spring has sprung

For several weeks now we've been experiencing wonderful weather! We seem to have skipped early spring and are enjoying temperatures in the 70s and even 80s! One of my favorite signs of spring are tulips so last fall we planted some bulbs. We came home today to find them in full bloom. My pansies aren't doing as well--everyday we come home to find them all uprooted. Tomorrow we're going to ask Vokey to sit by the window all day long and bark whenever a squirrel comes near!

pour us

The fun ended at 7:55 pm on Monday night when our plane departed for Kansas City. Now it's back to reality and hopefully, a beautiful spring in Kansas City! We had such a great time--it was hard to say goodbye. We enjoyed one last round of golf on Monday, and stopped to get a souvenir of our trip and of our wedding--a Cosanti Bell. We've both been to Cosanti and Arcosanti (our reception site) several times, but had never been there to see the bells being made. We were excited to see them hard at work pouring the hot bronze!

new places | new people

A theme of this trip has been new homes and new babies. Alot has changed since we moved so many of our friends have new family members (and bigger houses to accomodate those family members)!

We enjoyed dinner on Saturday with Matthew and Lisa Trzebiatowski, and got a tour of their very cool new house!

Sunday night found us at the newly renovated Turk residence, enjoying a mideastern dinner with Nasser and Rana, and their daughters, Noor and Masa. Sara and Luis joined us with their son, Oscar as well!

St. Patrick's Day Paint Job

Saturday morning we enjoyed a hike at South Mountain with Terese who is going to hike the Grand Canyon in May with a group called 'Hike for Discovery' (similar to Team in Training--same cause, different activity!) What a beautiful place to get a great workout!

After lunch at La Grande Orange, Mike surprised me with a trip to the Spa at the Camelback Inn. To make the day even better, he sent Jami and Terese along with me! We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon of smoothies and pedicures (and of course, lots of catching up and laughing!)

I'm not Irish but I'm a lucky girl!

Happy Anniversary!

It's hard to believe that it has been 5 years since our wedding! It doesn't seem all that long ago although alot has changed since the big day. We were glad to be back "where it all began" and able celebrate with a few of the people who were with us that memorable day! We enjoyed lunch at the Royal Palms (where we shared 2 special desserts). Later, we met up with some friends for dinner and a mini-wedding cake (same pastry chef and flavor as the first time--white chocolate passion fruit ganache!)

Here's to many more celebrations!

fore!

It's another warm (ok, bordering on hot!), sunny day in Arizona. We enjoyed lunch with our friends Scott and Jami Leahy, their boys Luke and Reid, Jami's parents (who are visiting from Colorado), and Terese at Grayhawk. Afterwards, Terese, Scott, Mike and I hit the links for some friendly competition.

return trip

At this time five years ago, our friends and family were starting to arrive for our wedding weekend festivities. We have fond memories of the weekend, and all of the people who were able to share it with us. To celebrate, we're spending a few days in sunny Arizona. We flew in on Wednesday and spent the afternoon at some of our favorite places.

gives peas a chance

Heidi hosted a baby shower for her college roommate, Amy last Saturday. Josh and Amy are expecting a little girl on May 16 and the nursery is green and white, so the theme was "a pea in the pod", inspired by a stuffed pea pod recipe Amy remembers from a shower she attended years ago. We can't wait to meet Little Lingenfelser!!

elbow room

We started celebrating Mike's birthday on March 9 when our friend Amy (Bartel) Lingenfelser flew in for a long weekend and baby shower! Mike made his favorite birthday dinner of fried chicken and mashed potatoes. Since cake was on the shower menu, Heidi brought home one of our favorite treats, Christopher Elbow chocolates!