Arizona Trip Pt 1

For the second year in a row, Andrea and I went down to Scottsdale, Arizona, to visit my dad and step-mom.  It's almost always beautiful there, so there's hardly a bad time to visit, and many times it's a welcome respite from snowy Colorado in the winter/spring.  Dad, Sandra and I went to a favorite of mine, Oregano's, for lunch one day while Andrea sat around the pool at my dad's place.  The awkward arm selfie above and the picture below were taken at Oregano's, a fun restaurant that Leah, Marie-Christine and I discovered years ago when MC was living in AZ--fun place and yummy pizza!

The older I get, the more I see the strong resemblance between me and my dad.  Do you?  The aspect that I've honed in on lately is our similar eye color.  I always wanted to say it was pure green like my mama's, but if I'm honest with myself, it's really more hazel like my dad's.  He loaned me the cute cowboy hat since I brought no such thing. 

We arrived super late and spent that first night at my dad's house in their lovely guest room.  They are, admittedly, a funny combination:  both wonderful hosts but happiest to make it a short and sweet visit.  So, the winning solution, we found, was to spend one night at their house and two nights at this beautiful hotel across the street from them.  (Dad hooked us up with a bro deal...some reciprocal thing they have going on with the residents living close.  I don't ask questions, just love the cheaper rate!)  The pool above is at the hotel, and I can't even think of the name of it right now.  One of the coolest features there is a happy hour every evening, and several times we invited Dad and Sandra over to enjoy that while sitting around a fire pit outside.  We hardly had to go anywhere!  And we met the nicest people just sitting around doing the same thing.  The most memorable couple was Vinnie and Santa (yes, for real!) Santos from Long Island, and MAN their accent and story-telling was off the hook!!!  Andrea and I got a real kick out of them. 

No trip is complete without a couple of selfies, so that's what was going on in the picture above.  And I can't really explain that facial expression...just something that Andrea and I do together ;)  We had so much fun!

For the second year, we borrowed bikes from this amazing couple we met at a restaurant the first time we visited.  (Vicki and Darrell, you guys are awesome!)  They have super fun cruiser bikes, and it's the perfect mode of transportation while we're there.  We love the citrus fruits, and I can't even remember now if we had permission to take some of these beautiful grapefruits; but often people leave boxes of free fruit out on the corner because there's so darn much much of it! 

Soccer Camp at BIS

Gavin did a half-day camp during a school holiday.  There was a variety of age groups present and then they broke up into several different groups after the initial warmup.  This camp was at the new Boulder Indoor Soccer (BIS) camp and what is great is that Gavin got to practice at the same facility as he has seen my play games as well.

After the warmup, they split into some age/skill appropriate teams.  His age group mostly did scrimmages for the remainder of the session.  Here is Gavin with his team above.  He always loves playing these games.  They are actually playing on a Futsol field.  I think Gavin's team won the tournament and that always gets him pumped.

Gavin's Art on Display

Gavin has become quite the artist!!!  We're so proud of him.  In this picture, he's standing in front of his "G" art work that was on display in a Broomfield art show.  He received a ribbon for having his art work entered in the show, and that was his favorite part!  It was fun to watch him walk around to admire the work of friends and students from other schools in the area.  I could tell that it inspired him to see such great work, and I was so proud that his creative art was included.