Sunny AZ

Stace and I had THE best time in Arizona. We did so much, and time flew by way too fast. I am already ready to go back!

The trip started a little shaky. Of course the day we were suppose to leave for sunny AZ, MN/ND had a nice winter weather advisory – aka a blizzard. FUN. Stace made it to the cities, against a nasty wind and a little rain on Thursday night. We went to check into our flight, only to find out it had been cancelled. I quickly called the airline, and thank God we were able to get on the next flight leaving at 11am (ours was supposed to leave at 8am). However, the 11am flight was already delayed to 12pm. I was hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. Luckily, the flight was not delayed further or cancelled, and we made it to AZ with time to spare!

Our first night there consisted of experiencing Pam’s crazy driving – mostly gas station incidents that involved doing a few loops around : ) But we stopped in Tempe, where ASU is located and strolled down Mill Ave, similar to Uptown in the cities. After that we headed to Pam’s crib – very nice apartment by the way, and got ready for a night out. We joined some of Pam’s fellow dental students for dinner at place called Cadalac Ranch. Afterwords we drifted over to a bar across the way. The area we were in was all open to the outdoors and even had a band playing outside – pretty sweet.

Mill Ave.

Cadallac Ranch

Saturday we enjoyed some quality time by Pam’s ice-cold pool, eventually forcing ourselves to jump in once we couldn’t stand the heat. It took us awhile to figure out where we wanted to go for dinner, but Pam is lucky to have a patient bf. We drove to Old Town and walked around a bit before dinner. It is in Scottsdale and has all these little western/Mexican shops. Pretty fun. Dinner was at the Roaring Fork, and was yummy : ) I love being able to enjoy dinner outside, and they even had a fireplace out there.

Poolside

Old Town

Roaring Fork



Afterwards we headed to the Scottsdale mall, which has unbelievable shopping. Every store you can imagine pretty much. To end the night we went to a club called Suede and had the BEST drink ever – Strawberry Cheesecake martini. I will have to try to recreate that one sometime. The club had great music, and it was a good time, but we didn’t get too crazy since we were heading to the mountains the next morning.

Suede

Sunday we hiked Superstition Mountain – well at least half of it. It was AWESOME, my favorite of the entire weekend. It was not easy, but the sights were amazing. I guess we came at a good time b/c everything was in bloom. Next time I will come back in climb to the top!

Hiking wiped us out pretty good. That night we enjoyed dinner at BJ’s brewery in Mesa. It was yummy, and the dessert was the best part – oreo cookie pazookie!!!!! Later we checked out Dana Park in Mesa, its basically a shopping strip mall with lots of fun stores. We had to stop at the Ra for an after dinner drink, and ended up having some sushi as well. We were so full it wasn’t funny, but it was still SO good!!
RA

Monday Stace and I were on our own while Pam had class. We ventured back to Dana Park for some coffee and some more shopping. After meeting Pam and Scott for lunch at Paradise Bakery, we drove ourselves back to Tempe for some more Mill Ave shopping! We were sooo proud of ourselves for our navigating skills (of course it helps that they are on a nice grid system). We relaxed a little by the pool, until Pam got done with class. Then we did a little TJ Maxx shopping - Pam somehow managed to by 5 purses – yikes! To end the night we did a late but OH SO delicious dinner at Kona, and Asian Fusion restaurant. We also headed back to Ra to get the dessert we wanted the other night, but were to full for – fried cinnamon tempura ice cream. YUM. We almost went back to BJ’s for another Pazookie, but just couldn’t do it!

RA, again

On Tuesday before we left, Stace and I got a quick game (volley) of tennis in! We made it back to the cities no problem. Only now its back to reality. At least it is gorgeous outside today in the cities!!

My Baby

Well parents are always showing everyone pictures of their adorable babies, so I figured I would share pictures of our adorable baby : )

We heart Deja!

Deja and her friend Tiny doing tricks for treats.

Deja and Tiny taking a car ride to the park. Such good little puppies : )

Last night: Bathtime. It was much needed, and boy did she have the zoomies afterwards!

B-I-N-G-O

Last night Blaine and I joined some friends in Brooklyn Park for a serious night of BINGO! Blaine had gone with them last week, and I kept hearing how much fun it was, so I had to see for myself. It was definitely cheap entertainment - $5 for like 10 games, which lasted about 3 hours. There were some pretty interesting people there, but I have to admit that I did enjoy myself. None of us won anything, so it looks like we might have to go back next week : )

One more day after today and I am off to Sunny Arizona! Pam has provided us with an itinerary, which includes hiking, a baseball game, clubbing, shopping, relaxing by the pool, as well as trying lots of unique restaurants!!!! There is also room to through in an art museum or whatever else we feel like. I feel guilty leaving Blaine out, but he told me he is going to work on finishing a desk and possibly starting another project. That should keep him pretty busy...

Happy Hump Day!

New Investment

I have wanted a bike ever since I began cycling a couple of years ago. Moving to MN made me want a bike even more. I think there are as many miles of trails in the cities as highways. MN also has the scenery to go along with the trails, as most of them wind around the lakes. Well a couple of weekends ago, when my sister and her friend came to visit to do a triathlon, we did a cycle shopping. I did not know the first thing about bikes, and had no idea what I wanted.

Nothing really came from our brief shopping, except an even large desire to buy a bike. A few days later, Blaine broke down and spilled the beans (he can never keep a secret). Before I started all this talk about getting a bike, he was actually doing a little research of his own for a b-day gift me : ) But he figured that it was best I actually try out the bikes first to get an idea of what I want. Pretty soon he had the bike itch too, and we were both 10-ft deep in bike info. We went to a few bike shops and the cities and gained more knowledge. I really liked the feel of the road bikes, but I wanted to have a more functional bike that I could go trail-riding on if we go camping or anything like that.

Well last night we took a drive to Bloomington, and test rode some more bikes. Both of us ended up liking the Trek 7.5. It is a fitness hybrid, which means it is not as aggressive and fast as a road bike, but it is faster and lighter than a comfort bike. The guy at Penn Cycle was great. He ended up giving us a discount on everything we bought. Of course little did we realize how much extra things we were going to invest in – including helmets, padded shorts, gloves, pedometers, car bike rack, etc. We are going to look SOO fast - hahaha. We both switched our tires for ones with more tread so we would be able go on gravel, and I switched out my seat to a women’s specific. It wasn’t cheap, and it could have been a lot more expense, but we had already decided it would be our anniversary gift to each other. Happy early anniversary! Now I am just itching for another nice day like last Saturday to get out there and cycle! We plan on keeping these bikes for years, so I think the cost will be well worth it!

Steph's Bike

Blaine's Bike