The blur could be condensation...I went out yesterday to take some pictures and, coming from the air conditioning, the viewfinder and lens fogged up immediately. Assuming your pictures are in reverse order (the first ones don't look foggy) that could be it...although it's a lot more humid here in Virginia than in Arizona. By the way, in the first one, nice job getting the cherry picker to hold the tree so you'd have a nice background.
