09.02.2017: Thelma's Festival Weekend - Part 1

Today we hosted a birthday party for Vince's mom's 85th birthday.  All the AZ Hearn's made it to the party, and we had a blast! Christina & crew drove out yesterday from CA for the party and stayed at a condo within our complex. It worked out perfect! Aunt Mary Jo & Uncle Edward came up from Tucson too.  We had such a wonderful time celebrating Thelma's birthday.  Although sometimes our house feels too small to have these parties in it, everyone seems to have a great time.  It forces everyone to stay in the same room, and talk and engage.  No one misses anything!

 

Thelma opened her gifts and got money from everyone.  She screamed every time she opened a card - she was so excited for all her fun money! She couldn't wait to go home to count it and can't wait to go shopping.  I had made her a book from the whole family that was full of letters from her kids, grandkids and great grandkids, and pictures of her and everyone. It was a really cool book and I think she loved it!

 

Some of the crew stayed at our place until about 2am!! Needless to say, we were exhausted - but were already planning round 2 for tomorrow am.

 

 

Karissa confiscating the kids electronics! Drake didn't like her taking his phone haha!

7.22.2017: Marquita & Jay's Wedding

Today we drove down to Tucson to attend the wedding of Marquita & Jay.  Marquita is Charles's older daughter that lives in Tucson.  The wedding was at the Reflections at the Buttes in Oro Valley.  Driving in, we could see the craziest clouds coming together from both the east & west, and looked like there were going to converge directly above us.  And they did.

 

About 15mins before the outdoor ceremony was supposed to start, the clouds collided and unleashed themselves on us!  It was an insane rain & wind storm - that did not let up.  So, everything outdoors got disassembled and relocated indoors.  Luckily we got there early so avoided getting drenched - but most others did not.

 

It turned out to be a beautiful wedding - and even though it wasn't exactly how Marquita hoped it would be, it made for great memories and a great story later.  Jackie presided over the ceremony, and did a wonderful job.  We had dinner, and then danced the evening away! 

 

After the wedding, Vince, Thelma and I headed down to Sonoita to spend the night at Mom & Dad's house.  We luckily caught a break right in the middle of the storms, as one hit before we got on the road, and after we got there!

 

They do say - rain on your wedding day is good luck!  Jay & Marquita are going to have a LOT of luck because that was a LOT of rain!!!

 

05.07.2017: Budweiser Commercial Filming

 Tonight, Vince took Mom, Dad, Drake and I out to Coolidge to watch the filming of a Budweiser commercial that his company was working on.  They have been doing drops and filming both yesterday and today.  The premise of the commercial is that there are some Veterans driving around Razors out in the desert and a crate of Limited Edition Budweiser is dropped to them.  No idea of the specifics, but that is the basis of it all.  Vince's company was hired to do the precision air drop of the crates of the beer from a C130.  It was pretty awesome watching the setup of the crates, loading into the plane, and watching it come out of the plane and land exactly where they wanted it to.  We didn't get to see some of the ground filming with the Veterans because they film crew didn't want extra people in the shots.  So, we had to keep our distance for that part.  We did get to see the crates landing when they did the aerial filming.  One of the boxes took a tumble when it hit the ground (although it was exactly in the right spot), but the others landed feather soft right where they were supposed to.  It is pretty amazing that it is all controlled from a little tablet on the ground.

So glad that Mom & Dad got to come join in!  It made a late night for us all, but well worth it.  Last night the guys were all there until after midnight.  We left as soon as the drops were finished today!  Have to say, Vince has a pretty cool job!!! :)

 

 

05.01.2017: End of an Era



Coming up on the end of an era this year.  My parents are soon moving out of their place in Riverside that they have been in for 20 years.  We have benefited from many things, but one that will not be easily replaced is the abundance of avocados we get every year.  This is one of the last batches.  I'm not sure if you can see the little water marks on them. Those are my tears.....