It seems only a week ago that I wrote a blog about the fall in California, where the tree in our backyard was turning to fall colors.  It is quite a different story today at out condo in Utah.  I got up when it was still dark outside but could see from the street lights that we had a fresh covering of snow.  I knew it would be a fun day in the snow with the grand kids.

How about a snowball fight?

The kids decided to go skiing so they took our Tahoe which has four wheel drive.  We stayed behind so we  could build some snowmen with the grand kids.  Andrew started to roll the bottom of the snowman but the snow was so dry it was hard to get it to stick.

Ann found some better snow near the house which made a great big ball.

Soon the snowman started to take shape.

Andrew started on his own snowman.

The new snowman was fascinating to Emma.

But Pete decided to make a snow angel.

Andrew was finishing up his own snowman.

Pete came over to admire Andrew’s snowman.

New adventure was the big pile of snow at the end of the road.

The sun had come out and it was a beautiful day.

It was so sunny that Pete started to chase his shadow.

A great snow day!

[See more pictures]

While most of the country feels the effects of winter, it is more like fall in California.  Ann took the above picture of a tree in our backyard, which is just now starting to change colors.

We went cycling today for about 60 miles.  It was cold when we started but by the time we reached the top of the climb up to Henry Coe State Park, the temperature was 70 degrees.  It was delightful.

A couple days later I took a similar picture with my Nikon D300, which I kind of over enhanced in Adobe Lightroom.

Someone special in our family reached a new milestone, birthday wise.  I decided to make a birthday card, instead of buying one.  I wanted to get an image from each of the 60 years of Ann’s life but we don’t have any images of many of the early years.  I know that is something our kids may not understand and certainly something our grandchildren would never comprehend.  But I was able to get an image for a few of the early years and then every year since 1966.  I put them all as thumbnails on a single 11×14 page, which I had printed.  Click this image to see it enlarged.

Ann seemed to like the card and gift.  She can take her new camera on our upcoming cruise.

Later we decided to go for a walk.  Since we are no longer on day light savings time, we did not have much sunlight.  What a good chance for Ann to try out her new camera.  Here are a few of the pictures Ann took with her new camera.

Those are pretty good pictures in low light conditions for a point and shoot type camera, don’t you think?  By the time we were about back home it was getting quite dark. I had brought my Nikon D300 big camera along and took the picture below of Ann with very low light conditions, hand held at 1/30 second without a flash, at ISO 2000.   A flash would have made the background look black.  Yea, my Nikon D300 Digital SLR still has a role!

Jeff was on a business trip so he was able to join in.

Sara and her two daughter’s posed for the last shot.

See all the pictures.

Here is a video that I put together for Ann. Click the play button to view and then scroll down to see a few photos taken today.

I had bought some flowers. It was a bunch of roses with four different colors, read, white, yellow and pink. It made me think about our four children. Like the four different colors in the bouquet, our children are all different but together they make up a beautiful family.

Franz then bar-b-qued some thick stakes for dinner.

Meanwhile Ann picked some strawberries from the plant she has been growing.

We then enjoyed a nice Mother’s Day dinner on our deck.

After cleaning up we enjoyed to video on our TV. I had created a DVD version with full resolution.

Natalie was much more reserved.

It was not long before Kyle went into the attack mode.

And Natalie finally got the hang of it.

Kyle put on his goggles to go even faster.

After getting some more sunscreen applied, Natalie joined back in the fun.

Meanwhile back at the Dennis the Menace park.

We all met at the end of the 17 mile drive in Carmel where did a switch.  Ann got her bike and her and Franz biked back to Monterey via the 17 mile drive.

The others enjoyed some time on the Carmel beach.

Most of the family was able to get together for a reunion at to San Diego. We stayed together in a condo, right on the bay. It was a bit cool, but it was sunny and the days were very enjoyable. It was a great chance for some of the kids and grandkids to see each other.

See a slide show here.

See all the photos here.