Christmas 2009

This Christmas we were blessed to have Katie celebrate with us at our house.  Katie wrote a very sweet letter to Santa and then re-copied it at Macy's and mailed it off to Santa.  In the letter Katie asked for a few gifts for herself but also asked for a few gifts for Sally...

Schwisow-style Thanksgiving

This year we decided to spend the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in Nebraska with the Schwisow family. 

Scott was a little upset that he may not get to watch the annual Arizona State vs. University of Arizona football game, but with some clever technology fixes and a lot of patience, he was able to stream the game and feed it through the tv for all to watch (not the best quality feed which caused poor audio quality and lots of squinting).

We played games, watched football, ate tons of turkey (and leftover turkey), and Scott even got to drive a bulldozer.

Halloween 2009

Sadly for us, Katie spent Halloween with her mom again this year.  So in the spirit of Halloween, we carved pumpkins the weekend before Halloween and then got a costume for the dog...

Fall 2009

Sadly, Fall didn't bring us cool weather like we had hoped (we still a few days over 100 in November), so we were still able to do lots of fun outdoor activities.

Katie has been doing so well in her new school - she's only missed 3 words in 10 weeks of spelling quizzes.  She soaks up new information like a Sham-WOW and ends up teaching us new things all the time.  Her math homework the other day even forced Whit to double check the answer on-line (eeek!).  She's made gobs of new friends and really seems to enjoy school.

Here's a few snapshots of Fall in Arizona...

Western Australia - 2009

So after we left Melbourne, we flew directly to Perth.  From Perth, we caught another flight 2 hours north to Karratha.  Once in Karratha, we met up with the rest of the wedding guests and the wedding party.  We spent 2 nights in Port Samson and did some coastal exploring.

Next we headed inland to Karijini National Park.  The wedding was absolutley beautiful and the Karijini Eco-Resort was one of the more fabulous experiences of our trip.  Everything was wonderful, beautiful and the experience as a whole was really great.

After 2 nights at the Karijini National Park, we headed back to the coast to spend our remaining days in Exmouth, WA. While in Exmouth, we seized the opportunity to soak up some sun at the beach, swim with the wildlife and explore the western tip of the continent.  On our last full day in Australia, we decided to go Deep Sea Fishing with a few other members of the wedding group.  Neither of us had ever done this before and it was a great time!!  We were able to keep everything that we caught and had quite the feast that evening.

Despite our FABULOUS trip, our journey home was more terrible than we ever imagined it could be.  From start to finish, we travelled for 50+ hours, beginning in Exmouth and ending in our garage. Whitney was sick with a fever and cough, Scott was squished in coach and unable to sleep on any flight, our main flight from Sydney to Los Angeles was delayed, bags were damaged and/or lost and connecting flights were missed.  But man, were we thankful to get home.

Below is a chronological slideshow of our photos:

Eastern Australia - 2009

So we were invited to attend one of Whit's former co-worker's weddings in the Outback. After much debate, we decided it was one of those "once in a lifetime" events that we simply could not rationalize missing out on.

After realizing what a long flight it is to Australia (14 hours going west, 16 hours going east), we decided to make the most of our visit and try to see as much as possible. Whit saved up all her vacation and personal days for 2009 and we planned our 16 day voyage.

We flew from Phoenix to San Francisco to Sydney, spent 2.5 days touring around Sydney and then "hired" (rented) a car to drive to Melbourne. The drive was estimated to take 10+ hours so we decided we'd divide the trip in half and find somewhere to stay in between. We were not in any sort of hurry to get to Melbourne, so we hopped on and off the Hume Highway at our leisure visiting small towns, wineries, and other dots on the map when we wanted to.

We stayed the night in a small town called Wagga Wagga, which we can officially say has Australia's WORST Mexican food. I don't think we've ever paid so much for food so terrible before. So if you ever find yourself in Wagga Wagga, DO NOT eat at Montezuma's.

After our night in Wagga Wagga, we hopped back in our little car and headed to Melbourne to meet Whit's college friend, Jenny Chambers (formerly Jenny Muth). Along the way we stumbled across a FANTASTIC brewery in Beechworth (Bridge Road Brewery) where we didn't meet any beer we didn't like. We hopped back on the road and ran into a DELICIOUS winery (Sam Miranda Winery) in Snow Valley. Eventually we made it to Melbourne in time to meet Jenny for dinner. We spent 2.5 days in Melbourne touring around in the rain. Fortunately, the rain held off long enough for us to attend the Footie Finals at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. Jenny came to the game with us and served as our unofficial footie interpreter - what a bizarre sport.

On our final morning in Melbourne, we headed back to the airport and waited for our flight to Perth to meet up with the wedding party...

LegoLand and San Diego

We were delighted when Aunt Adrienne (Schmadrienne) scheduled another visit to Arizona to enjoy a relaxing long weekend and soak up some sun. We tried to think of things that we could do with her on the weekend to entertain her.

Then, after Katie's first two weeks of school were a resounding success, Scott and I decided to surprise Katie. We planned a trip to LegoLand as a reward for studying so hard and doing so well in her new school. Adrienne picked Katie up from the bus-stop after school on Friday and we tossed her in the car. We started to drive and played '20 Questions' with Katie so she could try to figure out where we were going...it only took 6 questions.

Below are a few photos of our weekend at LegoLand and in San Diego.

Scott's Fat Tire Ride 2009

This past weekend Scott completed one of the silliest things I have ever heard of: a 65-mile mountain bike race.

