A day in the beautiful desert

Mark and I spent the day at the Desert Botanical Gardens and really enjoyed its spectacular beauty!  I don't know why we had never gone before but glad we finally did.  Pics below of some of the sights!


The weather has still been a bit on the cold side but today was close to 70 and perfect for walking around the desert.  Would not have wanted it warmer.  This week-end we will see 80 and there will probably be no turning back after that! 

Spring training has begun and we plan to go to a game this Friday.  We both love the sunshine, hot dogs and beer.  Oh, and Mark enjoys the game, too.  :-)  I am more into people watching! 

Next week we are escaping the Valley for three days and heading to Laughlin for some casino fun.  We originally were driving to Vegas then decided to just do Laughlin.  Less congestion and a bit more relaxing for us old folks!  :-)  Perhaps Las Vegas next winter! 

March 13th Andy and his brothers are coming for a few days of BB fun.  I thought that a perfect time to fly the coop and head to Peoria and see my daughter and grandchildren.  I have been watching videos that Megan puts up of Ryan and we have been Facetiming with them and I am missing out on a lot of the stuff that I got to see Drew and Kayley do at that age.  I cannot WAIT to get there!  Mark is in charge of the house and the Thiel boys while I am away.  :-) 

Matt called and said he did The Trek up the Tower in Omaha last Saturday.  It is a timed event that has you running up 40 flights of stairs.  Yikes!  He did well enough to qualify for the elite group next year so he was pretty happy about that achievement.  I was just happy he didn't have a heart attack on the way up!  I realize he is in great shape but 40 flights as fast as you can make it seems to be pushing it!  And to think I was always proud of just taking the stairs over the escalator at the airport.  Ha!

Pics from our day at the beautiful Botanical center"

Huge sculptures of the 4 seasons.  Here is "winter"

Mark deciding which way to go

Sculpture of "autumn"

Spring!  (Summer didn't turn out!)

Lovely little patio for our lunch.

Gorgeous sundial.  As you can see, we were there at 1:00!

Glass sculpture

This rock sculpture had a name but do you think I can think of it?!?!?

It's been a long time!

I see it has been quite awhile since my last post.  We have been busy enjoying AZ but nothing special to put into a blog post!  The weather has been up and down here these past few weeks.  Cold and rainy and then sunny and beautiful.  The latter more common than the former but AZ can always take any rain it can get.  I believe they said they met their average yearly total over those few days of rain in January!  The desert was extremely dry, even by "desert" standards, so this bodes well for a valley full of gorgeous blooms in March.  I look forward to hiking that time of the year.

Mark and I spent 3 days at the Phoenix Open and enjoyed every minute of it.  It is such a fun event although I would estimate that 60% of the visitors knew nothing about golf and everything about how to have a good time!  I got a kick out of all the young girls in their stiletto heals trying to navigate around all the people.  Mark got a kick out of all the cleavage they had on display while trotting around in those shoes.  :)  I guess it must be the place to see and be seen!  As for the golf, the course provided players with ample birdie opportunities so scores were very low.  Phil won the event and the crowd was pulling for their ASU grad every day.  I am sure he felt like a rock star here with all the adoring fans. 

We continue to go to the gym several times per week.  I don't know if I am getting any stronger but I can open my own jars without having to ask Mark for help now so it must be working.  :-)  We really enjoy the workouts that Matt provided for us and am still rather shocked that we are going so faithfully.  Now....what to do when we return to Iowa with the closest gym MILES away?  I might have to get my farmer to buy a home gym for those months!

I am SO lonesome for Drew, Kayley and Ryan.  We do skype (facetime) with them so that helps so much but not being able to hug them and play with them is extremely hard on old granny.  They are coming here over spring break and we are excited about that but Drew's spring break isn't until the end of March so that seems very far away....

Some random pics from the past few weeks:

Hiking at Spur Cross in Cave Creek

Spur Cross scenery

Sister Sharon getting taped up after a fall off the trail!  It could have been way worse!

Mark and I went with friends to Turf Paradise for horse racing, always a fun day!

Hiking friends at Cave Creek

Green #9 at the Phoenix Open

Mark getting ready for the first golfers to come through.

Fairway #9

Ten days in Peoria

Mark and I flew to Peoria on December 28th to help bring in the New Year with our children and grandchildren.  We had such a great time!  The weather was cold but it didn't bother us as Drew, Kayley and Ryan kept us warm and laughing.  The kids did not lack for Santa gifts so we spent a lot of time playing with all their new presents.  They had a second Christmas when we arrived and more presents to open.  Matt arrived the following Thursday so they had a another gift opening!  He got them an x-box and Drew is in love with the bowling game and very good at it!  

