Arizona Creatures

Living in Arizona has given me the chance to have new experiences. One of them I'm not particularly fond of are some of the "creatures' living in my backyard. While Rabi, the baby rabbit Amanda kept as a pet for several weeks was darling, I'm not so sure about the Rattle Snakes. We found three in our yard in one week. We also see lizards on a daily basis, but found this one with a blue stomach especially interesting. One impressive side note is that every time we find one of these "things" as I call them, Dave actually knows their actual name and something about them. He's a smartie and the kids have all learned to be interested in them as well. In particular, Amanda has a special bond with all animals, especially her horses.

Mederios Family Visit

We are always wanting our friends and family to come visit and we had our fair share in April. After my mom and dad left, Julie and Chad and their kids came down for their spring break. We had a great time with them here and enjoyed taking them to our favorite restaurants and even trying a few new places.

Ryan and I both have some of our favorite places that we like to take company to. Tia Rosa's is a great Mexican place (love the fish tacos) in Mesa and LGO (Le Grande Orange) is the first place Ryan ever took me when I came down to meet Dave for the first time. LGO is like a bakery, gift store, deli, yuppie place all rolled into one. They have to die for red velvet cake (6 layers alternating with cream cheese frosting) and a gelato place next door. I introduced Julie to Sprinkles cupcakes...Red Velvet rocks. Can you see a trend with the red velvet and eating? :) We also went to Canal in Old Town Scottsdale.

Since it was the kid's spring break we did enjoy a few other activities other than eating. The kids loved our pool and we used our fire pit for possibly the third time and roasted marshmallows. Sarah seemed to be really excited about those. I also went to our Children's Museum with everyone. That was quite interesting, although it made me realize how much I've forgotten. Sarah knowing more about a black hole than me means that either she's really smart, just had a lesson on that in school or I am not as a smart as a 5th (or even 2nd) grader. I was pleasantly surprised and had a good time.

Green Day

Fountain Hills is famous for for having the worlds tallest man made Fountain. It is made with airplane motors that sphew the water up. It shoots up over 330 feet every hour. Every St Patty's day, they dye the water so that the fountain is green. I've heard about it from Dave, but hadn't actually seen it yet, so we went down to see it with our own eyes. Yes, it really is green, although appears greener from a distance. I'm not sure why this is the one holiday each year they change the color since we aren't an Irish town, but it's fun nonetheless.

This Blogger is Back!

After taking a hiatus and having no good excuse for it, I'm getting back into the blogging world. If anyone is still out there, hopefully I'll be better for the next half of the year. The year started out uneventful (don't they all after the holidays?) :), but as expected, has gotten busier and busier. Stay tune for my posts.

Birthday Wishes

I'm sending out a shout out to Chase and Dave who just (sorta) celebrated birthday's! Parties aren't what they used to be, but we had a good time. We celebrated Chase's b-day early during our Super Bowl party and than Dave took him and Amanda to dinner at Water's Edge, while I was in Hawaii. They had a good time and Chase is now officially an adult (18).

Dave's birthday was on April Fool's Day. I met him at his office with cupcakes (no, I didn't make them) for his co-workers and took him to lunch. Unlike me, Dave does not enjoy going out to dinner, so since it was his birthday, I decided to do what he wants and that was to make him dinner. I guess I learn new things about him all the time because when I asked him to cook his favorite thing, he wanted chicken tacos. Now, I know his fav food is Mexican, but we have been married over 1 1/2 yrs and I have NEVER made chicken tacos. Dave, you have to let me know these things!!! :) Anyways, I slaved over the stove (not doing that again for a while) and made tacos, spanish rice, cornbread, dips and his favorite white w/ sprinkles birthday cake. We had Chase and Amanda and our good friends Joe and Kristen over. My parents came into town the next day, along w/ Judy and Christen and Ryan and Jodie and we all went to Water's Edge again.

Christmas Update

Alright, I know I'm a blog slacker, but I really do have good intentions. I was lucky enough to see a lot of friends and family over the holidays, which must be my excuse on why I'm so behind on blogging about it. :)

Christmas 08 was fun, cold, snowy and also done in shifts. This year each of our had slightly different agendas and in order to make everyone happy we "celebrated" with each child on it's own day.

As most of you know, Amanda LOVES horses. She has an Aunt and Uncle in VA that have horses, so she flies out there when she can to ride horses with her cousins, chase foxes and gets extremely spoiled (lucky girl!!) :). We celebrated with her about a week before Christmas and before I flew to UT.

Chase loves the snow, climbing and being with his best bud, his dad, Dave. They drove up (yes, they were kind enough to "demand" that I fly to Utah while they drove) and spent a couple days climbing on the way up. They had higher ambitions to do more hiking while in Utah, but because of all the snow, they didn't get more than a couple hikes and a ski trip in. Dave, Chase and I spent Christmas Eve with both families, Christmas morning with our family and than saw Dave's mom on Christmas as well.

Of course, we couldn't forget about Moni!!! Monica didn't get home from U Mass until Sunday (Dec 21st) due to a snow day on her last day of finals. What made her most happy was to be home in her own bed and be in the warm weather, so she passed on the trip to Utah. We drove back (yeah, I sucked it up) from Utah and she came over and we got to celebrate one more "gift giving" night.

It was fun to extend the holidays as long as we could. Holidays are such a great time to be near family and friends. Even though sometimes it's hectic and not a vacation, I wouldn't change the hustle and bustle for anything! All the craziness of our families, all the snow storms, all the thoughtful gestures is what makes Christmas memories.

Girlfriends Rule!!!

Can I just say I have great friends!!! I really enjoy going back to Utah and getting together with all my friends.
This year was no different. While in Utah, I had a chance to have a couple girls holiday parties with the help of some friends hosting their homes. I've been having a girls Christmas party for several years and we always have a good time with lots of food, fun gifts and alot of laughing. This year we had to brave a major snow storm, but once we got to Kristen's, her house was cozy and we partied into the wee hours. We had a group of seven friends and than a couple days later, another group of us got together at Katie's for more fun. We do a gift exchange...this year was "Some of my favorite things" and there were some great gifts- a coat, purses, gloves, make up, chic flicks, etc. I just want to send a shout out to all my girls for the good memories.