The race started in the Coconino National Forest, just a few miles northeast of Flagstaff, Arizona. The course decended through the pine trees (where Whitney managed to see a momma bear and 2 bear cubs) into the flatter high-desert landscape. The course then wound back into the cool forest on Forest Service roads following a historic stage coach route. The ride ended on Forest Service Road 302 just a few miles outside the boundary of the Grand Canyon National Park.

The course is normally approximately 65 miles; however, due to forest fires in the high-country, the course was detoured. The detour route added approximately 4 miles to the middle section of the course. Lucky Scott.

Scott started the race at approximately 7:30am and finished at approximately 2:15pm. Along the way he wiped out once (got a little eager and went a little too fast), successfully helped his buddy Jason (wearing Honey Smacks jersey in photos below) fix his bike with only a zip-tie and medical tape and also stopped along the way to help a stranger change a flat tire.

Enjoy the photos posted below:

Third grade at Katie's new school

Katie started THIRD GRADE last week at the school in our neighborhood, Ryan Elementary. She was very excited about her new school and her new teacher. After only a week, she had made 6 new friends at school and 4 bus-riding friends.

After 2 weeks she is requesting play-dates with her new friends, eager to sign-up for the drama/theater club, and sings songs on the bus with other kids.

Here are a few photos from the first day of school:

8 is GREAT!

Katie recently celebrated her 8th birthday with a Star Wars theme!! A large family birthday party was held pool-side at her mom's house and Katie's first girls-only sleepover party was held the following night at mom's house. Katie invited Whitney to come to the girls-only sleepover. Whitney helped paint fingernails and decorate cupcakes with the girls.

Here are a few photos from the girls-only sleepover:

Wedding photos

It was recently brought to our attention that we never posted our wedding photos.

WHOOPS!

I did a little digging and I've uploaded a combination of the professional photos and the more candid photos taken by family and friends. There's a lot...enjoy!

Once I locate the CD of our "dirty photos," I'll upload those as well.

The First Annual Daddy-Daughter-Doggie Fishing Trip

Scott, Katie and Sally headed up north to Bear Canyon Lake for a few days of camping and fishing. They found a great spot and both Katie and Sally were able to do some good exploring around the campsite. Katie and Daddy were not lucky enough to catch any fish, but Katie had a lot of fun with her new fishing pole and is anxious to go again sometime.

Whirlwind weekend in Seattle

So 2 weeks ago we made an impulse trip to Seattle. During Scott's mandatory week off work, he flew up to Seattle, rented a car, drove to Canada and explored for 3 days. I flew up on Friday afternoon and we crashed with my good friend Jerry for the weekend.

It was quite the whirlwind weekend: we hung out with Jerry's friends, toured the city, met up with our friends Steve and Jenny for dinner, explored a sliver of Washington's wine country and attempted to grill on Jerry's rooftop.

Below are some photos from our Seattle weekend, and since I wasn't there...Scott will have to blog about his Canada trip on his own...someday.

Sally-Wally

For those of you who have know Scott's dog Sally for many years, these next few photos may surprise you. For those of you who don't...

Sally-Wally, Sally McStruthaz, Slobbering Sally, Sally Sosa, etc. is our lovable 5-year old yellow lab. Scott originally got her as a puppy to keep the stray cats out of the yard at his old house. For years Sally was a crazy, hyper and obnoxious dog. Ms. Sally Struthaz LOVES attention and who knew that's all it would take to help calm her down.

Now, Sally Sosa has grown up, gotten gray, and even beaten medical odds. Katie and Sally are best friends and Sally is a big part of our family.

Chances for Children 2009

Katie and daddy ran in the Chances for Children race at Tempe Town Lake on May 16, 2009. Despite the HOT temps, Katie finished the one-mile race in just over 11 minutes.

(We finally got a new computer and I forgot to upload photos. Better late than never...)

The crew meets Riley Patterson Hayes

We traveled to Dallas for Memorial Day weekend to meet the newest member of the Hayes family, Riley Patterson Hayes. Pat, Wendy and the kids went also. It was such a treat to see Mark and Meridith's amazing new home and spend time hanging out with them. Parenthood suits them both very well and Riley seems to be a very happy baby. We can't wait to watch him grow...

Wendy did a great job of taking pictures most of the weekend, but I managed to remember to take a few with our camera.

Tom and Courtney's wedding

One thing we learned from our wedding is you can never have too many photos of your big day. After all, you spend months planning it so you might as well enjoy the photos.

So here's our photos from Tom and Courtney's beautiful wedding. There are quite a few so disable your pop up blockers, click on the slide show below and the pictures will open in large form in another window (http://picasaweb.google.com/azhayesfamily). This will allow you to scroll through them in a bigger window and at your own speed.

We will be sending a CD of all our photos to Tom and Courtney and also to any family members who want one (just send me an email).

ENJOY!!!

Easter 2009

Scott took Good Friday off to spend the day with Katie and Whit was stuck at home battling the stomach flu. Somewhere in the middle of the day, we all decided to dye Easter eggs...

Mountain biking with Daddy

Scott does his best to go mountain biking at least 2 times a week. This time, he convinced Katie to go along with him and give it a try.

They loaded the bikes on the car and head to a trail we normally hike in the SanTan Mountains. Katie worked really hard, gave it her best effort and had one pretty good wipe out. BUT after all that, she ended the day with a smile on her face and is ready to go again sometime!!

First Water Trail

Scott and I tossed Sally in the car and headed out to the Superstition Wilderness on Sunday for a leisurely hike...9.5 miles later we were all starving and exhausted. It was a beautiful afternoon and we couldn't have asked for better weather.