Drew turns 6 (I cannot believe this) on January 15th so we also had an early birthday party with him before we left on January 7th.  Usually we plan to be there for his birthday but decided to go earlier this year and watch him during his holiday vacation from kindergarten. We bowled twice during our stay.  (I mentioned Drew loves to bowl!)  We also went to Micky's Pizza twice, another favorite of the kids.  Since pizza is one of our favorite foods it didn't bother us in the least.  :-)

It was very difficult to say good-bye but at least I had warm weather waiting for me.  Ha!  It has been very cool and they are talking three consecutive nights of hard freezing and urging to cover everything, including the water pipes.  I don't have enough blankets to cover everything so I am assuming we will lose some of our landscaping.  I won't even bother to go look for frost cloths because they are always sold out at the mere mention of a frost, much like the run on TP and beer before an Iowa snowstorm.  Maybe it is milk instead of beer?  I can't remember.  :-)

It sounds as if the flu bug is gaining a hold throughout most of the country.  I have been fighting a sinus infection since I returned to AZ and have been fairly miserable.  I cannot recall the last time I was sick so this is not sitting well with me!  I pray that our kids and grandchildren are spared from the flu.  Sounds like it lasts 2-3 weeks.  Wow.

Sister Sharon is flying to the valley on Saturday for a week.  She will be spending her days helping her daughter Lisa pack as she prepares to move from Mesa to New Mexico.  She will spend the evenings with us so we are looking forward to her visit.  She says she is bringing gloves and ear muffs to do some hiking.  Good idea, sis!  It will be cold!

Naturally I have some videos and pics from our time in Peoria:

 

Ryan with his new activity table

Merry Christmas!

Three happy  kids on Christmas morning

Someone LOVES getting his bath

Kayley with her new dollhouse and pink car from Grandpa and Grandma

Drew loves playing with Ryan

Grandpa entertains Ryan while we bowl

Kayley with her very favorite Bitty Baby, aka Julia

Kayley and a distracted Ryan

Brothers

I am happy

I'm still in a good mood!

Happy Birthday Drew!  (Long story about the cake decorations!)

Drew reads to an attentive Ryan

Drew decided to get really fancy for his birthday dinner at Micky's

Merry Christmas!

I see that I haven't posted anything for quite some time!  I have decided Mark and I live relatively dull lives when it comes to posting excitement on this blog!  I need my grandkids to perk up my posts.  :-)

That problem will be remedied in a few days.  We fly out Friday for a ten day stay in Peoria, IL.  We are so excited to see our family and pray the weather is good so Matt can drive out from Omaha, too.  Drew has a very long break from kindergarten so we will be there to babysit so he can stay home and enjoy his Santa toys and not go to daycare.  I assume Megan will let the other two stay home, too, so that should keep grandpa and grandma happily busy!

Our weather in AZ has been cool the last few days and I have been forced to wear long sleeve shirts and jeans.  Ha!  No coat, though!  It is such a relief not to be in that snow that the midwest just received.  The pictures look awful and some deadly auto accidents took place.  I worry about my kids driving in those conditions.  Very dangerous!

Mark and I joined a fitness gym and Matt gave us a workout plan to follow, along with a nutrition plan.  We have been faithful for two weeks, well, with the workout part.  His nutrition plan is causing us a little more pain and we are still working on that.  Ha!  I am realizing just what a weakling I am!  He said to go down in weights if we can't do all the reps.  Well.....I am at the lowest weight on one of my hardest exercises so it is pretty hard to go DOWN!

I still hike once or twice a week, but not as much as before we joined that gym.  In fact, I am going on a hike this morning.  It is my favorite AZ activity!

No pics to post.  I could put up one of Mark doing leg curls or something, but he would kill me.  Here is a link to a fun e-card I sent to family.  Much easier than sending out real cards!Drew, Kayley and Ryan

On our way! (UPDATED)

Mark and I left the farm yesterday morning around 10:30 and headed to Matt's home in Omaha.  We had a good visit with him and went to to dinner at our favorite steakhouse, Texas Roadhouse.  After dinner he took us to a really nice wine bar called Brix.  His friend and guitar teacher was the entertainment there and he was very enjoyable!  Matt knew many others there so we had company at our table.  Mark and I really enjoyed our evening!

We left Omaha this morning around 5:30  and began our long, 12.5 hour drive to Santa Rosa, NM.  We are in our hotel safe and sound and no problems along the boring way!  If there were a better way to AZ without going through Kansas I would choose it, but it is the shortest route.  If I would have won that half a billion in last night's lottery I would have purchased another vehicle to leave in Phoenix and just fly back and forth!  But it was not to be.  :-).

We have only a little more than 500 miles left tomorrow so that will be an easy day and we won't need to leave so early!

Our Thanksgiving was just wonderful with our two children and three awesome grandchildren!  I flew to Peoria on November 19th and Mark joined us the next day.  Matt came on Wednesday so we had a nice immediate family gathering for several days.  It was very difficult to leave them on Sunday but Christmas is just around the corner and Mark and I are flying back for that!  That will make for a happy New Year for us.

When I get to Phoenix tomorrow I will post some photos!  Having some trouble doing so on my iPad!

Update:  We made it to our winter home  this afternoon around 3:30.  The drive was uneventful which is a good thing.  I am now also able to put the Thanksgiving pictures on the blog.

Drew was VERY proud of his FB trophy!

Ryan loves getting a bath

Grandma brought Ryan a stuffed monkey

Kayley loves doing puzzles and finished these 4 in record time

Our three grandchildren

Kayley getting ready to start her puzzles

Grandpa holding 2 of his grandchildren, minus the top of his head!

Never hard to get a smile out of this one!

Ryan and Kayley

Drew wants to go to the basement and play catch