Getting closer!

Paid another visit to the Gilbert Temple site today after church meetings.  As we were nearing the site and the construction cranes and the steeple came in to view from a distance, I almost thought I saw the traditional Angel Moroni statue already placed on the top. I'm glad I was mistaken.  That last bit already has the granite attached- probably before it was hoisted up there- and the granite on the rest of the steeple will be installed shortly I'm sure.

                   

There is a missionary couple assigned to the site with a quasi visitor center and a viewing deck but they are there only on 2nd and 4th Sundays for a couple of hours in addition to a regular weekday schedule.  I spoke to Elder Miller and he said that the statue will be placed some time in March.  We are not in the Gilbert Temple district and I doubt that the date will be announced publicly in any case but I'd sure like to be there on the day they place it.  He also said that the granite would have been further along by now.  I'll have to visit again during visiting hours and get an update. 

He once was lost, but now is...

FOUND!  We found him!  He was at the Arizona Sea Life Aquarium all along.  (Nemo)  He was a lot smaller in person or... err.. in fishness than I thought he would be.  Just as colorful though. 

I don't have the best of cameras so this looks almost like a painting.  That's actually a giant school of live fish swimming in formation behind Lesa. 

Here's Shaw sticking his head up in a viewing bubble underneath one of the tanks. 

Wouldn't want to tangle with this guy in a dark alley...

There is a glass tunnel through the biggest tank.  I almost screamed like a girl with several of these guys swimming around, but I contained myself. 

Pizza at Spinatos after... Shaw laughing at a funny joke. 

New glasses, new haircut, new man!

This posting is only partly about a great haircut... look at what's on Shaw's face in the mirror! 

The nurse at Shaw's school sent a note home last month that she detected something seriously wrong with Shaw's vision in his left eye.  We went to a optometrist and got it dialed in.  Shaw picked out the coolest frames in the history of glasses. 

What better to go with a cool new pair of glasses than a cool haircut.  For the longest time, Shaw has always just had a buzz cut on the back porch with dad's electric clippers a couple of times a year.  He's kinda out grown that and needed a professional hair cut for this occasion. 

After the haircut, we were back to the optometrist for another test.  They did a pupil dilation to really study his retina and optic nerve and everything.  It all looks healthy and the optometrist thinks there will be a great degree of natural correction now that his left eye has a clear image for his brain to process. 

Too cool for cats...

We love the desert

It's nice to be out hiking in February in shorts and t-shirts.  The weather right now is a gift from God called "October through May" and we accept it graciously.  Shaw is standing in front of an Ocotillo bush.  Next month they will blossom for about 3 weeks and every branch will be covered from top to bottom in bright red flowers. 

 

Lots of greenery for a desert.   There's a Mesquite tree on the left, a Palo Verde straight ahead and a Saguaro Cactus at about 11 o'clock. 

This is the fountain at Fountain Hills in the distance.  It's zoomed in from about 20 miles away.  We've visited up close a few times as well.  It's as tall as a 50 story building. 

Any ideas what this thing is?  It's fenced off about 50 yards on all sides... not high security chain link with razor wire or anything, just standard 3-strand barbed wire and posts.  I walked up to it and noted that it is riddled with bullet holes.  Someone had scratched in the paint, "What is this?"  another scratched below, "ballistics tester"  I thought it might have been a man made nest for an endangered bird or something. 

It's hard to make out in this pic, but Four Peaks is in the distance with a little bit of snow on it. 

Two lovers watching the sunset- King and Queen of all they survey.

Here's Clan Whipple- the family for whom the blog is named.