Happy Holidays!

Knowing that some of you may be visiting this blog as a result of our Christmas card, I’ve been motivated to post some new content!

It’s hard to believe that Christmas is only 10 days away! October and November just flew by. They were tough months to be ASU football fans, that’s for sure. But seeing so many family members in November definitely made up for it! At the beginning of November we made a long-weekend trip to Seattle to watch ASU football (they won and broke their losing streak!), but also got to see my brother Joel (who works a few times a month in Seattle), Sean’s cousin Heather and her new baby, Clementine, along with the rest of that family, Heather’s husband John and her other three children, Lavinia, Owen and Tessa. And as luck would have it, Heather’s parents (Sean’s aunt and uncle), Maureen and Linc were visiting at the same time. Heather and John hosted us for an afternoon with a delicious lunch and a great visit. It was so fun to play with all the kids—they have so much personality and they’re so bright! Other than seeing family (which was one of the best parts of the trip), Sean and I did manage to sneak in a few tourist-y things. We visited the Space Needle, the Experience Music Project (and got free admission to the adjoining Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame where we saw Griff Tannen’s hoverboard from Back to the Future II), the original Nordstrom, the original Starbucks, and of course Pike Place Market. And what would a vacation be without experiencing some great food? We had breakfast every day at Lowell’s, which looks right out onto the water (excellent hash browns, by the way); grilled cheese sandwiches and soup at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese (and watch cheese being made); and a delicious dinner at Etta’s, where Sean had some of the best mussels and oysters he’d ever eaten. It was our first trip to Seattle and I hope it’s not our last—I know there’s a lot more to see and do!

Knowing we’re from the Midwest, friends often ask if we’re going anywhere for Thanksgiving, to which I always reply: “As long as Sean is physically able to get to the ASU football game that weekend, we’re staying in Phoenix.” So although we travel every year for Christmas, we always count on being here for Thanksgiving. It was nice last year when Jim and Robin came down and overlapped with a post-Thanksgiving trip my parents made. And this year was great because although Jim and Robin weren’t with us, my parents (Bob and Ellen) came down and my brother Christian and his girlfriend Anna came from Florida! Sean and I were experienced Thanksgiving dinner chefs by now, after Jim and Robin’s visit last year, so it was our pleasure to host my family for the weekend. We had dinner at the Roaring Fork for my birthday, ate at one of Christian’s favorites, Gordon Biersch for lunch the day he and Anna arrived, visited the Desert Botanical Garden (which was hosting a Chihuly glass exhibit), took in the ASU-UCLA football game, and then before we knew it the weekend was over!

This is our year to be in Kansas City for Christmas (last year we were in Minnesota) and we’re really looking forward to it…lots of friends and family to see! We’re pretty quick to complain about how “cold” it is down here, so we’ll see how we adjust to the temperature! I’m willing to give up the warm temperatures for a chance at seeing snow and having a White Christmas, though. Although it will be nice to see Katie (Sean’s sister) and Adam (her husband), we won’t have to worry about not spending enough time with them, as they’ll be joining us in Phoenix for New Year’s and the Insight Bowl (KU vs. Minnesota)! There’s also a chance my brothers Joel and David will be coming, so hopefully we’re in for another mini family reunion like we had in Seattle in November!

And speaking of Christmas, I did finally get some decorations up in our house. Our tree is lit and decorated (albeit with fake/empty gifts underneath it), our lights are up outside and I’m hanging up Christmas cards as we receive them in the mail. At first I thought it would be hard to get into the holiday spirit without any snow, but people down here in the desert sure love to decorate! There are many houses in our neighborhood and throughout other neighborhoods we’ve driven through that are absolutely glowing with lights, santas, reindeer and other holiday decorations, it’s hard to NOT get in the spirit!

Other than our trips and visiting family, Sean and I continue to enjoy our jobs. I recently finished up on a two-day, 300 person conference that my Center hosted for nonprofit professionals, so now things have quieted down a bit until after the holidays. Sean recently traveled to exotic Washington, Utah, to take depositions, and continues to gain new experiences in his various cases.

Brinkley just got a haircut and has been doing a little bit of shivering around the house, as we don’t turn the heat on (it just feels wrong to turn the heat on when you live in the desert) and neither Brinkley nor Sean is very fond of the dog sweater I bought him. He’s definitely gotten soft since moving to Phoenix…Sean and I remember watching him happily romp through the snow in front of the Lied Center back when we lived in Lawrence!

Merry Christmas and happy 2009!

Out goes summer, in comes fall

I wish I could say we've had an incredibly busy, hectic late summer/early fall so I'd have an excuse for not posting...but unfortunately that's not the case! :-( We had a fairly quiet summer, but did have fun with a few activities with our trip to Sedona and the Tom Petty concert in August, as well as hosting people for get-togethers where I got to channel my inner Martha Stewart (I made Schnauzer cupcakes!)...photos below.

Besides football (which I'll get to shortly), September was a good month for me both personally and professionally because I was awarded with the Phoenix Public Relations Society of America Copper Anvil Award for my work on an annual conference my Center offers. I got a few requests for photos of the award, so those are below. I was also pleasantly surprised the Monday after I won to receive beautiful flowers from Jim and Robin congratulating me!

Almost all of September was dedicated to watching what Sean calls his own personal Christmas Morning: college football season. Our poor Sun Devils aren't doing as well as we hoped after our 10-win season last year, but that's just a test of our loyalty as fans, right? Although wins make the drive home a lot more exciting, going to Sun Devil Stadium almost every Saturday in September was a fun event. We suspect there was an error in the ticketing office because our reserved parking spot is only about 50 feet from the gate! Word has spread (probably due to our "I can't believe we got that spot" bewildered statements to our friends) and we aren't lacking for friends to tailgate with before each game. Today we play USC, so our hopes aren't too high, but wouldn't it be nice to break our losing streak against USC of all teams? We finally get to return to our sweet tailgate spot and Sun Devil Stadium in two weeks when we host Oregon.

This fall we're also looking forward to meeting Joel up in Seattle for a long weekend trip. Who knew it, but it turns out we might be able to catch up with several friends and family membes! Sean's cousin, Heather, and her family live in suburban Seattle and due to the imminent arrival of their fourth child, Sean's aunt Maureen and Uncle Linc might be up in Seattle the same time as us! Additionally, Sean and I both have friends who either live in Seattle or travel there frequently, so we may be in for a very busy weekend!

I know it's October (boy we had a lot of birthdays this month, didn't we? Doug, Linc, Colleen, Andrew, Katie, happy birthday!), but I can't help but be excited for November: a trip to Seattle, a little time off work for Thanksgiving and a visit from my parents, Christian and Anna! The weather seems to finally be cooling off a bit, so hopefully it will stay pretty temperate...last year when my parents were down in November they brought the cold Minnesota weather with them!

Yesterday all of the first year associates at Snell found out if they passed the bar, which caused Sean and myself to reminisce about being in the same position two years ago...which then led to us recognizing that Sean is now a third year associate! It probably depends on who you ask, but I'd say that time has sure flown by! Sean having to actually practice law every day might have a different opinion. :-) This is fairly old news by now, but we were also very excited and proud to hear that Katie and Adam both passed the Missouri Bar in September!

Happy fall to everyone! We're looking forward to seeing everyone we'll either be visiting or hosting before the end of the year!

