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!