Phoenix

Jason and I took a trip without the kids to Phoenix.  It has been a long time since we have taken a trip without the kids.  It was wonderful!  We had perfect weather and I didn't have to worry about anybody else.  No worries about sunblock, who is hungry, when they will be hungry, how tired they are, what can they handle etc. etc..  Jason arranged everything including babysitting coverage by his mom and my mom.  I cleaned the house and stocked the cupboards before going but other than that I didn't have to do any of the planning.  It was a nice change since I am the one who usually handles all those issues.

We left on Friday morning and arrived in Phoenix Friday night.  We awoke leisurely although still on the early side given the time change, and went for a run together.  We never get to run together since one of us has to be home to watch the kids so it was a nice treat.  After that we grabbed a late breakfast and then I headed to the spa for a manicure and pedicure and Jason headed to the pool to relax.  Once I was fully presentable in sandals (haha) we spent the day on Saturday walking around Scottsdale. We went to Old Town Scottsdale which was cute but very "junk shop" filled.  It was a beautiful day at about 75 degrees and sunny so we just enjoyed walking around.  Since Sofia has her i-touch now I would take pictures of different things and send them to her so that the kids felt closer to us.  They could see what we were seeing and be excited about it rather than just wondering what we were doing.  We ended up at a Mexican restaurant for dinner that was recommended to me by the woman who did my mani/pedi.  She had raved about the guacamole so that was of course something we ordered.  The restaurant was great!  The guacamole was fantastic and it had pomegranate seeds in it which I would never have thought to add but it really made it even better!  We each order tacos but again I liked that this restaurant allowed me to order just one taco.  I hate that most restaurants I have to order this big dish and then leave most of it on the plate.  It makes me feel very wasteful of food and my money.  Jason ordered three Tacos all of different ingredients which was a nice way to sample the menu.

On Sunday we woke up and the sky was gray and it was in the mid 60's.  At first we were a little disappointed but then realized that since we were going mountain biking it was the perfect weather.  It wouldn't be too hot to bike in the desert and pictures always come out better on cloudy days.  We grabbed a quick coffee and then met up with our guides to drive to the reserve to bike.  Our guides were awesome and we ended up riding about 18 miles through beautiful terrain.  If we had terrain like that here I would definitely do more mountain biking.  We started on double track that led to hilly single track.  It was awesome.  The terrain was challenging enough to make it a great workout but not like biking here and trying to get over large rocks and tree stumps.  Along the way we saw a coyote and a large hare as well which was pretty cool.  I had to laugh as we got off our bikes to get a better look at the coyote because had the kids been with us I would have been holding them back and trying to put as much distance between them and the coyote as possible.  After a day of riding we were tired.  We went back tot he hotel to shower and change and headed out to a local restaurant for food and drinks to watch the Superbowl.  Since the patriots weren't playing though we had no desire to stay to the end of the game and we made it an early night.

  Monday came with bright sunny blue skies.  We decided we had had enough exercise for our vacation and headed to relax by the pool.  It was about 75 degrees without a cloud in the ski and only three or four other people at the pool.  We enjoyed peace and quite with pool side food/drink service for the entire day.  We left the poolside only to head to our couples massage at the end of the day.  After the massage we sat at the hotels outside cafe and enjoyed wine and sushi as the sun set.  We decided to head to a restaurant that we had read about.  It was suppose to have great scenery but what didn't occur to us was it was dark so the scenery was not visible.  Oh well!  The other thing the restaurant was known for was its sticky buns.  Seems odd to have sticky buns at dinner but they were yummy!  Jason didn't want any so I ate the entire basket of sticky buns myself.  They were delicious and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and Tuesday morning we headed to the airport.  It was hard to leave the clear sunny blue skies but we will definitely be going back to phoenix!