New Stuff!

Whew- this was a looooong week.  Everybody was tired but no one was especially cranky so that was a good thing.  We had a weekend of fun, new stuff to make for a boring week.

On Friday, we ventured out to the west side of town to try a new camp ground and it was gorgeous.  The camp ground is west of the Tucson Mountains and our camp site had gorgeous views of them AND it was a little cloudy so we were treated with an amazing sunset.    Mom and I took a little hike to  take in all the cool geography and cactus.  I was pretty confident that if I had my mountain bike, I could totally shred the trail we were hiking on.  It was pretty rough so mom wasn't quite as sure about my ability.  We didn't bring my bike so we'll never know who was right.....

The only draw back to weekend was how cold it got- all the way down to 38 degrees.  Good thing we have our winter parkas.  Oh.  And our heater.

This blurry picture below was taken by one of our neighbors.  They were a group of hard partying retirees- they even had a full on bar set up outside their RV with martinis ala Mad Men.  We climbed up on the roof of our RV to watch the sunset and they all got a kick out of it.  One of them ran over (maybe stumbled a little?) and wanted to take our picture.  They were super nice and super happy and their martini glasses were empty.  Maybe that had something to do with their merriment.

We headed home Saturday morning and mom decided it was time to pick some of our blood oranges. We planted this tree 10 bazillion years ago and this is the first year we actually got any oranges.  We got a lot of oranges- 10!  We picked two and they were very tasty.  It's always fun to eat stuff right from your own back yard.

After the excitement of the oranges, we headed out to buy some new furniture.  Our current sofa and recliner are looking pretty tired- a few chips, a few stains, a few fabric tears, some imbedded dog hair.  You know- 12 year old furniture.  We ended up buying this black leather couch (mom insisted on leather- something about kids, dogs, unholy messes, etc.) and a cool chair.  We don't have a picture of the chair because it is special order but take my word for it- it's a cool chair.

To round out our "new stuff" weekend, mom made some chocolate chip cookies from a new recipe.  It was made with a stout beer.  They taste pretty good ( beer-duh!) but are pretty crumbly so I don't think this will make it into our dessert rotation.

Hope everyone has a fun week full of new stuff!

A Busy Two Weeks

We have had a busy two weeks here in the Old Pueblo.  No post last week because my lazy assistant was too tired after painting all weekend.  We spent last Saturday and Sunday painting the front and back rooms of the house.  It was an absolutely beautiful weekend as I sarcastically pointed out- "This sure is a great way to spend a nice Saturday afternoon..."  I got to help paint the trim down by the floor because I think mom and dad feel to old and stiff to bend down that far.  I got a little enthusiastic and started painting into a corner that wasn't supposed to be painted.  Nobody panicked and we are able to hide it with the enormous dog kennel so all is almost right with the world.  We say almost right because nobody loves the colors we picked.  Mom and dad went with "Brisk Olive" and "Smoke Infusion", a bluish gray.  Both are very pretty colors but dad hates the Smoke and mom doesn't love the green but no one is willing to repaint.  Although.  Come to think of it, Nana is coming to visit in a few weeks.........Mom has noticed a lot of blue and green combos while she is out and about so maybe we're a little hip for once in our lives.

I'm still doing intramurals but we've started with basketball now.  Mom and dad were pretty sure I would hate it and want to quit but it turns out I love it!  I'm totally getting into the blocking, stealing, running up and down the court.  It's still a little hard because I'm the only girl most of the time and boys are still stupid ball hogs but I'm figuring it out.

On to this weekend- it was fun, busy and star-filled (sort of, for mom).  We really didn't have much to choose from as far as pictures go but we included some to keep our readers interested.

On Saturday, mom and I headed out to the Scrum, Rattle and Roll Wheelchair Rugby Tournament.  Mom's co-worker is married to a Team USA/paralympic wheelchair rugby player and his Tucson team was hosting the tournament.  It was the first time we had ever seen anything like this and it was really interesting and a little scary.  These guys play rough!