Sedona

To celebrate our second wedding anniversary, Sean and I returned to the place that put everything in motion...Sedona, AZ, where he proposed a little over three years ago! We spent a long weekend (Thursday through Sunday) at the Amara Resort and Spa, which is located right off the main drag of Uptown Sedona. Uptown Sedona is a lot like Old Town Scottsdale with little shops and restaurants. We even found some Christmas gifts for some people...but you'll have to wait until December to find out!
We arrived in Sedona in the early afternoon on Thursday. After a disappointing experience checking in (they lost our reservation and because of that our room wasn't ready), we walked up to the main drag and had a couple afternoon beers at the Open Range Grill and Tavern. Below there's a photo of the cloudiest Hefeweizen beer I've ever had. I thought I heard the bartender say something about how the keg was just about spent, which made me even more suspicious of my fuzzy beer. But it tasted great, so I had nothing to worry about, I guess! I've expressed this in past posts, but it's really hard to beat a cold beer in the afternoon when you're on vacation...especially when you know you have the whole vacation ahead of you! After our beers we browsed through some shops (and made some gift purchases!), then walked back down to the resort. Our room was nice, but the best part was the great bed...king sized with a super soft down comforter and cushy mattress. We also had a small balcony (that overlooked the parking lot) with a couple chairs and a small table...perfect for after dinner drinks. :-) Once we unpacked we looked for a place to have dinner. After a quick search on yelp.com for good dinner places in Sedona, we decided on the Hideway Restaurant. It wasn't far from our hotel and had an amazing view of Oak Creek (the same creek that our hotel backs up to). We sat outside on the deck, which made us feel like we were straight up from the water. We both decided on pasta and definitely had plenty of food left over to bring back to the room. After taking some time to digest, we walked back up to the shops to walk around some more and get a little ice cream dessert.
On Friday we had grand plans to take a hike, but after sleeping in we decided to scrap it and walk up to check out a breakfast spot. We ended up at the Hitching Post, and for any Sideways (movie or book) fans, it was nothing like that Hitching Post. This Hitching Post was basic diner foods with so-so service. Although our food was fine (omelet for Sean and corned beef hash and eggs for me), we realized when we got our bill that this was truly a tourist town with tourist prices. We walked around a little bit more afterwards, then headed back down to the hotel. The resort has a spa on site, so we just walked across the parking lot for our treatments. Sean got a deep tissue massage and I got the Coconut Rub and Milk Ritual Wrap. The spa was nice, but for a spa-spoiled Phoenician like myself, it was nothing compared to the Camelback Spa back home. And what better way to top off an afternoon at the spa than a dip in the hot tub? This was one of the few times during the weekend that we weren't threatened by lightening so we decided to take advantage of the clear skies. Our luxurious day continued with a nice dinner at the resort's restaurant, Hundred Rox (until recently, the Gallery on Oak Creek). We had a delicious dinner with great service and a wonderful view of the red rocks. We started with the calamari, Sean got the free range veal duet (veal scaloppini and veal sweetbreads) and I got the filet. For dessert our server treated us to free blackberry panna cotta, which was always one of my favorite treats to get at Dean and Deluca the summer I lived with Joel and Lisa in Leawood. After dinner, our stomachs extremely full, we returned to the room and sat on the balcony for a while enjoying the cool weather.
Saturday morning we were a bit more virtuous and drove out to the Coconino National Forest for a hike. Our trail head was just west of town, but involved more "back woods" driving than I expected. I have now been proven wrong in doubting a Toyota Camry's ability to drive on glorified gravel paths only traveled by Jeeps, ATVs and people on foot. Evidence of Sean's off-roading is in a photo below. Our trail was very scenic, crossing a dry river every few minutes, with red rocks towering above us. Our elevation change was only about 400 feet, so this was definitely an "easy" hike when it comes to hiking standards, but it was nice to spend the time outdoors and work off a small portion of the million calories we'd consumed by this point. After we emerged from the park we were pretty hungry for lunch. Having already dined at places we scoped out online before arriving, we decided to just keep our eyes peeled for something that looked good. Sean had to turn around and go back to a place I spotted that we whizzed by when he heard me say the name: The Red Planet Diner. Sean, self-admittedly, is a sucker for kitschy, hole-in-the-wall, dive, you name it. The decor definitely lived up to the name, with UFOs painted on the walls and several alien figurines/decorations all around. As we scanned the menu, one appetizing item stood out: a milk shake. As I looked at the price, I saw it was listed at $5, which reminded me of the movie, Pulp Fiction. In that movie, in LA, it seemed fitting to pay $5 for a milk shake. But at the Red Planet Diner in Sedona, AZ? Seemed a little out of place. Regardless, Sean ordered the chocolate milk shake and I drank close to half of it! In the afternoon we walked up the hill to get a coffee and browse around the shops some more. It was fairly cloudy and even sprinkled a little bit, so thankfully most of the shops had good overhangs and coverage from the rain. After our coffee, we got ready for dinner and headed to Tlaquepaque where we had a reservation at El Rincon, the place we had dinner the day we got engaged. We arrived about an hour before our reservation, so we stopped in for a pre-dinner drink and appetizers at Oak Creek Brewery, coincidentally enough, the place we had lunch right after Sean popped the question. The little shopping village was fairly quiet, as most of the stores were closed, but there were plenty of people still milling around taking photos. Between drinks and dinner we stopped in at a few of the galleries that were still open and took in some interesting artwork: everything from jewelry to wall installations to oil to glass. At dinner we sat outside on the Christmas light-lit patio (very similar in ambiance and feel, but on a smaller scale, to Old Town Tortilla Factory in Scottsdale) and dined on chips, salsa, chimichanga and tacos. On our last night in Sedona we spent some more time on the balcony in our room chatting about the fun things we did.
Sunday morning we left town pretty quickly, stopping at a place we'd eaten breakfast three years prior (what can I say, we're creatures of habit). Continuing the pattern of re-visiting places from the engagement trip, we stopped at Cliff Castle Casino on the way home to try our luck on the slot machines. As a couple we ended in the black, but if there is such a thing, Sean is much better at slot machines than me! It was nice to get back home by mid-day so we could do our usual weekend errands and house things, and still feel relaxed knowing work was waiting for us the next day. Brinkley, who spent the weekend with our friend Matt, was happy to see us, although I think he's happy to see any human being that will let him out of the man cave (where he stays during the day)!
Now we're back to the grind of our usual routine. However, we have a lot of things to look forward to coming up very soon! Jim and Robin are visiting for the ASU-Georgia football game in September, Sean and I just planned a trip to Seattle in November to meet up with Joel, and rumor has it Bob, Ellen, Christian (and hopefully Anna!) will be coming to Phoenix for my birthday, Thanksgiving and the ASU -UCLA football game.
The fall always brings two things that are exciting for us: ASU football and cooler temperatures!

