Labor Day in Colorado

As has become tradition, Labor Day weekend was spent in Aspen with friends from across the country for the annual Motherlode Volleyball Tournament.  This year we decided to take our time, bring our bikes along and make a summertime roadtrip with Whit's new car through Colorado.  We stayed in Durango, Crested Butte and finally made it to Aspen.

Bear Canyon Camping

We were desperately seeking some relief from the 110+ temps of Phoenix, so we packed up the car and headed northeast towards the Mogollon Rim.  We searched and searched for the perfect campsite but had a slim selection because we arrived on Saturday afternoon.  But with a little patience and help from the front seat navigator (Katie gets to ride up front when we are on forest service roads), we were able to find a great camp spot just south of Bear Canyon Lake.

Sunday morning we packed up our campsite and headed for the lake to do some fishing.  Katie's excitement for fishing lasted about 5 minutes and then she came down with a mild case of "the grumpies."  We stayed a bit longer and Scott was able to catch a crawfish/crawdad.  Katie was mainly interested in making sure he was returned to the water.

After our luck ran out at the lake, we headed home on the Rim Road for a scenic change.  Katie ooohed and aaaaahed at the scenery while Whitney and Sally napped in the backseat.  We stopped for lunch in Strawberry, Arizona and then toured the Natural Bridge State Park.  Sally was not allowed to hike on the trails that led down to the water, so we took turns hiking down to the cave with Katie.

All in all, a wonderfully exhausting weekend for all.  So exhausting that I think Sally is still sleeping...

Katie's 9th Birthday

Believe it or not, Katie turned 9 this year.  Where does the time go?!?!  For her birthday, Katie decided she wanted to go rock climbing and then have a sleepover. 

Five of Katie's friends met her at ClimbMax gym in Tempe to learn to climb.  Daddy, mommy and Whitney all learned to belay so that they could assist the kids with climbing.  After cake at the gym, the girls all came back to Daddy's house for swimming and a sleepover.  At Katie's request, Chef Daddy made a special batch of french toast for all the girls.  :)

The Fourth of Nebraska

This year we decided to spend the Fourth of July in Nebraska to celebrate my parents 40th wedding anniversary.  As usual, the trip was busy and too quick.  We were able to see nearly everyone, but the time together never seems to be enough.

It was great seeing everyone again.  We love you all!!

Click on the slideshow below and a separate window will open so you can scroll through the photos at your leisure.

Whit's Tri for the Cure

On March 9, 2010 (my 28th birthday), I was doing something at work on-line and stumbled across a triathlon in Chandler, Arizona.  I clicked on the link and discovered that the triathlon was designed to raise money to fight breast cancer.  I signed up and created a fundraising page that day.  Starting that night, I trained and trained and trained.

On April 11, 2010, I completed my first triathlon in 1 hour, 11 minutes and 50 seconds.  In addition, I raised over $600 for the Phoenix Chapter of Susan G. Komen.

I can't wait to do another one...

Larry and Becky come to visit!!!!

Whit's parents, Larry and Becky, came to visit for a week in March for week 2 of Katie's spring break.  They came to hang out with Katie and escape the cold weather of Nebraska.

The Hayes family decided to treat them to a weekend road trip to the Grand Canyon and Sedona...

Katie's first competetive race

At school, Katie participates in the Ryan Elementary Running Club.  This club meets once a week after school and encourages the kids to run.  Last week the running club held a trial race.  Any member who could finish the 1.5 mile race in under 30 minutes would be invited to run in a competitive race along with students from 3 other local elementary schools.  Katie finished the trial run in approximately 15 minutes.

On race day, Katie was full of energy and ready to run.  We saw her during the first lap and then towards the end of the race.  When we saw her on her last lap, she was visibly upset and crying...but still running fast.  After the race we learned that she was upset because her number card was ripped off her shirt (leaving a small hole) and because she got hit in the face with a tree branch.  One of the girls in her running club saw that she was upset while running and patted her on the shoulder and told her to "keep up the good work."  We were so proud of here for toughing it out and finishing the race despite her unlucky series of events.

Her dad tested the stopwatch feature on his phone and clocked her 1.5 mile run at approximately 13 minutes.  During the awards ceremony, Katie was shocked when she heard her name called for the 4th place 3rd grade female runner.

CONGRATULATIONS KATIE!!!

Telluride winter vacation

As part of our Christmas gift to Katie, we decided to take a family ski trip to Telluride, Colorado.  Katie decided it would be a good idea to bring Sally along with us.  I think that for a dog, that's when you know you've made it and that you are a part of the family.  In addition, Uncle Mark, Aunt Meridith and cousin Riley (Scott's brother, wife and kid) plus Meridith's mom and dad would be joining us from Texas. 

So we packed up the trusty Land Cruiser and hit the road...with Sally in tow.  Both Katie and Sally were wonderful passengers, although Sally did whine for nearly all of the 9 hours we were in the car.  Sometimes it sounded like she was singing along to the music, and other times it sounded like she just wanted to get out of the car at all costs.


We arrived at our house and got settled.  The next morning when Katie woke up and headed downstairs to find breakfast, she was surprised to see Aunt Adrienne sleeping on the pullout couch in the loft area.  What a great surprise!!!!  Her face lit up and she promptly glued herself to Adrienne's hip for the rest of the week!

Katie went to ski school for 2 days and then skied with Scott and I for the 2 additional days.  She did a fantastic job on the slopes and even toughed it out through a cold and wet powder day.  Her skills have improved and her confidence is amazing.  I have no doubt that in another year, she'll easily be able to ski better than me.

Here are a few photos of our trip...and one video of Sally singing in the car....

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.