Arizona was in the house for Christmas! Or we were in a house in Arizona. Or mugging in front of the House of the Lord. Or something.Neil's got an extremely large (5 siblings, 5 grandkids, all under 5), extremely extended (don't even ask) family in AZ.
Put it this way: They have their annual family "Granny's Christmas Party" in the cultural hall:
Neil's twin, looking un-twinnish before he was shorn for family photos:
One secret to their family's proliferation is that they are descended from pioneers who settled Mesa in 1877. The statue of these men in Pioneer Park:
Neil is related to Robson and Pomeroy.Some of his Robson relatives own Rockin' R Ranch, a Wild West pioneer ranch where they perform a cowboy dinner theatre.
Pioneer Park is conveniently located across from this BEAUTIFUL temple. I love it!!!!
Other Arizona sights:
I think I spotted Daisy Duke and Bigfoot's lovechildren at Nordstrom's in the Chandler mall:
Neil's good friend and his dad own Phoenix Trike Works. Willie and Joe Wilcken can make ANYTHING. They make custom three-wheeled motorcycles all day. Their shop is AMAZING and I only wish I was bad enough to ride a trike.
Can you believe it?!?!
Joe's brother Lane specializes in the study of Filipino and Polynesian tatau and symbology and created the design below for a trike they made for a guy in the Aloha State:
This is a Hawaiian skull detail on a trike they're working on:
Christmas mayhem! "Katie Looks Pregnant!" Watch out when this guy gets his hands on a gossip mag.
Our brothers in law (two brothers married Neil's sisters) own Red Star Plumbing. Their shop was really cool, too. If you live in the valley and need a plumber, check them out.
That's Artie on the right.
All of Neil's siblings and spouses went to the movies on Christmas. There were 10.5 of us total, we took up the whole row:
On Christmas I said I wanted a dog. We awoke the next day (my birthday) to find this sweet little stray on the porch! Hope she's enjoying the pound :(
We went to Casa Grande, AZ, to check out the old homestead. Neil's dad grew up there and two of his uncles still live there.
On the way home, outside our terminal was a vehicle that a very talented graffiti artist tagged with an ironic design:
U.S. Airways ... or Aloha Airlines?
5 comments:
what a delightful post- i felt like i was right there with you! i reallylike arizona and i really havent been there all that much - but all that i know about it (minus the snake population) and have heard about it make me like it a lot- this added to that.
what a cool family you married into.
I think I laughed like 5 times on this post. Who only counts for .5 of a person??? Was it Neil? ha ha jk.
holy crap with the x-mas party! that's huge! we went to the movies on christmas too. love that neil likes hollywood trash. great post.
Steph, if you guys ever leave HI you should think about AZ -- especially Mesa -- it would make it easier for me to visit all my family in one place :)
Aw, Ali! He's small but not that small! The .5 was a bun in the oven. And no, not mine! :)
Thanks, Tara! Hope you enjoyed your Christmas movie outing. Was it Belle's first movie theatre experience?
awesome! glad you could meet the fam. probably intimidating, but awesome none the less ;)
Post a Comment