Arizona Trip

I originally had registered to compete in Ironman Tempe 70.3, however with the addition of the 70.3 World Championships race to the schedule a month earlier, I decided not to race.  We had already booked all the travel accommodations and decided to go for more of a vacation trip rather than a race trip.  This works out well because we love the food and the scenery in the area and Tara's dad lives in close by in Scottsdale.  As soon as we got to the hotel, the kids were immediately drawn to the community pool.

We ventured out to some nearby soccer fields to stretch the legs a bit and found this amazing lounging tree that provided shade and some great support to hang out with a view.  There happened to be a few games going on, though we were quite happy we weren't playing in them with the heat.

Later in the day, we drove up north to Marie Christine's place in Cave Creek.  Craig was out with a buddy of his that was also in town, but we got to tour their new property.  They have this large horse barn in the back and several medium sized line trees, in addition to all the cactus around the area.  It's a pretty cool property.

Here is Tara with Marie Christine and her daughter, Estelle.  Her other son, Daniel, was also running around but didn't quite make the picture.  We only were able to stay for an hour or two, but it was great to see her place and visit.  What isn't pictured here is the Mexican restaurant we went to afterwards that had an enormous tarantula jaunting through the middle of the restaurant casually!  I think we were too busy climbing on seats to get a picture of that sight.