: the bird in the front is a Jay- NOT a quail!
















Okay, the mother in the next picture is right by the
playhouse. Enlarge to find 2 babies.
I LUV QUAIL- ESPECIALLY BABY QUAIL!

"Speetza"

The ward had an international dinner on Saturday night. Dad
signed up to make "Speetza"- you were supposed to bring the
dish plus a sign to tell what country it was from & also any
special things to help decorate that pertained. I helped dad a
little but he was the "mastermind" of his speetza & put it
together. Speetza is from Spamsterdam- dad made the flag
& I had a Joseph Smith tract & also a hymnbook to put with
the food. Here is our display. I was going to take a picture of
the speetza to show but it was gone quickly- in fact, we did
hear that it was the first dish to run out!!! What a success!!!
















Are you asking "What in the world is Speetza & where
is Spamsterdam?" Well, if you do a close up on the flag,
there is a clue:

Speetza is a cheese pizza with diced spam, olives, &
pineapple on top. We knew it would be a hit because
we started with Papa Murphy's cheese pizza & just
added the toppings. Dad is getting to be known as the
"Spam King" in the ward, & he designed the flag with
that tiny can of spam under the crown. IF someone
was sharp enough to notice & then mention it to dad,
he had a couple of Spam magnets to award them! We
did have one sister who said that she said to herself,
"Spamsterdam. Oh, ok. Waaaait a minute, there's no
such country as Spamsterdam. This is part of a joke!"
And we almost convinced Dorley that he might go to
Spamsterdam on his mission! It was very FUN to do all this!

Night at the Museum

Carole, Adrianne, & I went to Night at the Museum...

no, NOT the movie, but the Phoenix Art Museum
(and this skeleton was not in the art museum). Adrianne
took the light rail over to downtown Phoenix to meet us.
You are greeted by this piece- beautiful when lit up after dark-













We started with a collection of Ernest Blumenschein-
this one is named "Portrait of Albedia" & was painted
around 1918.

On to the upper level to see what is commonly
called "Fireflies"- a permanent exhibit. It is made
of pieces of wood from a church that burnt down
and the pieces are individually hung by wire
from the ceiling.

We saw "Charting the Canyon"- photos of the Grand
Canyon where older black & white pictures from 1872
were inserted into a colored photo from our time of
the exact same landscape- it was very interesting to
compare the time differences.







We saw abstract, modern, & contempory artwork
and even saw a collection of haute couture evening
gowns & an exhibit of miniature rooms. This piece
reminded us of M C Escher. What do you think???
(How did Adrianne do that, anyway? Any guesses???)

Carole got this beautiful sunset when we
were in the building at an overlook area
Phoenix can really be beautiful.

We ended the night with dinner at The
Spaghetti Factory; since they were
celebrating their 40th anniversary, the
entree's were 40% off. Thank you
Carole for planning this PERFECT night!

Riding the Rails!

Dad was in charge of our Friday Night Date and decided
to do something he has wanted to try for a loooooong time-
riding the new light rail. We took it to Tempe, walked a few
blocks to the Chuck Box (known as the best place in the valley
for hamburgers-they are cooked over mesquite wood), and
then took the light rail back to the car. It was fun, something
different to do, & introduced us to a new group of people
(like the scruffy man in shorts with a backpack who was so
stoned, he kept trying to exit the wrong side of the train where
the door wouldn't even open).

Ducks OR Rabbit??

Carole has a fun tradition of giving me a present with a
duck on top instead of a bow. I have quite a fun collection
of small ducks now with one mother duck. There are pirate
ducks, Mexican duck, vampire duck, pumpkin duck, swimming
ducks, & one duck that you throw hard- it loses its shapes &
splats, and then gathers itself back up into a duck again!
Very Cool. On Sunday Samuel thought these were fun to
play with...

UNTIL the dog & the rabbit came by. He
recognized the voices but jumped (alot) when
the dog started barking at him.

It seemed like too much fun not to try
to get Samuel to wear the rabbit mask so...

here is Bugs Crockett!!!

Spring Butterfly & Chihuly Exhibit Slideshow

http://picasaweb.google.com/seminarymom2001/ButterflyExhibitChihulyAtTheDesertBotanicalGarden?authkey=Gv1sRgCNmAg_C10ZfVMw#slideshow/5333929015155873746

Butterflies & Chihuly

We had such a FUN FRIDAY when we took
Miriam, Emma, & Sydney to the Desert Botanical
Garden to see the Spring Butterfly Exhibit & also
the Chihuly Exhibit. They were both WONDERFUL!
We started out with the butterflies- there is a double
door entrance & exit to make sure no rebellious
butterflies escape. The girls were so patient to sit as
still as statues to see if a butterfly would land on them.
They had even spent time picking the right colors to
wear. Miriam did have a butterfly land on her shoe!
Emma was our butterfly expert & had studied up on
interesting facts- did you know how butterflies taste?
Through their feet! The girls also used a tic tac toe game
to help identify the butterflies.










