Mom and Dad visit Tucson!

My mom and dad flew into town yesterday from Michigan! We spent the afternoon watching our wedding dvd (I can never get enough of it...thanks Rache!). Then we went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which is more of a zoo/botanical garden/national park than a museum. It was absolutely gorgeous scenery.


A mountain lion behind a fence...the only way I'd like to ever see one...


Today we went all the way into Sabino Canyon, hiked around, and had a picnic...


Then my mom and I went to Lori's salon and had pedicures done! :)

While we were out getting pampered my dad put a new handle on the toilet so that it no longer stays down after flushing it!! And, he hung our light abover our table!

Then this evening we went out for dinner and then came home and played some scrabble...mom won the first game and I won the second. :)

San Francisco!

On Monday morning, Natalie, Analisa, and I packed up the bug convertible and started up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco! It was a BEAUTIFUL drive through national parks with the ocean right there as well. Next time through, I'd love to bring a tent and go camping!




We made a stop at the Madonna Inn to confirm that it is truly the guadiest looking place for fine dining...unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it, but as you enter the dining room area there is a large porceline doll hanging/ swinging from the ceiling...a little frightening to say the least...







We stopped in Monterey for a delicious seafood dinner!

Then, we finally arrived in San Francisco! It was so nice to be in a city again...it actually really made me miss Boston A LOT! I just miss having the cute little flower shop below our apartment and the good breakfast place down the street...everything always being within walking distance...but then again, I do love that the sun shines 350 days/ year in Tucson! :)

Analisa and I went for a run on Tuesday morning across the Golden Gate bridge...both she and Natalie are training for a half marathon right now (go ladies go!)... :)


Then we hiked around Muir Woods...a beautiful red woods forest...a definite gem for the bay area!


The bay area really has it all now that I come to think of it...they have the ocean, beautiful green rolling hills, the red woods, the city,...so glad to know we'll be back in that area again! In fact, we hope to play to a show at Cafe du Nord in October, a great acoustic venue that is just down the street from where Analisa and Natalie live! So get your ticket to San Fran and get ready for my favorite acoustic duo to enter the stage! :)

That night we headed down to the Wharf for dinner...and then over to North Beach for some gelato! We sat in a park to eat our gelato and began to reminisce about when we sang in gospel choir together in college...a guy sitting on a bench across from us heard us and came over and decided to sing with us for a while...he lead us in a bunch of "repeat after me" songs...we had soo much fun. It was one of those things that we could've never planned, yet it was just a perfect way to spend our night.





Back at their apartment, we got into some heated rounds of mario brothers on nintendo (the original nintendo that is)...Ryan would've been so proud of me... :)

L.A.

We spent all of Saturday afternoon in the studio doing pre-production work with the producer and other musicians for their next cd.


Two of my friends from college drove down from San Francisco for the show that night, so I spent the evening with them walking along the beach and then going out for dinner.


The show was at Hotel Cafe, a cool venue, however a little noisy due to it being a bar. Ryan had a lot of friends from Berklee there, plus our friend Claire from Boston surprised us by showing up since she was in L.A., my friend Justin from City Year came, as well as Analisa and Natalie from San Francisco.

San Diego!

So, last week I wrote a really long post that included our travels to San Diego, LA, back to San Diego, and San Francisco...and then my internet connection quit and I lost it all! I was a little upset, so I took it out on the blog and refused to post for a while...but the time for forgiveness has come and I'm ready to post again....this time however I'm going to post one city at a time... :)

2 Fridays ago, Ryan, Cameron, and I packed up the rah-sah-savvy (the Rav4) and drove to San Diego. On the way, we stopped in Dateland, AZ to check out the date shakes, date bars, date dates....and get gas. I kept begging Ryan for a quarter so that I could ride the helicopter, but he insisted that it wasn't up to any sort of safety code...




We made it to San Diego in good time and met up with some of Ryan's friends from Berklee and had dinner before the show. The show was at a coffee shop/listening room called Lestat's...very cool place....and the owners liked Ryan and Cameron a lot and already want to have them back for another show.


That night we slept over at Ryan's cousin's house and had fun chatting with her and her husband for awhile. They got married last summer as well, and even though we've gotten to see them a few times over the past year, we haven't really had the chance before to sit down and talk b/c it was always at a wedding or similar type event....so having quality time with them was really nice.

On Sunday we drove back to San Diego so that we could attend a memorial service for one of my patient's from Boston Children's Hospital that had cancer and died in April. It was a beautiful memorial service on Pacific Beach next to the pier. For almost 2 hours people (friends, family, high school teachers, etc) stood up and shared thoughts and memories about her...it really was a testimony of what an incredible person she was to so many people. Ryan said it even made him feel like he knew her. After people were done sharing, the surfers did a traditional paddle out in honor of her since she was a surfer as well. Then they had a reception at Kono's (a famous breakfast place in San Diego that she had told Ryan and I we HAD to go to on our honeymoon.)


As we were leaving the beach area, we had to stop and ask for directions...little did I know when entering the little shop that looked like a jewelry/candle type store to me that it was really a "medicinal marijuana" shop...I probably stuttered a bit in asking directions once I realized what was going on around me, and then immediately tried to act all cool like it was normal :) ...but nonetheless, they gave us great directions!


And, of course we couldn't be in California without going to In-N-Out...so we stopped in to have a snack with Cameron, Julia and her boyfriend Bryce (friends from Tucson that just relocated to San Diego.) (Bryce is taking the picture)

Memorial Day Weekend

Our Memorial Day weekend kick-off started with planting our new little tree in the front yard. It's a Mesquite Tree, lovingly called "Squiter" by those who love him and know him well...


Saturday night we went to a Sidewinders Baseball game with Melissa and Chris. Sidewinders is the minor league baseball team here in Tucson...not nearly as big of a deal as the Whitecaps for those of you that live in Comstock Park, but still a cheap and fun baseball game to go to! :)

Fundraisers and Home repairs...

Last weekend we went to a fundraiser for the Sonora Fund, which is a grassroots organization to help get grant money to organizations working towards social-change on the Arizona and Sonora, Mexico border. Cameron's brother, Kenyon, is on the board for the organization and played guitar/sang with a couple of other guys that he is in bands with.

Kenyon and Ryan


Kenyon and Carlos


On Monday, Lori and Todd came over to help us with some home repairs!

We got new locks on the door....


And can now be frequently found lying on the hammock while watching the sunset...


We found a park last night that is 3 miles in perimeter with a paved path, so we went for a late night rollerblade which was fun, and felt great with the chill to the air at night!

We don't really have any plans for Memorial Day weekend...I guess when you work from home, having Monday off doesn't seem like such a luxury anymore. Next week we'll be heading out to CA, where the temps are a little cooler! :)

School Lunch!

Last week I went home to Michigan for an unexpected death in the family. It was an incredibly sad situation, but so good to be with family. I got to spend time with cousins that I hadn't really had that much time to hang out with since I was in elementary/middle school, got to visit my nieces at school and share in their lunch period, and I got to be home for Mother's Day!

At lunch with Alyssa....


At lunch with Lydia...


The fancy life of a small town, lunch at Red Rock Grille, where I got to meet the janitor of Lil' Rog's school and also see people I used to work with in high school...


Lunch with Emma, Lil' Rog and Nichole...


Ryan and I were apart for 15 days!! That's the longest we've ever had to go...even when we were living in Boston, we were never apart for that long. So good to be home with him now! This past week we went with Lori to hear some bluegrass music, Ryan and I took our first swing dancing lesson, Sara got her wisdom teeth out, and last night we made the first good dinner we've had time to make in a while, and then saw a movie ("Inside Man"--very good!) and had ice cream with Chris and Melissa (our couple friends).

Sunday...

This morning I went to church at the place that I believe will become our new "home church"...this is our second week there and so far we've really felt that it's the right place for us. And, it so conveniently happens to be the place where a couple that we've started becoming friends with, go as well. After the service today, we went out for brunch and had a great time talking. Then, this afternoon (after the lizard incident), I went to a folk festival with a girl named Elisa that I met at Cameron's birthday party at his brother's house... I love how inexpensive Tucson is! First of all, it was free parking in the art museum's parking lot, even though I wasn't going to the art museum...Then, the folk festival was free...2 full days of great music from noon-midnight! I bought some roasted corn (it's basically corn on the cob that they grill in the husk with butter, chili powder, and salt (I think))...soo good! I wish I had pictures to show y'all...but since I had taken my camera out of my purse for the lizard this afternoon, it never made it back in! oops! :)

oh, and p.s. about the lizard...it was HUGE...it might not look like it in the picture, but you're going to have to take my word for it...in order to look at it the right way, it may help to know that it's looking at the camera...I'd say the body was 4" long plus tail!

Lizards...eck!

I was on the phone with Ryan (He's in WA) on my drive home from church this afternoon...I pulled into the garage and went to step out of the car and saw a HUGE lizard on top of our case of costco water bottles about 2' from where I was! Needless to say, I had to get off the phone so that I could take a picture of it on my phone to send to Ryan so that he could see how big it was...and then I had to take a picture with my camera so I could show all of you! :) Mind you, I did this all from the car window b/c I was a little nervous that it would run towards me, even though Ryan assured me it wouldn't...

Cinco de Mayo...

