Warren flew to Kansas two weeks after our Arizona trip to help Craig & Lindsay with some remodeling work on their house.  They bought their first home in Buhler, Kansas in December, and did some work on the house before moving in.  They did a lot of work getting the original wood floors refinished, stripping wallpaper, painting, putting in duct work, water lines, but the big project was gutting the main floor bathroom and moving fixtures.

By the time Warren arrived, quite a bit of the work was done.  The plumbing had been moved, and some of the sheet rock was up and they had started taping.  Their first project was installing new wood flooring to go with the floors in the rest of the house. 

the tub and surround went in.

Warren did a lot of taping.

Craig doing a bit of electrical work.

It was a busy week, but the guys got a lot done.  After Warren left, Craig got the floors in the house stained and varnished, and he and Lindsay were able to move in a couple of weeks later.  We are so proud of them!  They have worked hard to buy and remodel their first home.  We pray they will enjoy their home and be very happy there.  

Over Easy

Darlene and I had seen a Phoenix restaurant featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives called Over Easy.  http://www.eatatovereasy.com/  Any business featured on the show is pretty good, so we made plans to try it out for brunch on Wednesday.  Perry, Warren and Collin joined us.  It had moved to a different location since the show was filmed, and was a fun place.  

 I had to take a picture of Warren by the kids corner.  I thought Natalie would like the farm animals.  :)

Darlene and I both ordered items from the menu that were featured on the show.  Darlene ordered Waffle Dogs, breakfast sausage on a stick, dipped in waffle batter and fried to a golden brown.

 I ordered the Caramelized banana & pecan brioche French toast and scrambled egg whites.  Warren had an omelet. 

Darlene and I are both dog lovers.  She has a long haired Chihuahua named Napoleon, who believes he is alpha dog but really is pretty sweet.  We visited a couple of animal shelters in the afternoon, one a county one, and the other one privately run.  The latter was very nice, clean and well run.  We had a good time looking at the dogs and cats, and saw some different areas of Phoenix that afternoon as well. 

In the evening we went to Craig & Lori Schmitt's home for dinner.  Craig and Perry are brothers, and Warren and I both went to high school with Craig.  He and Lori have two children, Jacob and Megan.  We had a great evening enjoying a bbq and visiting, before heading back to Perry & Darlene's to pack for our trip home. 

We had a wonderful time on our trip.  It was a much needed break from the long winter in Montana.  We enjoyed seeing many friends, exploring new places, and spending some great times together. 



Coyotes and Stars

Tuesday night was guys and gals night.  Warren and Perry went to a NHL hockey game to see the Phoenix Coyotes and the Dallas Stars play. 

Warren found out it doesn't work well to wear the same thing to an evening hockey game that he wore to the afternoon baseball game.  He got a little chilly wearing shorts.  Good thing he had some wind pants along to warm up.  They enjoyed the game, which got pretty exciting near the end.  The Coyotes tied the game with about a minute to go, but the Stars won it with a goal in the last seconds.

 The popular KissCam kissing game was played, where the jumbotron camera picks on couples, they have to kiss, and the camera moves on to the next couple.  The people it zooms in aren't always couples, such is the fun of the game.  However, one young man had a plan in mind.  As the camera was on him, he popped the question on his unsuspecting girlfriend.  :)

While the guys were at the game, we girls had our own fun evening.  We went to a popular restaurant called the Elephant Bar, one of my favorite restaurants we ate at the whole trip. They feature a menu of European, Asian and American fusion foods.  If you haven't been to one, they are decorated in a sophisticated jungle theme complete with of course, elephants and animal prints, but in a rich woods, leather and English Empire kind of way.  We had a very nice, relaxed dinner, great visit and the food was wonderful.  We split some Orange Honey Shrimp, which was delish!  However, the dessert menu was too tempting to share.  Darlene had Creamy Creme Brulee and I had the Citrus Cheesecake Brulee, which was wonderful.   Warren had the camera at the game, so no pictures, but here's the website.  http://elephantbar.com/Default.aspx 

Cactus League Baseball

Warren and I spent the afternoon on Tuesday,  March 1 at the Rangers/Mariners game at the Peoria Sports Complex.  The Phoenix Valley is home to 15 Major League Baseball teams playing in 10 stadiums.  Most stadiums are shared by two teams.  They each have several practice fields, but share the stadium where they play their games.  Surprise Stadium is home to the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals.  The Peoria Sports Complex is very close to Perry & Darlene's office, and home to the Seattle Mariners and the San Diego Padres.  We wanted to see the Rangers play on Tuesday, so went to watch them in Peoria.   The stadium seats 11,000 fans and has 12 practice fields.  There are options for seating.  You can either buy tickets to sit in the seats, or bring a blanket and sit on the hill behind the outfield for just a few dollars. 

