Family and Good Food

We've had a busy--and delicious and fun--few days.  Our son Eric, seen here second from right, his wife Liz and son John--came to Arizona over their spring break.  They spent time with us and checked out a couple of universities here in Arizona--ASU in Tempe and Grand Canyon University.

Our grandson John brought three friends along--Branson, Josiah and Estebahn.  They have been friends for years and all of them are high school seniors.  That means giving some thought to what they want to study in college and, more importantly, where.

They spent two nights in an Airbnb rental house in San Tan Valley.  We had lunch at the Cactus grill in our resort. Coming from Colorado, the warm weather and sun were big attractions here.  I didn't realize boys like to lay out and tan in the sun.

Our neighbors Bob and Jean lent us their golf cart.  These four boys--all 16--enjoyed touring the resort on these wheels. Thanks, Bob and Jean.

That day I served a chili dinner at our place.

Monday, they moved to Tapatio Cliffs resort in Phoenix.  We joined them for lunch.

                                        

 Eric took a selfie in front of the falls in the resort.  What a beautiful place!

They are now headed north, back toward their Colorado homes.  We so enjoyed their visit.

What a Fun Way to End 2019!

Our son Eric, his wife Liz, and our grandchildren Kylie and John came to visit just before New Year's Eve.  We had a fun time. 

We played cards for a while before dinner.

The next day we had lunch at the Cactus Grill here in the resort.

But only after we all worked out in our gym and took a selfie in the mirror. 

We joined the resort's happy hour--otherwise known as music on the patio--the first evening.  Since the weather was cold (for Arizona) the event was held in the ballroom.  Kylie and John played corn hole for a while. 

 Kylie had used her parents' money to buy raffle tickets, one for each of us.  When the winning number was announced, it was the one on my ticket!  You can see the woman in red at the table in the background.  She is standing in front of the Cancer Drive fundraising table.  The raffle was held to benefit them.  As soon  as I picked up my winnings of  $24  I took it over and donated it to the cancer drive.

The next morning we all went to breakfast at Kneaders before they left to have lunch with some other members of their family.

The visit was a lot of fun, but way too short.  Now we have to wait until summer when we are in Colorado to see them again.

Family Time

We had visitors to celebrate the new year. On January 1 our son Eric and wife Liz and our grandchildren Kylie and John came for a two-day visit. They were headed to Mexico so they flew to Phoenix, spent time with us then drove to Mexico. On Friday that week they returned to Phoenix and flew back to Colorado.

Since today is Eric's birthday, we celebrated on the night we arrived. We haven't been with them for his birthday for years so it was good to mark the day this year.

The weather was warm enough we could sit outside before dinner, something you can't do in Colorado at this time of the year.

Kylie is on two swim teams, her high school team and a club team. One of the coaches wanted her to keep up her pool workouts while they were on their trip so two days she swam laps in our resort pool--for an hour each day!

John has been spending a lot of time turning pens and he taught grandson John how to do that while they were here. Papa showed John where to hold the turning gouge.

Then he demonstrated how to do the work.

John learned quickly how to change to square piece of wood into a found pen body.

After sanding and putting on a finish and waxing the pen, here he proudly shows it off.  Papa and John and a good time together.

We enjoyed the family visit and were glad they were able to spend some time here.  We just wish it happened more often.

Family Time

We are traveling from the East Coast to Colorado so it was a great opportunity to visit family. My dad grew up in Illinois and I have a distant cousin living in Iowa that is also interested in genealogy. We met Harry and Marilyn for lunch and had a great time talking and catching up on each other's lives. We haven't seen them for 5 years so we had a lot to catch up on.

John has a number of relatives living in Iowa and we spent 2 days visiting with them.  The first evening we went to Susie and Jim's house for dinner.  The wine and antipasto were delicious.

Then we adjourned to the dining room for a delicious spaghetti dinner.  Cousin Marilyn joined us.  Jim is Italian and he really knows how to make spaghetti and meatballs.  Thanks, Jim.

The next day we went to the senior housing complex where Marilyn lives.  After a good lunch in the dining room, we enjoyed talking in her spacious living room.

Over two days we talked non-stop for 8 hours with these people. Unusual for us, but we had so much fun we had to keep talking.

Family comes for a short visit

Our son Eric and his family stopped by for one night on their way to California for Spring Break. We relaxed and talked outside for a while before dinner, enjoying our time with grandchildren John and Kylie and their parents Liz and Eric.  Kylie is a junior in high school and they are spending the week looking a possible colleges in California for the fall of 2018.

