Sick...

I am sick :-( I have been since last Tuesday. Boo. Sore throat, cough, congestion, laryngitis - the works. I think I'm finally starting to turn a corner though. During the day I'm feeling better but at night I just cough and cough and cough.

But enough of my whining - the good news is that I'm finally updating the blog! Shocking, I know. I can't believe I haven't updated since Christmas. Bad Molly. So while I have this extra time on my hands I'm going to try to finish up some posts I started and make some new ones as well. And so you don't have to go back and sift through old entries to find the new one's I'll add the links to them right here at the end of this post:

* Winter Fun in Arizona

* Happy 50th Birthday Todd!

* Wahoo Nicki & Donny!!! (Don’t know why I never published this one – I think I accidently hit “save” instead of “post”. D’oh!)

* more to come...

Hopefully once I'm caught up I'll be more apt to keep up with the blog on a more regular basis. Here's hoping!

Winter Fun in Arizona

While cheering on Team USA during the Olympics, Casey and I realized it had been a while since either of us did any fun winter sports. With the warm weather and lack of mountains Arizona doesn't exactly lend itself to winter athletics...or so we thought. After a little research we found a great deal on a stay and ski package at Snowbowl up in Flagstaff. So last week we dug out our winter gear (from the very back, bottom corner of the closet) and headed north.

We hadn't been to Flagstaff before. With it's pine trees and close mountains it reminded me a lot of central Idaho. The small college town feel reminded Casey a lot of Moscow. It was such a refreshing change from the Valley of the Sun. We hit the slopes first thing Wednesday morning and only stopped twice before they closed down the mountain at 4. I chose to ski and Casey boarded. I was so impressed at his skills! He had only been snowboarding a few times before (at Ski Camp) but he was really good. I've only been boarding once and spent most of the day falling on my you-know-what. It was so fun, though, to get back out there and ski after several years. I love the feeling of the wind rushing by while careening down the mountain; I love being outside in the snow all day long; I love the adrenaline rush of conquering a run you were too intimidated to try earlier in the day. I loved it in case you couldn't tell!

Because I didn't want to take my digital camera on the slopes with me, we used a disposable camera to snap a few shots. We haven't had it developed yet (remember the days when you actually had to wait to see how your pics turned out?) I'll add pics when we get the camera developed but in the mean time, these should give you a pretty good idea of what we looked like. Here's Casey showing off some sweet moves:

(credit)

And here I am attacking the mountain:

(credit)

One of my favorite parts of the day was riding up the chairlift with a kiddo from ski school. There was one instructor with two students so he asked me to ride up with one of them. His name was Nathaniel and he was five. We had a very entertaining conversation on our way up the mountain. He spelled his name for me (only missed one letter), told me about his family dog named Ike or Mike (he couldn't remember which), and informed me that he could count to ten hundred. He was adorable.

After calling it a day we headed down the mountain to check in to our little cabin. It was such a cute place with a fireplace and mountain view. We took a much needed nap and then had dinner at the main lodge. We spent the rest of the evening in our own private little cabin. No phone, no internet. Awesome. What a great day :-)

Happy 50th Birthday Todd!

My mom and Todd came to visit over the weekend and we had a splendid time. Todd turned the big 5-0 on Friday and we spent all weekend celebrating.

Friday we went to watch Todd's favorite team, the Oakland A's, at Spring Training. He was hoping to meet his favorite player, Eric Chavez, and his birthday wish was granted! Todd got to meet Mr. Chavez who wished him a Happy Birthday and signed his poster. What a lucky guy! (My only souvenir was my first sunburn of the year.) Needless to say, The Todd was one happy camper :-)

Watching all those professional athletes work out of course made us hungry so we headed over to Bucca di Beppo's in Old Town Scottsdale. The food was scrumptious and the company delightful. Todd scored a free gigantic cupcake for his birthday dessert. We were, of course, happy to help him finish it off ;-)

Mom and Todd hadn't really seen much of Old Town so we walked around for a bit. Todd got to see Scottsdale Stadium (home of the Giants) and we stopped at the LOVE sculpture for a photo op. We also cruised through the Scottsdale historical museum which was also celebrating a birthday - 100 years. Wow - the museum is two Todds old!

We couldn't resist taking The Todd's picture by the Scottsdale Adult Day Health Services: A Program of the Foundation for Senior Living.

When Todd realized that Taliesin is just up the road from our house, he decided that we must do a tour during their visit so Friday night we enjoyed a "Twilight Tour." I didn't know much about Frank Lloyd Wright before the tour but really enjoyed it. He was such a revolutionary architect and such a big influence on so many industries.

Gorgeous view from Taliesin

We took Mom and Todd to our favorite restaurant for dinner. Pars has the best Persian food, awesome atmosphere, and a great staff. We then had homemade cheesecake and opened gifts at home. It was a great day and hopefully a memorable birthday for The Todd.

Saturday was nice and low key. We slept in, enjoyed some chicken and waffles at Lo-Lo's, went for a walk, and took a nap. That night we headed into downtown Phoenix to see "The Drowsy Chaparone" at the Orpheum Theater. The show was enjoyable and the theater incredible. Post-show we dined on delicious Greek food and then called it a night.

Todd at Lo-Lo's

As always when family comes to visit, the weekend flew by way too quickly. We loved having you visit, Mom and Todd, and look forward to your next visit!

and one more time...

Happy Birthday Todd!

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to pop in and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Have a safe, joyous, and meaningful holiday celebration :-)

A Christmas Carol - in 3D!

We went to see the new "A Christmas Carol" movie last night. I was hoping it would be a fun holiday film that would help start off our December in the Christmas spirit. Now I have heard that it is dark and somewhat scary for little kids, but I thought it was creepy and scary - for me! Not my favorite movie ever and not something that left me feeling particularly festive, but hey, we got 3D glasses out of the deal :-)

I attempted to document how cool we looked in our high-tech spectacles with my cell phone but was having difficulty getting the flash to work. After a few minutes of fumbling I finally got it. By then Casey was irritated with my attempt to capture the long-passed moment hence his attempt to escape from the one actually well-lit photo.

Ah, well. We had a fun date night anyway :-)