Birthday Cake #1

Since Dale and Wanda weren't going to be with us for Jonathan's birthday, they got him a cake while we were there. The first of three birthday cakes he got to enjoy for his birthday week. :-)

Snow Bush

My father-in-law told me he thought I'd enjoy photographing the way the Christmas lights shone through the bushes. I agreed, but didn't shoot them right away. I helped David get the boys out of the bath and ready for bed. By the time I got out there 20 minutes later, the lights had really melted the snow quite a bit. Another lesson learned.

But still pretty.
I'm particularly fond of this close-up.

West Texas Snow

When I see sites like these, I know we're getting close to "home." Not our current home of course, but the home I had for 20+ years and where we still have lots of family.

Love these plateaus and oil wells. Says West Texas to me!
And then we know we're close to Lubbock when we see this...not a tree in sight. :-) But it WAS starting to thaw...a little.

SnOw Happy!

Jonathan LOVED the snow. Can you tell? ;-)

Snow Angel

Even before he went in to see what Santa had brought, Thomas HAD to make a snow angel in Granny and Grandpa's front yard.

Santa Loot

After another four hours in the car, we made it to Lubbock to see what Santa had brought. We left a note for him in Abilene asking him to take our stuff onto Granny's because there wasn't much room at D'Ann's folks' house. :-)

Christmas Morning

The boys wanted to play in the snow for a couple minutes before getting in the car for the rest of our trip to Lubbock. I sure would have loved to have had the time to take some pics around their land. Pretty scenery in the snow!

Blizzard Too!

And then it stopped. Notice how the eastbound road is completely clear? It was that way the entire time we sat on 20 in the blowing snow and we never knew why. We were about to find out.

See the cars on the access road on the right? We were jealous of those cars when the snow was blowing because they were able to get off and seemed to be moving. Then the snow stopped, and we were able to see that they had a very tough challenge ahead of them. They had to get up that hill, and we didn't! Ha ha! It was their turn to sit still, while we FINALLY started moving...slowly.

As we crept along, we finally found the eastbound traffic. And they weren't moving. At all. They didn't move until the next day. This line of cars went on for at least 4 miles. Probably more.

They'd been sitting still for so long that there were big snow drifts between the cars.

And between the trucks. It was wild! It took us about 8 hours to make the 2.5 to 3 hour trip to Abilene. By that point it was dark so we took our friend, D'Ann, up on her offer and stayed with her family in Abilene on Christmas Eve. Didn't want to face the other half of our trip in the dark. The icy roads were bad enough in the daytime.

Blizzard!

Headed to Lubbock on Christmas Eve and ended up in the "Blizzard of the Century" as we heard it described on the radio. Of course, the century is very young. :-) Still, the Weather Service had never issued a blizzard warning in this particular area of Texas before so it was quite a storm. Driving westward, the roads were clear for the first hour and a half, then it started snowing.

And snowing.
And blowing and snowing. Traffic came to a complete standstill. And stayed that way for the next four hours. We traveled a total of 0.3 miles in four hours. :-)

Basketball

Today we drove to Mesquite to watch some high school girl's basketball. It was fun trying to get some pics. I'm renting a really nice lens soon and look forward to seeing the differences. These were all taken with my 50mm 1.8 lens.

Polar Express Day

The last day before Winter Break, Thomas' school had Polar Express day for first graders. He had a blast wearing his pajamas to school.

Save!

A longer shot on goal, which he saved!

Little Goalie

Thomas' friend, James, recently had his first chance to play goalie. We were able to go see him play. They lost the game but he sure was agile!

Opponent setting up his shot
Just wide...whew!

Santa Hug

Jonathan was a little leary of Santa at the beginning, but by the end of our visit, they were buddies. And did I tell you what he asked for? Comepletely on his own? A bicycle!

And Then I Gonna Be Six!

Santa asked Jonathan to remind him how old he was. Jonathan went through his usual litany. "I 2 right now, then I gonna be 3, then I gonna be 4, then I gonna be 5, then I gonna be 6 like Thomas!"

The Boys and Santa

Visiting our favorite Santa. He's the best. When he asked Thomas if he had any questions, Thomas said, "Somebody at school said you're fake, but I know you're real!" Santa told Thomas his beard was sore from kids pulling on it but to give his eyebrow a hard tug to check and see if he was real. Thomas gently tugged. Santa said, "No, pull it really hard!" So he did. Then Santa told him to tell any doubting friends that he'd checked him out and knew the truth. :-)

Sleigh Buddies

Again, my 50mm lens had limitations. For this shot, I'm standing 15 feet away and still couldn't get the entire scene in the shot. Oh well. It's still cute. Good-bye Gaylord Texan. See you next year!

Grandma and Thomas

One last shot in front of an icy wreath of my mom and Thomas.

Icy Who

And with my 1.8 aperture, I was able to get shots like this.

The Whos

I was limited in the type of shots I could take because I was using my 50mm 1.8 lens. It did better in low light than my every day lens but I missed a lot of wide angle shots. Still like the colors in this pic. Isn't it amazing all the detail in various colors they created out of ice?

Icy Tunnel for Four

The boys and their grandparents who nicely braved the cold with us.

Who Beds

And the icy Whos were all tucked safely "warm" in their icy beds. :-)

Jonathan Ice Slide

Thomas Ice Slide

Candy Cane Arch

The boys had a blast in this room. This was the entrance to the ice slides. Each boy went down at least 8 times.

Thomas and the Grinch

Grinch Boys

Yeah! We're in the 9 degree cold! This was my third time to visit ICE! and the first time my feet weren't totally freezing even while wearing 2 pairs of socks and thick shoes. This year, I was wearing my Uggs barefoot and toasty warm! Everything you see in the next series of pictures is completely made of ice. Everything. Keep that in mind.

Grinch ICE! Sign

Everyone's now wearing their giant blue parkas over regular coats, hats, and gloves. And we're heading in!

Gingerbread Dreaming

On the way, Jonathan had to stop and admire the gingerbread houses.

One More ICE! Sign

We're still heading in the right direction! :-)

Boys ICE! Sign

To get to the ICE! exhibit, you have to walk a LONG way. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty walk, but still very long. These signs periodically appear to reassure you that you are heading in the right direction. :-)

Gaylord Texan

Some of the pretty decorations at the Gaylord Texan this year. Took this one on the way into the ICE! exhibit.

Lonely Fishermen

It was a dreary day out there but these two fishermen weren't deterred. I couldn't decide what looked best so I tried a few different things for fun.

Color
Black and White

Or Blue Filtered?