Sunday, January 31, 2010

Happy Birthday Lindsey!

Today Lindsey turned 14 and Steven shot some portraits for her.

Snow Day!



With all of our east coast friends being buried in snow, we decided not to be left out. The high country had been hit with a lot of snow over the last two weeks so we headed out on US 60 to see what we could find.

Before we got to Globe, we found a great spot with a waterfall on the side of the road. While there was not any snow here, we did find some rock climbers on the rock face.

Eventually we hit a high enough elevation where there was a lot of snow and we pulled off into one of the Tonto National Forest campgrounds to have a little fun. Of course a snowball fight immediately took place, but we explored the area some to find a beautiful wilderness setting for out snow fun. The girls made snow angels and snowmen, but made sure the snowmen met an early end.

On the way out, we taught the girls a valuable lesson about how to get a car unstuck from the snow and up an icy hill. Steven knew that on the way in that it might be iffy on getting out, but felt that it could be done. There were tire tracks in the snow most of the way to the pavement, but the car still got stuck halfway up. So with Dawn behind the wheel and Steven with the girls teaching them how to dig out the snow from the tires and how to "rock" the car up hill we were able to get up the drive onto the main road with no issues.

We had a nice lunch by a full Salt River at the Salt River Canyon and then continued on to Show Low. Originally we had planned to play in the snow between Show Low and Payson, but they had received another four to eight inches of snow in the middle of the week and many of the side roads that we would have pulled off on had a two to three foot snow bank blocking them.

So how do you unwind after such a fun day in the wintery snow? By opening the windows of the house up the next day to let in the warm air of course.

Once again, Steven was fortunate enough to borrow a real camera (Nikon D-80) so he could take these great pictures.

Between Superior and Globe:


Fun in the snow at Tonto Rim National Forest (US 60 past Globe):



Salt River Canyon:

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Surviving the storm of the century



Right now we are in the middle of the "wet" season where we get about an inch of rain a month. Often a huge winter storm will hit the state dropping a lot of snow at places with an elevation of 5000 feet or more, while we see a quarter inch of rain. Not this past week.

Two storms hit the area with the first one starting to move in on Sunday and lasting til Tuesday. This storm dropped a lot of rain on the area where we saw over an inch of rain on Tuesday night alone. Then the second storm hit Thursday morning and brought with it sustained winds in our neighbor of over 55MPH, the lowest atmospheric pressure ever recorded in Phoenix, and a lot more rain. Things finally cleared out on Saturday. When it was all said and done, we had almost 2.5 inches of rain in our neighborhood.

Some of the media folks were calling this the storm of the century due to the massive flooding that occurred, especially to the north and west when they had over seven inches of rain in one day. We survived with only minor damage to a few roofing shingles that Steven fixed on Saturday.

Here are some pictures that Steven took during the storm this week. Steven was fortunate enough to borrow a real camera for a while so he could take better pictures.



Most neighborhoods have a park that is designed to become a storm water retention basin during heavy rain:


We can see snow on the mountains in the distance:


Bonus picture! A couple of weeks ago, the girls took a polar bear plunge in the pool: