Last week my family came to Arizona and we all hung out at Grandma Jean’s house in Phoenix for the week. It was a nice relaxing time filled with tennis, multiple trips to Sonic, lounging outside, and eating. All in all, a good visit. Too bad they had to leave and go back to the cold and snow. I don’t want to make you jealous, Mom and Dad, but it’s still roughly 70 degrees here. And sunny. So, when are you coming back?
Author: Jess
Painting another room
Hopefully this is the final room in the entire house that needs a new color. The guest room is now a pretty shade of beige with some photos and rearranged furniture. Come visit and stay in our recently remodeled guest suite!
Desert Adventures
Recently we took a trip to Bisbee, Arizona–a tiny hippie town tucked away in the mountains about two hours outside of Tucson. On our way to Bisbee, we decided to stop in Tombstone and maybe get a glimpse of the OK Corral. Sadly, the tour was sold out, but we did see plenty of horsedrawn carriages and Tombstone (the movie) merchandise. Unfortunately, our brief stop in Tombstone didn’t end well because it involved Scott stepping in horse poop. I guess that’s just the chance you take when you go bac
k in time to the Old West.
After our brief detour, we were on our way to Bisbee. Bisbee is a quaint town, with lots of weird little town charm (i.e., the house with a bunch o’ crap stuck to its exterior). We had a good time geocaching and exploring, 
but I would have to say my favorite part of the trip was going on the mine tour. Bisbee was a big copper mining town so there are lots of abandoned mines dotting the area. We also had an amazing meal at the Cafe Roka. All in all, a good little weekend getaway.
I was not done traveling after we got back from Bisbee. A day after we returned, I was scheduled to go to San Luis, Arizona, for work. San Luis is a small border town roughly four hours west of Tucson. Anyway, the trip there was fairly uneventful, but the trip back was something I will never forget. My coworker and I got stuck in a sandstorm and had to be escorted out of the storm by Arizona DPS officers! As you can see in the photos below, it was like blizzard whiteout conditions, but everything was orange. At times we couldn’t even see the cars pulled off to the side with us. Let’s just say I hope I never have to go through a sandstorm again!
Lemon Tree
We’re coming up on our 1-year home ownership anniversary and we finally finished our backyard. Our backyard project started last summer when we spread 4 tons of rocks (or 36 wheelbarrow trips). We also laid patio pavers and planted bushes. The latest addition (and my personal favorite) is a Eureka Lemon Tree. I’m a fan because it blocks the neighbors behind us. Check out our finished backyard below. I have to admit…it’s nice not having to mow the lawn.
Visitors!
We recently had a round of visitors from Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio. Needless to say it was a full house! Jo, Mom, Laurie, Mary, and Katlin all came to the Southwest for some relaxation and sunshine. We had a blast going to the Desert Museum and dining on Mexican food at Cafe Poca Cosa. The only bad thing about it was that they eventually had to leave! Check out photos from their visit here. Thankfully, we have more visitors to look forward to in the near future.
Extreme Office Makeover
Scott and I decided to makeover our office (aka the “command center”) this past week. Let me tell you, it was quite the task. In our command center lives three working computers (not inlcuding laptops) and thousands of computer parts, which put together probably could make about 12 other computers. So yeah, the office was cramped and we kept bumping into each other’s chairs. We (okay, mostly me) decided enough was enough and we mapped out a plan for our extreme office makeover. First, we cleared out the room and painted it a light gray color (official color name: silver tradition). Our room is pretty small (I think about 10×11) so we figured we better go vertical with shelving. I had seen a shelving system that the Container Store sells called elfa. I first came across the elfa shelving system on the Unclutterer blog and was inspired. So we went to the store in Scottsdale, AZ, and ordered all the pieces a few weeks ago and then picked them up this past weekend when we were back in the Phoenix area visiting my grandma. We also stopped at IKEA in Tempe, AZ, for some storage boxes. Anyway, after a lot of work, we have an awesome, new-and-improved command center. Check out our before and after pictures below. Needless to say, I am a huge fan of the elfa system and the Container Store!
Music: Kevin MacLeod
Skiing…in Arizona?
You’re probably asking yourself right now whether it actually snows in Arizona (can it be?). I can attest to the fact that snow does in fact exist in Arizona because I have seen it with my own eyes. A few weeks ago, we went skiing in Arizona’s White Mountains, which are a few hours northeast of Tucson. We skiied at the Sunrise Ski Resort just outside of Greer, which is the little town we stayed in. We rented skis at the resort and hit the slopes for the day. I have to say the snow was pretty good–nice and fluffy. However, it was a lot warmer at the bottom of the mountain waiting for the ski lift than I thought it would be. I probably could have done without that extra layer, but such is the fate of an Arizona skiier. Otherwise, the skiing was great. We went skiing because we (well, mostly me) needed to dust off our skiing skills before going to Colorado next month to go skiing with Jon and Liz. Luckily, I only fell once and it was on a blue run so there is a little dignity in that. At least it wasn’t a green. 😉 Check out our pictures from our trip to the White Mountains. (Also, our 2008 holiday photos are up in the gallery.) We’ll post more skiing pictures late next month once we get back from Colorado.
Happy HalloWiin!
We have been pretty busy this past month. Three weekends ago we went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and we had a great time! We had been to the museum a few years ago when we visited Tucson, but we decided to go again. Check out our photos here. My favorite animal was the bighorn sheep who seemed to effortlessly scale the rocks.
Two weekends ago we went to the U of A v. Cal football game. The Wildcats pulled through and beat the Golden Bears. It was a beautiful evening of college football, but I must admit that it was rather weird to me that it was October and very much unlike the normal fall football weather I’m used to. I think it hit around 85 or 90 degrees right before the game. Thankfully, it was an evening game with a 7 pm kickoff so once the sun went down it was a lot cooler.
We were also busy again this past weekend! On Saturday night we went to a corn maze that’s about 45 minutes from our house. Yes, there is corn in Arizona. What’s interesting is that I never went to a corn maze when I was in Iowa, the land of corn. Yet, I’ve been to a corn maze in the Southwest. The next morning I walked with some of my co-workers in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk. It was a gorgeous day to do a 5k walk. Afterwards we went to one of my co-workers’ house for a potluck. Her cat just had kittens and Scott seemed to really bond with one of them. I had to check his pockets before we left to make sure he didn’t steal one of the kitties.
Last night we carved our pumpkin. We decided to pay homage to the Wii and carved a Wiimote into the pumpkin. I know…we’re geeks.
Birthday Surprise Trip
Last weekend for my birthday Scott told me to pack a bag and that we were going on a surprise birthday trip. He didn’t tell me much except that I would need stuff for the whole weekend. An hour into the trip I still didn’t know where we were going, but I had my suspicions. We finally hit Phoenix and were heading north when I finally got it out of him that we were going to Sedona, Arizona! For those of you who don’t know about Sedona, it’s probably one of the most beautiful places in Arizona, in my opinion. The scenery is absolutely amazing. What’s cool about it is the red rock that’s everywhere in the mountains. We stayed at a vacation rental by owner for the weekend and hiked around a lot. We also did a little bit of shopping in the gallery district. Check out our photos. There isn’t a bad view in Sedona. We had a good time enjoying the weather and relaxing. Thank you, Scott!
More visitors from the Midwest!
We recently had some more visitors from Iowa! My parents came for the weekend and hung out with us. We watched the Hawkeye football game (I don’t want to talk about it) and Mom took me shopping for my birthday (awesome!). Needless to say I got plenty of good outfits at my favorite store…Ann Taylor. We also went to Mount Lemmon and hiked around a bit on Sunday. Mount Lemmon is one of our favorite places in Tucson because it’s always cooler up there on top of the mountain. Oh, and there’s a pie shop at the top that serves amazing pie! (see Scott’s last post for more pie fun). Check out the pictures from their visit here. It was nice to see you, Mom and Dad!