Another beautiful day in the neighborhood!

After a week of rain, it has turned just gorgeous here. Mark and I were in shorts yesterday as the thermometer hit 70. We are going to the golf range today or we might opt for the horse races. There is a track down the road from us and we have always threatened to go, so today may be the day.

The kids were housebound quite a bit last week so we look forward to getting outdoors this week and making sure Sox gets walked. We all have a much better day when the dog gets a nice long walk! Grandma getting walked helps everyone, too! :-)

A short snippet from the week and a few pics:

Just like Grandpa and Daddy

Drew received a BBQ set for his birthday and he just loves grilling beside his dad at night. He prepared a special meal for grandpa and me yesterday.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Drew!!

Mark and I were on our cruise when Drew turned three so they waited until the next day to celebrate so we could join them and Grandpa Butch for his actual party. I am glad they did. The theme this year was...Thomas the Tank Engine! Surprise! :-)

Rain, rain, rain

It has been a very unusual week here in Phoenix. Lots of rain. What is rain? We hardly ever get that here but we are getting it this week. There were even reports of a tornado a few miles from our home but they are saying it was now just very high winds. I am no meteorologist but I think tornado warnings in AZ are just about unheard of but we heard them last night! Tomorrow it is all supposed to go away so we are looking forward to that! The good news about all this: it should make for a beautiful blooming desert in several weeks.

I am way behind in my posts and getting videos edited, so I stole this from Andy's camera. I thought it was a good one!

Getting back to the routine!

Mark and I had a fantastic time aboard the Oosterdam, one of Holland America's ships. We left from the Port of San Diego on January 9 and returned on the 16th. We were at sea the first two days then we had three consecutive port of call days. Our first stop was Mazatlan where we joined an all day beach excursion to Stone Island. It included transportation (a rather old "tub", but fun)to the island, a very good lunch, all the drinks you wanted and two activities. We only chose the horseback riding activity and enjoyed that. Riding on horseback in the sand by the Pacific was great fun.

Our second port was Puerto Vallarta which was by far my favorite port. It is such a gorgeous seaside resort town. We have been here before so didn't join any excursion and simply hailed a taxi to the center of town and wandered the boardwalk by the sea and generally just relaxed by the sea. Our last port of call was Cabo San Lucas. We decided to take a military type water craft to see the whales up close and personal. We did! It was awesome to see these creatures so close to the boat. This craft went between 60-70 mph so we got around to each whale extremely fast!

The last day was spent at sea returning to San Diego. That was our only "cool" day because we were heading home and it was windy and the temps were lower than Mexico but it was still shorts weather. You always hear about so much food onboard and it sure is the truth. Our evening dinners were delicious and we tried most of it! Lobster, filet, prime rib, basa, rock fish, etc. This was a trip we will always remember and I would bet money that Mark and I have another cruise in our future. It is so much fun!

Some shots of the cruise and short video of our whaling adventure!

Hawkeyes win the Orange Bowl!

We were happy to see our Iowa Hawkeyes win the Orange Bowl last night in Miami. It seemed really cold there considering the locale but the Hawkeyes probably thought it was a heat wave after leaving the frozen tundra called Iowa! It appears to me that the fans and players around the country for the bowl games had the best weather for the two games here in AZ. It has been above normal temps and just beautiful here for many, many days. We are quite pleased about the weather this winter! I feel so sorry for everyone back in the midwest. Really a horrible winter and it has just started! :-(

I have been busy shopping and packing for a cruise. We leave Saturday morning for the Mexican Riviera with ports of call: Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo. We decided to do this in honor of our 35th wedding anniversary which was at the end of December. We are both really excited to go and I know we will love every minute of this trip!

Some pictures of Kayley cheering on the Hawks last night and some other random shots

Happy New Year!

It has been a busy week for all of us since Christmas. Sunday we were guests of Megan, Andy, Drew and Kayley at the Cardinals FB game. That is always great fun and the Cardinals won and looked good doing it. Maybe they will get to the super bowl again this year!!

Megan took the whole week off so Mark and I have been able to spend a lot of bonding time together. Ha! Bonding as in going shopping, Mark's favorite thing to do with me! We are celebrating our 35th anniversary by going on a cruise next week so we naturally needed some items for the trip! We are certainly looking forward to that getaway.

One night we all went to the Phoenix Zoo for "Zoo Lights". It was just beautiful and I could not believe the amount of work that spectacle must have entailed!

Megan's high school friend from Iowa was here with her hubby and daughter for the bowl game. Wednesday they decided to hike Camelback Mt. so Mark and I babysat Drew, Kayley and their daughter Gracie. Gracie and Kayley are very close in age so it was fun watching them interact with one another. They are both cutie pies!

Yesterday Mark and I drove to downtown Tempe for the Insight Bowl festivities and game. We had a great time and saw some friends from Iowa. Steve and Mona Satre, Lance Wilhelm and Mark Klever were all there. I am sure there were others we knew but just didn't see them. ISU beat Minnesota so that was great. Even though I am a Hawkeye fanatic it was good to see an Iowa college beat anything Minnesota!! Sorry MN family! :-)

Today we are going to Greasewood Flat for a pig roast. It is an outdoor, western venue with picnic tables, live music and desert dust! It is also great fun. :-)

I wish you all a great 2010.

Cardinals FB video:


Mark's first visit to Fatso's, our FAVORITE pizza joint!



Babysitting Gracie Britton from Iowa and the grand kids: