02.25.2012: Fountain Hills "Great" Fair

On Saturday, we headed up to Fountain Hills to attend the Annual "Great" Fair. Thousands of vendors come out to sell stuff...crafts, art, food, furniture, anything and everything you could imagine.  It is HUGE.  It was a super hot day, so we were forced into the beer garden for some quenching.  While we were enjoying our Bud Light, Ray, Lois, Billy and Doreen walked by!!  Crazy who you meet out!  They were headed to find some mini-coffee cups that Lois was looking for. 

We finished off our beers, then headed home.

Vince & Drake were in love with the Hello Kitty Smart Car.  It was really cute!  Wouldn't be caught dead in it...but it was cute!  Also, Drake had never seen the WORLDS TALLEST FOUNTAIN.  Yes, that thing in the background of the last picture is actually in the Guiness Book of Records for the World's Tallest Fountain.  Everyone knows my story of this damn fountain, so I MUST take everyone there for the same wonderful experience.  It's my thing!  :)

02.24.2012: Lunch with the Riedmans

On Friday, Vince, Alisa, Avery and I had lunch with Ray, Lois and their son Billy and his wife Doreen.  Billy was here visiting his parents for the week from Montana.  I hadn't seen him for probably in at least 20 years, if not more.  They had been out in AZ since Monday, but today was the first day they had some free time!  They were definitely enjoying the warm weather and swimming in the middle of Feb!  Also sitting out on the patio of Macayos overlooking the lake.  They did not have the same weather back in Montana this time of year.  It was actually quite warm for us for Feb, but we were not complaining (yet).

It was great though hearing all their stories!  I love meeting relatives that I know but just haven't seen in a loooong time!  I wished Mom could have been there too, since she hasn't seen Billy in forever either.  And none of us had met his wife before, so that was nice to finally meet her!  And she was from CA, so we chatted a lot about how things have changed since she left (and how different Montana is from SoCal)   Next trip Mom will have to make sure she gets out here ....as they said they are coming back next year too!

Oh, and a Lois update....she looked amazing!  Even though it had only been a week or so, she looked pretty healed.  Although not healed enough for us to not get harrassed by Billy for beating up his mom :)

Alisa & Avery had to leave early to go pick up the other 2 kiddos so they missed out on the picture together.

02.20.2012: Track Time!!!!

On Sunday morning, Vince, Drake and I all got up super early to head over to the NAU Skydome for Drake's track meet.  This is his first "away" meet, and what a great weekend to have it!!  It was up in Flagstaff, and it was snowing! So cool to be at an indoor sporting event and see in storming outside.  However, Drake had to check in at 7am, which meant that we had to get up pre-dawn (ie...DARK), and get it together and get to the track.  And who knew it would end up being such a long day....

So, even though Drake had to be there at 7am, his first event wasn't until about 2pm.  He started off with the Shot Put.  This was his only field event and his first attempt at the shot put.  Vince gave him a few training sessions the weekend before, so he was ready, but had never done it in competition before.  He actually did GREAT and came in 5th place overall.  His throw even qualified for Nationals in Chicago.

His next 2 events were the 55m dash and the 2000m.  His 55m time was 8.94, his personal best.  And his 200m time was 32.09, another personal best (and turned out to be his best time of the whole season).  The 200m didn't run until about 7pm.  Yes, that would be 12 hours after we arrived at the meet.....making for a very very long day!!!!  However, it was the most exciting race ever!  Drake pushed so hard and won his heat in dramatic fashion!  He had a whole cheering squad at the finish line!  It was so amazing and I know having so many people there yelling for him really pushed him to do his best.  He REALLY wanted to win that one!!!!  It was amazing.

After that event, Mom, Dad, Kenny, Jordan, Vince and I all headed back to the cabin.  Brent & crew had left a little earlier to get down the hill before the dark.  It began really dumping snow on us in the afternoon, which made for an interesting drive back out to the cabin.  It was fun though....and we just hung out in the cabin the rest of the night eating pizza and drinking wine/beer...enjoying the cold & snow.  What a great and exhausting way to end the weekend!!!

02.19.2012: Brianna's Birthday Dinner

For Brianna's 6th birthday dinner we had tostadas...YUM!!!  Alisa made her famous shredded beef which is oh so good!  And we had all the fixings to go with it.  Brianna even got her birthday ice cream cake!  As you can see from the pictures, she was very humbly enjoying being sung to, and she blew out her candles in a very dainty way...unlike most kids who end up spitting all over it! Haha!  Not Nana!! 

After b-day cake, she got to open her presents....while watching Sons of Guns.  Luckily she sat right in front of the tv to open her presents, so all eyes were on her...errrr the TV...errr HER! Well, they were all pointed in the right direction anyways.

We ended the evening by playing a little family fun board game.   It was actually such a blast and the kiddos had a good time.  We laughed soooo hard!!!

02.19.2012: Snowball Fight!!!

Whooohoooo!  They are here!!  Time for a snowball fight!  The rest of the crew finaaaalllly showed up!  Seemed like it took them forever to get here!  It was just getting dark when they arrived, so the kids immediately hit the deck (literally) to get their little snowball fight on.  Mom stayed inside with Avery, and the rest of the group came in & out to check on the kids.  They were just fine throwing snow at each other, and the adults jumped in a few times too.  Every once in a while someone would get hit in the face, or the ear, or down the pants....and would have to take a moment to regroup...but for the most part, they were relentless!!  It was great!!

Eventually it was dark-dark and we had to drag the kids in the house.  Only then did they realize they were cold and wet....oh ya, and hungry!!! 

02.19.2012: Snow Weekend in Flagstaff!!

Waiting for everyone to arrive!!!!
We are having a snow weekend in Flagstaff for President's weekend.  Drake has a track meet at NAU here on Sunday, and Mom & Dad rented a cabin for the weekend.....so we all headed up for some snow & cabin fun!  Vince, Drake and I headed up earlier on Sat and waited for the troops to show up.  Andrew had a flag football game in the afternoon so everyone headed up after his game.  The cabin Mom & Dad got is SUPER cute!!!  It is soooo nice, great location, great decks, and plenty of sleeping room!!  We explored the area a bit...took some pics....and Vince and Drake had a mini-snowball fight!  It was a gorgeous afternoon!!!  So excited for the rest of the crew to show up!!