Summer (apparently I only post at the change of the seasons)

Hi everyone!
I promise I have a good excuse for going so long without a post: Sean and I haven't had a weekend to ourselves in our house together since April. Sean traveled extensively for work, family and friends, and our schedules barely overlapped during the month of May. But now we're back in Phoenix, back to our usual routine, and I have some time to finally catch everyone up!
Unfortunately, the end of April was a very sad time for my family, as my grandmother, Lucille, passed away. The bright side of it all was that I got to spend several days in Minnesota with my family, many of whom I hadn't seen since Christmas. The service was lovely. As cliched as it sounds, times like this really showcase how caring and thoughtful friends and family can be.
May was a very busy month for Sean, in particular. He spent a weekend in Vegas to celebrate a high school friend's bachelor party, another weekend in KC for Katie's law school graduation, and another few days in Detroit representing his law firm at the Ford headquarters. We finally met up with each other a couple days before Katie's wedding in KC.
I made the trip up early, about a week before the wedding, to attend an old co-worker's wedding, then stayed the rest of the week to live up to my matron of honor duties in helping the bride (and the bride's family) prepare for the big day. This included very important tasks such as dining and shopping in Lawrence, afternoon naps and grilling out for dinner. :-)
Katie and Adam's wedding was so much fun! Katie looked gorgeous, of course, and it was so fun to see family and friends! I could have done without the 85 percent humidity, but I guess that's the "it's a dry heat" Phoenician in me talking. I put some of my favorite photos (also some courtesy of Uncle Doug) below.
Our May was so crazy that we're looking forward to a quieter summer coming up. This will not, unfortunately, include watching ASU in the College World Series since they got bounced in the Super Regional on Monday night. I think I logged close to 9 hours of baseball watching this past weekend...do I get a medal or something? But all kidding aside, it has been fun going to the games all season. I'm definitely looking forward to next year (and the delicious soft pretzels!).
That's about it for us. If anyone has any interest in visiting us this summer, just let us know! The New York Times listed Scottsdale in its 31 Places to Go This Summer! Also, football season
isn't far off, either, so if you'd like to catch a game at Sun Devil Stadium, we'd love to host you...just give us some notice!

Spring

I know I made promises of posting in a timelier fashion, but I purposely delayed this entry in the hopes I had a KU national championship to talk about...and I do! But more about that later...
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!