This is the only picture of me from the past two weeks and we aren't even sure when it was taken.....

Saturday evening, mom had a Girl's Night out with some friends.  They went to a really yummy restaurant (decorated in olive green and grayish blue!) and this is where mom saw Bill Walton, the retired professional basketball player.  Mom saw this freakishly tall guy hobbling around the restaurant and thought he looked familiar.  Yes, mom knew who he was.  He looked like his knees had played one too many games.
While mom was out with her friends, dad and I headed to the movies and then we met our friends, Mr. Mike, Madeline, Mr. Scott, Riley and Shelby for a fun daddy/daughter night at the bar.  Good times for all!
On Sunday, dad headed out for a mountain bike ride and then we headed down to the RV show with some friends.  Just looking.......
Grandpa Vern and Grandma Sue came over for an early dinner and now we are all heading for an early bed time.
Hope everyone has a fabulous week!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2015!  Hope everyone had a great start to their year.  We did not have such a great start but we are subscribing to the "bad start, good ending" theory here.  I started the week off with getting sick- I woke up Monday with a fever, runny nose, head ache and spent the day on the couch.  I was extra sad though because I was supposed to spend the night with my best friend Claire.  We worked for weeks on getting the date down because Claire didn't want her brother Max around so Max had to spend the night some place else and get coordinated with that family.  We finally got it all figured out and I was sooooo excited.  And then I got sick.  Waaaaaaaa!  Fortunately, I was all better by Tuesday and I was supposed to have a sleep over with my friend Madeline but mom said no because she thought I needed one more night of good sleep.  Waaaaaaaa!

So, fine.  We then were supposed to go to Madeline's house for New Year's Eve.  Except.  Then mom got sick.  And so we stayed home.  It was yet another stellar Goedel New Years.  Actually, it wasn't awful- dad and I headed out to get something for dinner and some yummy snacks (donuts and popcorn) and a new Scooby Doo movie.  It turned out to be good night to be at home anyway since was freezing cold and rainy.  The best part of the New Year was waking up to SNOW!!  Mom dragged her hacking, sick self into my room at 6:30AM and told me to look out the window.  I thought we were in Denver!  So fun!  We didn't have a white Christmas but did get a white New Year.  That's almost as good....

The other most awesome thing about New Year's day was I got to have my sleep over with Claire.  Woot-woot!  After mom spent the day on the couch, she rallied enough in the afternoon that she and dad were able to go out for a low keyed date night.  Got to take advantage of the free evening no matter crappy we feel.
Dad picked me up on Friday morning and we headed up to Dave and Busters (round 2) with my friend Madeline and her dad.  We scored some more big stuffies and then headed home.  I got to have my sleep over with Madeline on Friday night so mom and dad had another free night.  They really need to practice this more because they did not know what to do with them selves.  After much head scratching and shoulder shrugging, they decided on a movie and it was all good.

I finally got home on Saturday.  I love my friends, but two nights away is too much for me and I was super happy to be home.  Mom was super happy to see me since she hadn't seen me since Thursday afternoon.  We had a low keyed Saturday, taking down the Christmas decorations and getting the house back in order.  We all hit the hay early- I was exhausted from my sleep-overs and mom and dad were exhausted from trying to figure out to spend all their free time.

Sunday was a gorgeous day so mom and I decided to head out to our favorite spot by Sabino Creek.  It is along the 7 Falls trail and every time we go, we always talk about how we should hike all the way to 7 Falls.  It's only about 3 miles and not a hard hike but we just never get around to it.  Well, today, we just started walking and before we knew it, we were with 20 minutes of the end.  How could we turn away at that point?  Mom told me I would love and it would be totally worth it and she was right.  There really are 7 waterfalls, starting from way up high and with all the snow the mountain has had, there was tons of water.  We could have stayed there a lot longer but unfortunately, we had to head back.  It was 6 miles round trip and I didn't complain at all (probably because mom bribed me with donuts if I didn't).  We were tired and hungry when we got back but very proud of ourselves!

Hope everyone has a wonderful 2015!