Sunny in the Southwest....

Now is the time when I feel that we live on another planet from some of our family. Rebecca said today they have a "winter storm warning". The snow is falling and they expect 6+ inches by tomorrow. Here in sunny Arizona we reached 93 degrees yesterday and our air conditioner finally kicked in. We couldn't stand the 80 degree temperature in the house on Easter Sunday!!!
We are anticipating a good citrus year. Our grapefruit, lemon, and orange trees are in full bloom and smell wonderful. My garden is looking good. The beans, cantelopes, cucumbers, and carrots are all sprouted. Now, if only I can get some produce before the sun burns them up.
I never realized how much we have adapted to the southwest climate and culture until Rick, Wendy, Kate, and Will Berezay (our family from Astoria, OR) visited with us last week. We introduced them to the desert. I made breakfast burritos with napolita's (tender cactus shoots) and mango salsa. They were surprized how good prickly pear cactus jelly tasted! We bought a few snacks at a Mexican market on our way to have a picnic on the Mesa Temple grounds prior to attending the Easter Pagent. Outside the market I bought a dozen hot fresh homemade tamales (chicken and beef) from a nice mexican woman. We added them to our stash and had a great feast. The pagent was fabulous. It is the largest outdoor pagent of its type in the US. There were over 450 actors clothed in terrific period costumes. It is the story of the life of Jesus Christ. The pagent begins at 8pm and lasts about an hour. In the closing scene, with full angelic chorus Christ ascends high above the backdrop. It is awesome. There is such a beautiful spirit present, it gives you chills. The children were able to meet some of the cast before the pagent and get photos with them. Not many can say they shook hands with Isaiah.
We took them to the AZ Rock and Mineral Museum where they could see a meteroite, copper and all kinds of amazing rocks and minerals from Arizona. Will purchased a very large "Pink Panther" diamond, that he treasures and cares for. (They saw the Pink Panther movie at Jim's just before coming to our house.)
We hiked Lookout Mountain for a panoramic view of the Phoenix valley. I taught them all about the saguaro cactus and our in house biologist, Scott, filled them in on the fauna and flora abundant in the desert.
We hiked the White Tank Mtns. and viewed Hohokam Indian petroglyphs along the trail. Petroglyphs are Indian drawings on rocks that sometimes marked good hunting, or watering areas.
I introduced Kate (10 yrs. old) and Will (7 yrs. old) to the sport of "Letterboxing." It has a rubber stamping connection, of course. First, you google Letterboxing, choose your state, click on a area, and read about any letterboxes (treasures) hidden in the vincinity. I found a letterbox hid at Lake Pleasant. Lake Pleasant is about 20 min. from our house so we printed out the treasure map and headed north. We found the box hid beneath a pile of rocks near the base of a palo verde tree, just to the east of the remains of a two-room Hohokam Indian home on the lake shore. Inside the box is a small notebook, pencil, ink pad, and a neat hand-carved stamp of a stick person holding an arrow. You stamp the small notebook with a stamp of your own, (mine was a jelly bean, the kids had a sun and star stamp) write your name and the date you found the box. Then in your own little letterboxing diary you stamp the letterbox stamp and tell where and when you found it. Lastly, being very careful you reassemble the letterbox and rehide it for the next person to find. We discovered that there are 9 letterboxes hid in the Astoria area so the kids are excited to hone their skills when they get back.
I sure have rambled on here but before I sign off I have to tell you about an awesome movie we rented last night. We highly recommend "The Final Inquiry." It is a movie set three years after Christ's death. The movie opens 33AD with earthquakes, darkness, and natural disasters that occured at the time of the crucifixion. Three years later the emperor of Rome summons a active Roman war general from Germania to go to Jerusalem and inquire about Jesus of Nazereth and the rumor that he was ressurected. The emperor had been gathering evidence that supports the idea that there is a connection between this Jewish rabbi's death and the natural disasters that occured. The movie is created by FOX/FAITH CO. It is a fictious story but based on history and accurate culture, so it gives you a feeling of what life may have been like in the first few years after Christ's death.

Carl's AZ Football team and his new home

Iditarod

The Last Great Race

I love watching and following the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. It happens every year. The race begins on March 1st and usually the first finishers arrive in Nome around the 11th.-16th. The last musher in receives the Red Lantern award.
It started three-quarters of a century ago with a serum run from Anchorage to the coastal community of Nome in Northwest Alaska.
There were no roads then between the two communities more than 1,000 miles apart, and there are none today. A train took the serum as far as Nenana. It was carried for the last 674 miles by dogsled. A relay of 20 mushers responded to the medical emergency -- a diphtheria epidemic.
Today the race is over 1150 miles of the roughest, most beautiful terrain Mother Nature has to offer. She throws jagged mountain ranges, frozen river, dense forest, desolate tundra and miles of windswept coast at the mushers and their dog teams. Add to that temperatures far below zero, winds that can cause a complete loss of visibility, the hazards of overflow, long hours of darkness and treacherous climbs and side hills, and you have the Iditarod. A race extraordinaire, a race only possible in Alaska.

In Like a Lion....

Well, this week we experienced the Arizona version of season change. The beginning of the week was nice, alittle cool in the morning and sunny about in the 70's during the day. Then BANG!!!Friday it is not so cool in the morning and gets up to 86 degrees. We go from nice to HOT in one day. No gradual seasonal changes here. I worked in my flower beds, fertilized the citrus trees, mowed the lawn and had to turn on the sprinkling system again. Life is good.