A late start to 2008

Yes, if you've done the math you'll notice that I haven't posted anything new in about three months. My initial goal was to post at least once a month, so while I've fallen behind on that front, hopefully I can redeem myself by providing a nice catch-up post!
The holidays definitely sneaked up on us with many a holiday party and wrapping things up before heading up to Rochester for Christmas. This was our Minnesota year (off to Kansas at the end of this year) and we were fortunate to have all the kids (although me being the youngest at 25, I think my parents are the only ones who call us the kids anymore), grandkids and my parents under one roof on Christmas day. Although pretty chilly, it was nice to have a white Christmas and a few days off from work to just enjoy the company of family and kick back and relax. I took quite a few photos from the week, so I chose some of my favorites to share below.
After returning to Phoenix from the North Country, Sean and I got up early the next day and drove out to San Diego to watch ASU take on Texas in the Holiday Bowl. As a Christmas gift to ourselves we stayed at our favorite hotel, the Hotel Del Coronado, where we honeymooned in 2006. The friends we usually tailgate with for ASU home games, the Steinbergs, were also staying at the Del and we all attended the ASU Alumni Assoc. tailgate together before the game. Even though ASU ended up losing the game, our mini-vacation in San Diego was still a blast. The beach on Coronado Island is beautiful no matter what the temperature is! I was still able to take numerous sunset photos (apparently I can't help myself)! We ate at our favorite restaurants and continued the holiday relaxation before making the trip back to Phoenix right before the New Year.
January and February have seemed to fly by, with a few keep-us-on-our-toes moments sprinkled around. In the middle of the night, sometime early January, we were awakened by our beeping microwave. Sean, being the dutiful man of the house, got up and checked out the noise to find water leaking from the cabinet above the microwave, onto the microwave, and pooled in a saucepan we'd left on the stove top. Thanks to the dumb luck of our frying microwave and strategically placed saucepan, we were able to turn the water off and get a plumber out to our house in the morning. However, our luck ran out there, as we were told we had so many leaks in our 50 year old pipes that we should get the entire house re-piped. In fact, some of the leaks had repaired themselves over time because the water in here Phoenix is so hard (I don't even want to think about what the water is doing to my skin!). So, Sean and I had an early lesson on what savings accounts are there for, and can now boast, "Complete re-pipe in 2008!" on our spec sheet when we go to sell the house.
In February the Super Bowl came to town, so it was fun to read the paper every day and see what celebrities had been spotted at what restaurants, etc. Many of the pre-Super Bowl parties took place in Old Town Scottsdale, which is only a couple miles north of our house. Some girlfriends and I went to the LL Cool J party and concert, which was really fun! The best part was the free admission (courtesy of one of my girlfriends who knew the event director), but it was also fun to do our own celebrity sightings. Alfonso Ribeiro, better known as Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air TV show, danced on stage at one point and we also saw Joey Fatone of the band NSync. My point-and-shoot digital camera's flash didn't quite reach the distance to make these photos crystal clear, but take a look below...I did my best! The Phoenix metro area had a busy beginning of February because the FBR Open, a fun golf tournament, concluded on Super Bowl Sunday. Sean was able to go out a couple days during the week, and then our friends invited us to join them on Saturday (the largest attendance day with over 160,000 people). The total attendance for the week was over half a million!
As all of you know, Sean's birthday is on Valentine's Day, so as if our December trip wasn't enough, we treated ourselves to another San Diego stay at the Hotel Del Coronado. It was a bit warmer this time and we spent all our time just walking on the beach, sipping drinks in the lounge and visiting our favorite restaurants and a couple new ones. When we were there in December we discovered the dog beach park, which is really fun to walk to and watch the dogs run into the ocean after frisbees and toys. Brinkley is pretty dainty and tends to avoid water, so we don't think he'd like it much...which is probably better because we don't want to know what kind of mess those dogs make in their owners' cars and/or homes afterwards!
Now February is over and it's on to March! Sean and I are both busy with work, as usual, but enjoy our free time on the weekends. Just last night we had dinner with some of Sean's old neighbors and family friends, Bill and Connie Carrison. They were in town for work and Sean was able to take an afternoon to golf with Bill and then we joined them downtown last night for dinner at Kincaid's (a steak and seafood restaurant - delicious!). It was fun to catch up with some Kansas City folks...and the best part was that the weather was so nice we ate outside! And speaking of visitors, Jim, Robin and Katie will be flying down on Friday for a weekend stay full of golf, spa visits, baseball and catching up! We saw Jim and Robin over Thanksgiving when they were here last, but we haven't seen Katie since last spring! We're looking forward to catching up and hearing all about wedding plans, graduation, and all the other exciting stuff happening in the next few months! Rumor has it she's in the inspection process of buying a house, so perhaps that will be a done deal by the time they arrive!
Not much else going on here. Just cheering on KU basketball and looking forward to the NCAA tournament at the end of the month...we have tickets to the Phoenix regional!
Look for an update in a few weeks...I hope!