Ichiro Suzuki up to bat

Interesting.  The 3 men in caps in the foreground are from Medicine Lake, MT.  Warren noticed it on one of the caps and said hi to them.  They had come down for some games.  They were just a couple of rows ahead of us. 

We enjoyed the game, even though the Mariners won.  The Rangers had a comeback late in the game, but it was too late.  It was the warmest day we had since the first couple of days in Phoenix.  Perfect day to watch our first major league game.  

Legends at Arrowhead

Monday, Feb. 28 we went golfing at a course called Legends at Arrowhead in Peoria.  One of Perry's friends from church went along, and they were joined by a newly retired law enforcement guy from back east, who they were going to let play through, but he ended up staying with our group.  He was pretty intense about his game and life in general.  Maybe not quite into the "retirement" frame of mind yet?

The course had a lot of water hazards the front nine and a lot of sand on the back nine.  It was a beautiful course.  One of the holes had terraced tee boxes that were kind of neat.  Here is Warren teeing off on one.

terraced tee boxes 

 It was a tough course, but the guys had fun.  I rode along in the cart and it was so nice to be outside in the warm sun. 

Subway Fresh Fit 500 video

Here are a couple of videos to give you an idea of what it was like watching the race.

Boogity, Boogity,Boogity! Let's Go Racin'!

If you watch Nascar on Fox TV, you know that those words have been made famous by Darrell Waltrip at the start of every Sprint Cup race.  The excitement is about to begin!   The Subway Fresh Fit 500 at the Phoenix International Speedway on February 27 was our first Nascar race, and we loved it.  I have to admit, I am now a fan.  I kind of was before, but now I actually watch the races on tv instead of reading or taking a nap. 

We arrived at the track a couple of hours before the race.  We saw the displays, watched them film part of the pre-game show for Speed Network, had lunch, then headed to our seats.

We had pretty good seats on the first turn, right across from the #1 pit box.  We could see down part of the row to watch several pit stops, and see the race off pit row onto the track perfectly.  Carl Edwards, #99 Subway car,  had qualified in first position, and his is the car right in front of us.  Here is a picture of all the cars coming to their pit boxes behind the pace car right before the race started.

a pit stop during the race.

Trevor Bayne, who had won the Daytona race the week before, wrecked early in the race and came to a stop right in front of us.

The tower in the infield shows the driver's numbers in their current order in the race.  It changes as they cross the start finish line each time.

Smoke is all we could see of the big wreck on the back stretch.

Jeff Gordon passed Kyle Busch for the win right in front of us, and the crowd went crazy!  Kyle Busch isn't the most popular driver, and it had been a long time since Jeff Gordon had won a race.  It was pretty cool.  Here is Gordon on his victory lap.  The noise at the race is incredible.  Even with ear plugs, I had a hard time hearing Warren yelling in my ear, let alone following everything the announcer said over the PA system.  After the race we went home and watched the highlights of the race on tv so we could find out what all happened, especially about the wreck we didn't see.  Very fun day,  I'm hooked, and we're ready to go again. 

Surprise

Not only was this trip our first time to Arizona, but Dave & Judy's as well.  We had already seen the Scottsdale (central Phoenix)  and Mesa (southern Phoenix) areas, so on Saturday, Feb. 26, they came west to see where we had been spending our time in Surprise.   Surprise in an area that has seen a lot of growth in the last 10 years.  The neighborhoods show a modern mindset in that the subdivisions are planned with families and a healthy, outdoor lifestyle in mind.  There are many parks with playgrounds and picnic areas, green belts, walking paths and schools.   Our sister, Linda, would have loved it.  Her life's passion was developing this type of lifestyle, and she worked hard in Colorado and California to help develope communities like this.  I thought of her often when we were out for walks or driving in different neighborhoods.

We went to Westgate in Glendale, which is home to a shopping area, apartments, hotels, restaurants, the Jobing.com Arena where the NHL Coyotes hockey team plays, and also the NFL Cardinals stadium.  The football stadium features a retractable field of natural grass playing surface that is moved outdoors for sunshine.  The Fiesta Bowl is also played here.  The shopping area was fun, with a favorite being the RideMakerZ store.  Think Build A Bear for boys.  They have all kinds of cars and pickups, trucks, and kids can add accessories to build the vehicle/ride of their dreams.  There was a dad with his two boys there, and it was fun to watch the little boy build his car.

