I hit a milestone last weekend with the big 3-0 birthday. For several months now, Jess has been telling me not to plan anything for my birthday weekend since I had a surprise coming. Up until last Friday night, I had no clue what was going to happen (despite my relentless prodding).  She told me that Nancy and Robert were going to come over for dinner, so I was in the back yard preparing a shrimp boil. The doorbell rang, and Jess told me to answer it. Brother Brian was at our door, here to join us for dinner. He went out back with me to help with the boil. At a little bit after 7,  we heard a yell around the corner of the house. Apparently Nancy and Robert were here, and we weren’t answering the doorbell since we couldn’t hear it out back. I went in and opened the door, and Kieran (along with Nancy and Robert) was standing there on the front porch. Jess had used her frequent flier miles to fly Kieran out to Tucson for the weekend… I was pretty surprised.

We all enjoyed dinner together, then opened some birthday gifts before Nancy and Robert took off. The next day, we explored Tucson a bit with Kieran. We went up Mt. Lemmon geocaching for most of the day. We were four for four on the caches, and of course had to have pie at the top. After stuffing ourselves with pie, we came back to Tucson, cleaned up a bit and then went to Ra for sushi birthday dinner (sushi is the exact opposite of our pie lunch). After stuffing ourselves again, we headed home and played a few games I received as gifts. The next day, we went down to campus and walked around there a bit before a little mini golf and go cart racing. Then it was home for dinner and a few more games. I dropped Kieran off at the airport before work on Monday, and he was off to Iowa again. We had a good weekend, and Jess planned a great surprise! Take a look at photos in the gallery.

This past week we had a few more visitors from Iowa. My parents came out to spend some time in the Arizona sun. They did see some nice weather, but we put them to work. Brian’s new house needed some TLC, so we went up to Casa Grande on Saturday to help paint. They’d already done a good deal of painting and patching before we arrived. A fresh coat of paint really made things look nice. Then on Sunday they came back to Tucson (Brian came too) to help out with another house project. We installed a glass tile backsplash in our kitchen. That involved quite a few steps, as well as renting a tile saw. So on Sunday we cut and stuck the tiles to the wall. Brian manned the saw. Then on Monday, we finished with the grout. Jess and I have been finishing up little odds and ends up until today with sealing the grout, and re caulking the wall/counter break. We are finally done. You can see some photos below, and of course, another time lapse video of the process. Thanks to everyone who came and helped!

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.

Boy, it looks like all we do is go skiing. I wish that were true! We took another ski trip a couple weeks ago. This time we traveled a bit further than Northern Arizona (that trip was just for training). We flew out to Denver, and met up with friends Jon and Liz, for a weekend of skiing. We got a condo up in the mountains, and skied for two days. The snow was good, and we had a great time (minus a small encounter I had with a tree). We’ve got new photos up in the gallery.

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.

We’re in Atlantic, getting ready to open presents (Santa has been here!) before heading to Iowa City this afternoon to open MORE presents! Merry Christmas everyone!

It’s that time of year again when the officie supply stores bring back their heavy-duty viral marketing campaigns. ElfYourself.com is back! Here’s a lovely video of us (as elves, dancing the Charleston). Enjoy! Better yet… make your own!