The first weekend in March we had a wonderful visit from the O'Haras: Jim, Robin and Katie. They flew early on Friday morning and Sean was the assigned host as I was at a work event all day (an ethics forum tailored specifically to nonprofit professionals...something tells me Sean and Co. had a more exciting day than me). However, my day also included a celebration dinner recognizing a $5 million investment in my Center (renamed the Lodestar Center for Philanthropy & Nonprofit Innovation--try saying that 5 times fast), so that was exciting. After my dinner I was able to join everyone for a late dinner at Tarbell's (one of our favorites). Although not extremely hungry, I was able to save a little room for their delicious Scotch Beef and amazing bread pudding. Everyone had a long day, whether working an event or flying in from KC, so we all poured into our beds right after dinner. On Saturday, Katie, Robin and I spent the day at the Camelback Spa while Sean and Jim golfed. That's one of the wonderful things about having out-of-town guests: Sean and I get to treat ourselves to a little mini-vacation too! That evening we caught an ASU baseball game where we watched the then #1-ranked (and undefeated!) Sun Devils handily beat UMass. The weather was perfect and it was hard to complain about such a beautiful evening watching baseball and snacking on hot dogs, pretzels and peanuts! Photos are below. On Sunday, we took advantage of Jim and Robin's stay at the Camelback and lounged by the pool most of the day. After enjoying lots of sun, water and drinks, we made our way to the Pink Pony Steakhouse, a favorite of Jim's. Our weekend was already coming to an end! Nevertheless, we were still able to grab a quick breakfast on Monday morning with everyone at the Camelback before Sean and I headed to work and the O'Haras made their way back to Kansas City.
March is one of my favorite months for a number of reasons. Since moving to Phoenix, the gorgeous weather (75 degrees and sunny? I'll take it!) has been added to the list...but the main reason is men's NCAA basketball. I'm not ashamed to admit that I get completely wrapped up in March Madness. I head up my office pool, I watch the games online when I can't get them on TV and I get completely bummed out every year when KU loses. But this year, as you know, was different! We cheered on the Jayhawks every game and hosted friends at our house to witness the madness. I'm pretty sure we've reached our beer, pizza and snacks quota for the year after watching KU on their road to the national championship! We're still buzzing with happiness and excitement over the title! Photos of our celebration are below. Another bonus of this year's tournament was that Sean and I got great tickets to the West Regional Final in Phoenix! We got to see the WVU-Xavier, W. KY-UCLA and Xavier-UCLA games from the 8th row (Sean is modeling the location of our seats in a photo below). We also had our first celebrity close encounter with AZ Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart and singer Nick Lachey. The back of Leinart's head is featured in the photos below (apologies for the low-quality, but digital point and shoot cameras can only do so much!)...before we saw them in their seats, we actually found ourselves following them through the concourse at halftime when we got a snack. Leinart's a big guy!
Now that March is over and April is practically half over, we're counting down the days until we leave for Kansas City. Sean has a fun bachelor party weekend planned with some KC friends in Vegas at the beginning of May and I'm surprisingly busy with work events in May, so we are definitely staying busy. Sean's able to get up to watch Katie graduate from KU Law on May 18th and I'll be able to spend a whole week in KC prior to Katie's wedding, as I'm attending a wedding there on the 24th...then serving as maid of honor (I guess "matron" is the correct term, but I don't feel like a matron!) in Katie's wedding on the 31st. I'd like to think Brinkley will miss us during this time, but with our friends house/dog-sitting while we're out of town, he won't miss a beat. As long as he has his food, lots of petting and a warm bed to sleep in, he'll be fine. :-)
Well, I guess that's about it from down here in the desert. We'll see many of you in May!
No comments:
Post a Comment