We went to Abuelo's for lunch and before we knew it, Dave & Judy had to leave for the airport.  It was good to see them.  Thanks for sharing your vacation with us, you guys!

Visiting McPecks

After the swap meet, we drove to The Reort, a park model community where Don & Lorna McPeck live.   Their community is fairly large, with pools, a community center and many activities.  The residents live in park  model homes most with Arizona rooms.  Their Arizona room  is behind the carport. 

Lorna made us a wonderful home-cooked meal with REAL lemonade.  I don't want to drink frozen concentrate lemonade anymore, and I'd like my own lemon tree.  LOL 

Don, Lorna, Judy & Dave.  They all went to college together.

We know Don & Lorna from when they lived in Wolf Point, Montana, and pastored the Gospel Fellowship Church.  Don was the high school camp director at Beacon Bible Camp.  Those were such fun camps!  He always kept us busy and entertained - no easy feat with teenagers.  They  have kids our age, and it was fun to catch up with them as well.   There were a LOT of stories told, and we laughed until we had tears.  Very fun evening.  We'd love to do it again.  Thank you for a great visit!

Mesa Market Swap Meet

Dave finished his meetings Thursday night and Friday all four of us were heading to Mesa for the day.  Warren's sister, Shirley, had told us about the Mesa Market Swap Meet after she and Duane had been there in past years.  It sounded fun and we thought we would wander through it for a few hours.  There are 1600 booths with everything from tools to fossils to spas, decorative items, food, souvenirs. 

 Some of our favorite items included:

stone tables made from the red rocks in the Sedona area.  Would have loved to bring one home!  This one

has a mat finish, and the next one is glossy.  Both were gorgeous.

 One booth had lots of "fossils".  not sure that they were real, but it was interesting.

There was a LOT of metal decorative items.

We saw a lot of cute whimsical rock bugs.

we wanted to bring this one home for Amy's yard, but knew we couldn't get it in the suitcase.

This one was a marvel.  See how it balances on that tiny point?

This is just a small sampling of what we saw.  I think the only thing we bought was some packets of dip mixes and a t shirt for Harvey, Warren's dad.  We found a shirt with the name of his coffee group in Glasgow - the Romeos.  Retired Old Men Eating Out.  Perfect!

Scottsdale

My sister, Judy and her husband, Dave came to AZ while we were there.  Dave had a conference in Paradise Valley on Thursday  the 24th, and they planned to spend a couple of extra days with us before going home to Kansas City.  While Dave was at his meetings, we met Judy at their hotel.  We sat by the pool and visited, went to lunch, then off to Scottsdale for the afternoon.  We walked through some of the shops and art galleries in Old Town Scottsdale.  One had amazing sketches and bronzes of families.  One sketch looked exactly like Judy's little granddaughter, Zoe.  If only we could have afforded to buy it!  The bronzes in that gallery had incredible detail.  There were some that reminded me of Norman Rockwell scenes - children with grandparents,  vintage toys, etc.  The detail on the toys, the lace on the little girls' anklet socks, the man's suit and shoes were so precise and realistic. 

We decided to take a trolley tour and see a little more of the area.  We got our coffees and were ready to have a relaxed ride.  Not to be.  First off, we couldn't take our drinks along - so much for leisurely sipping.  We had to drink them quickly.  There were two routes, and by the time we were finishing our coffees, one trolley was just leaving.  We missed it.  There was another one right there, so we threw away our cups and climbed aboard.  We had wanted to ride the one that toured the downtown area.  We would see the arts district, the fashion district, the Scottsdale stadium, Old Town, businesses and cafes, etc.  

Well.... we ended up getting on the neighborhood trolley and picked up kids from school, dropped off people from work, saw the REAL Scottsdale - south side, not the wealthy north side.  oh well.  It was interesting, and the trolley really was kind of neat.  Judy is always studying a map wherever we go, and Warren had the Garmin, so we pretty much knew where we were.  Fun memory.

We did a bit more browsing in the shops, then had supper.  Dave & Judy lived in Italy for many years and are always excited to find a place that has a wood fire pizza oven.  We ate at a place called Grimaldi's, where they have a wonderful selection of specialty wood fire pizzas, among other Italian items on their menu.  We thought of Dave, still at his meeting, and knew he would have enjoyed it.  

We ate outside in a lovely courtyard.  It would have been warmer inside with the pizza oven warming us up, but with the outdoor heaters, it was nice out there.  We loved it coming from snow in Montana and Missouri.  Other brave souls did join us - it was such a nice atmosphere.

A couple more scenes from our day in Scottsdale