Adventures of Grandma, Drew, Kayley and Ryan

Sunday, March 10, 2013

A place where we finally feel young!

Mark and I just returned from three days in Laughlin, a.k.a the senior citizen gambling capitol of America! Not many youngsters here but we had a great time giving the machines our money! The weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed walking along the Colorado River and sitting by the pool when we needed a rest from the slot machines. The food was good, too! I would say we will take a trip back there again next winter for a quick getaway.

This week takes me to Peoria, IL to see my favorite three kids in the world. Can you tell I am super excited? I am certain Ryan has changed so much and will not know me but I will remedy that situation quickly....I hope! Mark is staying here to host son-in-law Andy and two of his brothers who will be in town to take in some spring baseball and golf. They are in for some heat. Weatherman said it could be record highs in the 90's while they are here. That will be a stark change for those boys after their winter temps.

Mark and I have tickets to a Diamondback game tomorrow at their new stadium so more fun in the sun for us!

Next time I post I will be using pics and videos of Drew, Kayley and Ryan. Until then, this is all I have!

Peoria Stadium, spring home of the Padres and Mariners

We usually just buy lawn tickets (cheap)

Walking on the Riverwalk in Laughlin.

Mark racing off to another casino. :-)

Poolside at the Golden Nugget

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

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?!?!?

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

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

Thursday, January 10, 2013

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: