Our grandson, Scott, 16 yrs, shown here with his mom & dad after last night's 5A football play-off game. They are all smiles because Scott's team shut out Desert Vista, the #4 ranked team in the state, scoring 16-0!

Great win! Now they must get ready to play Brophy next Friday.

During the game, Scott's dad, Russell LeSueur, kept checking in with Gary Funk and others who were at other football play-off games. We were all excited when he learned that another grandson, Dallin Funk, had entered the game for Mountain View v Tucson High, and intercepted a pass, returning it for some 30 yards, setting up another Mt View score! Mountain View went on to win 49-6. Could it be that Dallin and Scott will be facing off against each other a couple of weeks from now!

Nov 11, 2008, Nature walk at Riparian preserve, Gilbert

Here is one flight of 6 Canadian geese that swept out of the south, over the Riparian Park, headed north and flying low, right over me. I managed to snap this photo.

They are fast and not easy to photograph, at least not with my simple little point and shoot camera, so I was very pleased to get this picture of these birds I so much enjoy seeing!

This photo confirms what I discovered a few days ago, to my great surprise and enjoyment; Canadian geese can be found in Arizona!

We told our Colorado friends, when we served in the Denver area on our Mission, that we had never seen Canadian geese in the wild in Arizona. Wrong!!

Before my walk was completed I observed 5-6 different flights of geese come over this park area, always flying south to north. I could not tell where they were going. They are wonderful flyers!

On this Veterans' Day, I took the opportunity to walk over to the nearby Riparian Park, a wetlands and desert habitat preserve, right in the midst of this City of Gilbert. I hoped to observe some water fowl and I wasn't disappointed.

You have to look closely, but near the center of this photo is a Blue Heron and a White Egret. I attempted to get a closer picture, but they moved off further down the water course where the abundant plant life along the shore allowed for no easy access.

Walking paths go all about this wetlands area. It is a beautiful place. It is located on the south side of Guadalupe Road, between Greenfield and Higley Roads. It is just to the east of the Gilbert City Library and just west of the Gilbert Water Treatment Plant and one of Gilbert's newer fire stations.

Nov 8, 2008, The play-off game Show Low V Fountain Hills

To our surprise, what did we also find at the football game Saturday night? But, our two granddaughters, Catelyn and Elsie, on the field, helping the team as "Water Girls." Surely the prettiest water girls in Arizona!

The Show Low Cougar football team won the State Class 3A championship last year. It was Randy's first year as football coach for Show Low High. It was a great season.

This year they have a much younger team. Randy and Rebecca's son Rathen is only a sophmore but has had to step up as the team's quarterback. He has done well. We are so proud of him and of what they accomplished this year in a very tough mountain league. They made the play-offs and stunned Fountain Hills in the First Quarter of this play-off game, going up quickly 10-0. But, give Fountain Hills credit, they finally woke up to the fact they had a serious fight on their hands and they came back and managed a very tough fought, hard hitting win.

Show Low should be very good the next couple of years with the boys they have now and the ones coming up from JV and Freshman teams. WE ARE PROUD OF YOU, RANDY!. CONGRATULATIONS ON ANOTHER GREAT SEASON!!

This shot was taken just as the game ended. Coach Ricedorff is the one with his arm around one of his players (#21). We know Randy to not only be an especially fine football coach but a wonderful role model and mentor for young people. He and Rebecca are making a positive impact on their community in the White Mountains.

Saturday evening was the beginning of the play-offs for Class 3 A high school football. Our daughter Rebecca's husband Randy Ricedorff, is the coach of the Show Low High School team. They came down to play Fountain Hills in the first round of the play-offs. It was a toughly fought game on both sides and it looked like Show Low, with our grandson Rathen at quarterback, just might pull off an upset, but the score ended 20-17 in favor of Fountain Hills.

Members of the family, old and young, from the Valley joined with a great group of loyal fans from Show Low to cheer for Randy and the team.

Here is our dear little granddaughter, Erica, in the arms of her father, Rich Dalton (married to our Elizabeth). She and her mom and dad and her older brother and sister invited us for pizza at their home in east Mesa and then we piled in with them and all of us came to the game. It was great to be with them and our other Arizona and Show Low families, showing our support!