Well, I've been a bit of a blog slacker lately...sorry about that! The real reason is, is that I changed purses and my camera didn't make the change, so I haven't been taking as many pictures lately...but I promise to work on that! :)

So, just to back track a wee bit..

Last week Ryan and I went swimming at Grammie's pool...water temp of 86 degrees! Ryan taught me how to play the toothpick game. One person places a toothpick at the bottom of the pool and then both jump in and try to find it (no goggles or opening eyes under water allowed)...it's pretty tricky, in fact the only times I ever won were when we waited long enough for the toothpick to float to the top. :) Afterwards we had dinner and played "Gimme Five" with Ryan's mom and grammie...Ryan and his mom won big time...but only because I was tired from having swam. :)


This past Friday (Cinco de Mayo) Grammie and I went shopping for a dining room table...we drove all over south Tucson going to Mexican import stores, but couldn't find what we were looking for...so finally we decided to go back to a store (Tres Amigos) that I had been to about 8 times already in the past 3 days. Just as we were pulling up, they were putting up a huge banner that said "20% off everything in the store"! Needless to say, we found exactly what we were looking for...plus a few extra items...



After we got all of the furniture, we went back to South Tucson to get some good/authentic Mexican food...we went to this absolute hole-in-the-wall place that had the best mexican food that I've ever had! I was kicking myself for not having my camera with me b/c our waitress was this ~60 year old spunky woman wearing the cutest yellow traditional mexican dress.

Tonight I went with Mary (Ryan's stepmom) and Rachel (Ryan's half sister) to a huge Cinco de Mayo/Mexican Mother's Day celebration that was sponsored by the Spanish radio station here in Tucson. It was a really cool event...great music, lots of people salsa dancing in the crowd, and fun food (i.e. mango on a stick dipped in chili sauce...)...

Family time...

In between the Kansas/Missouri shows, Ryan and Cameron flew to North Carolina for a one-off show....instead of going with them, I flew to Michigan to see my family...it was a quick trip, only 18 hours to be exact, but it was great to be home for an afternoon of playing with my nieces and nephew, and evening of good food and company.

My sister took a half day of work and let her kids get of school early so that they could all come with my mom and dad (and other niece) to the airport to pick me up. We went back to my parents house and rode bikes/played outdoors and then went hot tubbing. I can't believe how fast they are all growing!

Emma (she'll be 2 at the end of May) is even starting to talk now...(and can say my name!)...though she doesn't really seem to remember me. :(


Lil' Roger is the sweetest little guy...he's five and kept telling me how much he loves me, how beautiful I looked, and even went out of his way to open the door for me...he's going to be a charmer to all the ladies some day! :)

Haleigh (6 years old) doesn't have any front teeth and is proud to show off her wounds from getting attacked by a pitbull a few weeks ago...she's amazingly brave!

Lydia (7 years old) is my shadow while I'm home...she's always right by my side and ready to play, color, or whatever it is. She's also little miss fashion...just got her hair hi-lited (I have no idea how one spells that...)...shows how into fashion I am. :)

Alyssa (9 years old) just started playing softball and is an incredible reader. She's in an accelerated reading program and was supposed to read 50 points worth and is so far at 350 points!


My grandpa came over for dinner...my mom had held off on having lamb for easter so that I could be home for it too...so we had lamb, shrimp, fruit salad and all the goods...

That night we went over to one of Roger and Nichole's friends' houses for a bonfire...it would be sooo great if they decided to transplant the family out here to Tucson...I think they'd love it...and it'd be so nice to be closer to them...


Then, I flew out at 6:30a.m. the next day...on the plane in time to see the sunrise...

Kansas City...

Last week we flew to Kansas City for a couple of shows (one in Kansas and one in Missouri)....most of the shows lately have been outdoor festivals at colleges and universities. When we were at the airport flying to go there I got bummed all of a sudden when I realized I had forgotten to pack my new flip flops, especially since they were going to be outdoor shows...well, once we arrived, I realized that there would be no need for flip flops in the midwest yet...it's gorgeous during the day, but come evening it's chilly and damp...no longer flip flop weather. In fact, the show at Rockhurst University (MO) had to be moved indoors b/c it was raining...raining so much that it was said to be that they were to receive more rain that weekend, than what would be average for a whole month!


It wasn't until this trip out there that I realized how much I miss grass and big trees! It's something I took for granted while living there...perhaps similar to how Ryan feels like he took the mountains for granted while living in Tucson growing up. But, as much as I miss the lush green grass and shade from tall trees, I was very excited flying into Tucson knowing that it was going to be warm outside, even though it was 10pm.

Cameron's dad lives in Missouri, so I got to meet that side of his family. We had dinner at his dad's house and I got to meet all of his siblings...lots of fun little kids running around for the afternoon. Here is a picture of Cameron and his dad listening to the other band sound check before their show...