If you look closely above Emma's head,
you can see a beautiful black & yellow
butterfly- there were only 2 in the whole
exhibit!













Later we saw the biggest butterfly of
all; it was named the Miriam Butterfly!













Next we walked (and walked...
and walked) to see the Chihuly
Exhibit throughout the Gardens.
Each of us picked their favorite
piece of glass art- here is Sydney's.













This is the "Blue & Purple Boat"-
Dad's favorite piece. We all thought
it looked like hands grasping out of the
boat. To give an idea of the value of this
one piece, it is insured for half a million
dollars! When the Chihuly Exhibit travels
to the next place, it takes 5 semi-trucks to
transport & each glass piece is dismantled
& wrapped separately.

Here we all are in front of "The Sun"
with our Phoenix sun beating down on
us! It was up to 103 & we only survived
because we each wore the cooler neck bands
Carole made for one reunion! Thank you Carole!!!













After spending about 3 hours at the
Garden, we took the girls to "Mickey D's"
for dinner- the girls didn't think they had
ever been to this "new" place to eat...until
they saw the golden arches. Dad did the
traditional "You get $3 to spend on whatever
you want for dinner" so Sydney picked a
Happy Meal. Dad had found butterfly nets
to give each girl which they used right after
they got home to catch crickets! You would
think that the fun ended there, but dad took
me back to the Chihuly Exhibit so we could see
them lit up. It was close to 9 pm so most people
were leaving & we were able to just walk right
back in & spend another 1/2 hour appreciating
how absolutely beautiful this art is! You saw
"The Sun" in the daylight- here it is lit up at
night. And also the Desert Wildflower Towers
that were right at the entrance! Only one word
to describe all of this- GORGEOUS!!!!

You can look at our trip slide show to see more pictures
of us with the butterflies & lots more pictures of the
Chihuly exhibit.)

What's All The Noise About????

STOMP, of course. Carole, Dad & I went to see this show
which uses matchboxes, wooden poles, brooms, garbage
cans, Zippo lighters, & hubcaps to make "beautiful noise"!
There were 8 people involved in the act, including 2 women.
They really had unbelievable rhythm & it was a very demanding
performance physically- you could see the upper arm muscles
on the women even from where we were sitting! Dad loved it &
Carole thought it was very good. There was one part at the
end where they got the audience to "stomp" with their feet-
it was a crazy feeling as you could feel the balcony shaking!
A fun night out to "hear" & watch something different.

Early Birthdays

Since the girls were here for Mark & Mandy's Open
House, we decided to give them their birthday presents
early. I think Evie liked the paper more than the
present, even though Elmo is pretty fun!













Savannah has wanted a "kitty" from grandma & grandpa for
her birthday. Ruth vetoed letting Savannah have the
momma kitty from our house, so we had to find a kitty that
didn't mess, didn't eat, could travel on a plane, & that daddy
would like. We came up with the "purrfect" solution:

Savannah did find out that this kitty is like other cats though
in one way- she did NOT like the bath Savannah gave her!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRLS!!!

Cousins!

What a FUN time for the cousins!!! There was...

FOOD!

FLOWERS!!

FRIENDS!!!

FANCY FOOTWORK!!!

FOOLIN' AROUND!!!!

That all led up to this FAVORITE FAMILY FOTO:

SLC to Phoenix in the Blink of an Eye!

In the blink of an eye- or a couple hours on the plane-
we were back in Phoenix & busy preparing for the open
house/reception here on Saturday. Thanks to lots of
creative help & hard work (Ruth, Adrianne, Carole) the
back yard changed from a windy bunch of tuille...










to a princess fairyland!


















Mark & Mandy greeted lots of friends & ward members...













until they couldn't stand any longer! (The crown is
Savannah's contribution from the "Doll Room".)

Next it was time to have some fun opening all
the great presents. Is this plate for the special
birthday person or to cheer up a guy after a hard
day of no sales???

After one long Saturday night, it was time
to leave-but there was a surprise waiting
outside for the kids. Someone (I wonder who???)
decorated the car. It was a great job, and in case
you are wondering who helped with this, here is
a clue:

(I did hear that Adrianne just likes to eat
marshmellows, not decorate with them. Do you
believe that???) And this is what pop cans
look like after being dragged 20 miles on
the freeway! Can't you just imagine the noise?!?!?