The 5th day was H.o.p.’s early birthday party

The 5th day was H.o.p.’s early 9th birthday party, thrown for him by his grandparents.

He loved it. We had a lazy, easy time batting balloons around. He carried one last balloon with him all the way to Yellow Horse, on our way home, when the wind grabbed it out of the car and whisked it away. He was heartbroken by that.

We found a Best Buys and my new Canon declared by them to be a dud, rather than simply replacing I upgraded to the Canon XTi 400D, which is what I’d kind of wanted in the first place but had been out of stock at the store when I’d initially purchased the camera.

The drive out had been plagued by blue skies and no clouds. What I’d been most concerned about was having some clouds in Phoenix and at the Grand Canyon and in Sedona, so all the way out on the trip I’d been wishing for clouds in Phoenix. “Phoenix, please have clouds, please have clouds. Phoenix please have clouds, please have clouds.” I was a lucky person as they came sailing in that Wednesday. I grabbed a few mintues for myself and went out and took pictures of palm trees and cactus, some of my favorite subjects. There’s lots of palm trees and cactus in Phoenix, Arizona.

Palm Trees and Cactus – Pool

Palm trees and Cactus – Tarantula spines
If anyone has any idea what kind of plant this in the foreground, I’d appreciate knowing.

Palm Trees and Cactus – Orange Tree