Here Kylie is showing her brother and parents a video she is preparing of their trip.  It was fun to be a small part in the video and we look forward to watching the finished product.  You can see her family is enjoying it, too. 

We wish they could have stayed longer but we are glad we could provide an overnight place to stay on their way.

Last Days of Company

We had been going almost non-stop with our company so Monday, before John and Kendal left, we just sat around and talked.  Family time is so important and we had a good time together.  Mid-afternoon we saw them to the security checkpoint at Phoenix-Gateway Airport for their (fairly) short flight to Colorado Springs.

Cindy was leaving late Tuesday afternoon so we explored one more location she had not seen, the Queen Creek Olive Mill. We had been there but never took a tour. This time we learned a lot from the Olive Oil 101 presentation.

This old olive mill from Italy decorates the grounds.

Our tour guide was friendly, funny and full of all sorts of good information.  We started out in the olive grove.  They have 7,000 olive trees on 25 acres of land.  We learned that if 4% of the spring olive tree blossoms become olives a grove is commercially viable.

Queen Creek has 16 varieties of olive trees.  Olives have no natural threats in Arizona so they have no need for pesticides.  From the grove, we were off to the mill.  We learned a lot about how they make the oil and what makes it high quality.

These vats are where the oil is processed.  They bottle their oil every 3 weeks so what you purchase in their stores is always fresh.

We heard about the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil and about the other kinds of olive oil.

After the tour, we had lunch in their café.  They grow their own produce for many of the dishes they offer.

They also have fresh bread.  Did you know you can substitute olive oil for other fats in breads and cakes?  I didn't.  I had delicious red velvet cake made with chocolate olive oil.

They sell oils and vinegars, as well as breads.  There are tasting stations throughout the store.  A chocolate olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixture was my favorite.

After lunch we were off to Sky Harbor Airport where Cindy caught her plane to Denver. We had a great week with family, but we also needed a day or two of rest after they left.

Family Comes to Visit

A week ago, our son Eric and his wife Liz and son John drove down from Littleton to visit for four days. Since they had driven a long way on Friday after school and Saturday from Albuquerque to here, we didn't do two much Saturday afternoon. We did go for a walk around the resort. Grandson John didn't walk, he rode his hoverboard.

Sunday, after attending Palm Sunday worship at Epiphany Episcopal Church, we stopped by the Mesa Swap Meet. Our visitors enjoyed see everything that was offered there, but very few purchases were made. In preparation for deals too good to pass up, we made a stop at the ATM for some cash.

Everybody else thought I looked good in this hat, but since I didn't agree, I didn't buy it.

Granddaughter Kylie didn't come with her parents. She was in Federal Way, Washington, swimming in the Speedo Sectional Swim Meet. She swam well, reaching the finals in all 6 individual events she participated in and recording 5 personal best times. Monday, she flew in to Phoenix to join the family. In two of the events, she was awarded medals--meaning she was one of the eight best swimmers out of 100+ entered in those events. Look how proud she is of those medals. We are proud, too!
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Kylie has asked to be able to have her nose pierced as her 16th birthday present. Her parents said yes in November when she turned 16. But she waited until her Spring vacation, when she has two weeks off from swim practice, to accomplish it. So Monday afternoon, the family visited a tattoo parlor (that is where piercing of the body--other than ears--is done. Her grandparents didn't come along, but it really doesn't look offensive, does it?  She looks kind of cute.

We weren't aware of all that goes along with being a competitive athlete. Colleges are very interested! The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) has strict rules of allowable contact between colleges and high school athletes. Kylie is only a sophomore so she can ask to visit schools, they can not contact her or her family. Within the next year, first the schools can make contact with family, followed by contact with the athlete by letter or email. Not until the senior year can the college invite a student athlete to come to the school for an official visit. And the athlete can only accept five such invitations. Since neither John nor I, nor our sons, were outstanding in sports, we had never known about these rules. The next two plus years will be interesting.

Kylie and her family have a good friend who swam in college and knows about the swimming program at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He urged them to go there for a visit. They contacted the school and arranged to meet with the swim coach staff, observe the swim team practicing, and and tour the school on Tuesday. Kylie was very interested and bought this shirt from U of A. Bear Down is the motto of the school.

We all tried some bocce ball.

We went to Organ Stop Pizza for dinner and the concert. Everybody loved the evening! Look at these three good looking members of Eric's family.

We also had relaxing time, just sitting around and talking.

We had a great time with our family. It is good to spend our winters in a favorite Spring Vacation destination for younger families. What fun we had!