Our weekend and a quick road trip

Happy new week, blog friends.

♥

Ahhh... A little cold front moved in for us this past weekend and our temps were only around 101°F (38°C); a relief from the previous weekend when we were hit with 118° (47°C). Really, 101° is tolerable for us, 118° is just plain awful!

Anyway, enough about the weather...

{the desert in Tucson, Arizona}

Friday evening we met some good, long-time friends for dinner at a nice restaurant in Scottsdale. It was a great way to kick off the weekend, and we came home with a doggy-bag full of rib bones that Lucky snacked on all weekend. I even sent a few home with Carrie for her doggies and I smile thinking of her wondering if they'd know what to do with them. Must remember to ask her how they liked them...

 

You know, I gave up teaching yoga on Saturday mornings, and this was the first Saturday that I was really able to enjoy the luxury of getting out of bed and having no commitments for the day. Very nice! I spent a good amount of time on my own yoga mat, took care of a few things around the house, and did our grocery shopping before it was too dang hot outside.

 

I came home from grocery shopping and mixed up a batch of cookie dough - a new recipe I'd been wanting to try and I will share more about that later this week. Once my cookie dough was mixed and chilling in the fridge, I went mall shopping with my girl, C.

Fun thing that happened this weekend: My aunt, Kathy, visits my grandma every couple of weeks and stays with her for a few days. While she's at Grandma's house she cooks and cleans and takes care of things that Grandma can no longer do herself. (Grandma will be 96 this summer and still lives alone. ♥ ) The past couple of times Aunt Kathy has been at Grandma's house she has texted me and we share photos and messages back and forth for Grandma. So on Saturday, Aunt Kathy texted me a photo of a new chair that Grandma bought and had wanted me to see, along with photos of her pots of plants and flowers on her little patio. I texted back photos of our backyard and a couple of selfies, including the one above of Carrie and me at the mall.

While Carrie and I were out shopping for clothes, Doug was home working on our master bathroom remodel.

Over the years of working together on construction sites, Doug and his brother, Don, have been drawing goofy pictures of each other and then covering them up behind walls and layers of paint. The one shown above was drawn, photographed and texted to Don before being covered with a fresh sheet of drywall. Don's text reply was, "DOUG!!!!" Lol. Those two.

Doug is making slow and steady progress on the bathroom remodel. It's going to look amazing when he's done! :o)

And yesterday we took a little road trip...

I met Mindy and her husband, Carey, while I was in Tulum, Mexico on my yoga retreat. They live in Atlanta, Georgia and were staying at the same resort for a few days. We ran into each other several times over the course of their stay and we became fast friends. This past weekend they were in Tucson for a wedding, so Doug and I drove south to meet them for lunch. It was so nice to be able to sit and share a meal with them! We bid farewell, trusting that our paths will cross again someday.

I had wanted to make a little side trip to see the Saguaro National Park, so on our way home Doug accommodated my request. The park was 16 miles off the freeway and we made it 13 miles before pulling the car over, taking a few photos, making a U-turn and heading back to the freeway. Cactus are cactus and we see our share all the time anyway.

Heading back toward the freeway...

It was a fun way to spend a Sunday, and we were home by 4:00 p.m.

Here's something cool about this week: Doug and I made the decision for me to cut my hours at my corporate job, and [after some negotiating] my boss agreed. Starting this week, I'll be working Monday - Thursday with Friday's off in order to pursue other interests. Specifically, I'm going to begin volunteering in hospice work on Fridays. ♥ For the next two weekends I'll be in volunteer training, then once my required training sessions are complete, I will begin volunteering in various capacities with Hospice of the Valley. I'll share more about this as it unfolds for me.

Time to feed the turtles and get ready for work.

Have a lovely week, sweet friends.

Count your blessings.

♥

One Photo Weekend

Hey there, blog friends.

♥

When you sit down to write a weekend recap blog post and the only photo you have to share is of your husband's dirty hunting clothes on the bathroom floor...

My weekend was a mix of Doug being away on a hunting trip, me being present at yoga teacher training, my California family mourning the loss of a loved one ♥, making plans for Thanksgiving and dealing with a little drama in the mix (oh, family...). Cap it all off with Doug bringing a dead deer home and you have...well...a weekend for the books.

 

I'll just wish us all a week full of blessings and call it a wrap.

Gosh, I can't wait for next weekend to try again!

Keep smiling! :o)

♥

Our anniversary weekend in Seattle

Good morning, blog friends!

♥

Guess what Doug and I did this weekend... We flew to Seattle to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. :o)

There were lots of stairs to climb...

Flowers to enjoy...

Produce to covet. Man, I wish we had produce markets like this in Arizona!

Gorgeous scenery during lunch... The outside view wasn't bad either. ;o)

Fish...

People...

Chocolate...

Art sculptures...

Hotel room view... (see the Space Needle on the horizon toward the left)

More art and architecture...

The Space Needle...

Ccccccccold wind at the top of the Space Needle...

Dinner with our friends on Saturday night. This is me with my friend and soul sister, Connie.

And celebration of 10 years of marriage to this awesome guy...

Awww...what an awesome weekend we had. All the sight-seeing, exploring Seattle, eating yummy food, relaxing, and celebrating with good friends we don't get to see often enough. We left Arizona on Friday morning, returned home last night, and I did such a smart thing by taking today off work too. :o)

Time to unpack suitcases and put things back in order around here...

Have a lovely week, my friends!

♥

Our Saturday morning in downtown Phoenix

Monday morning sure rolled around quickly this week, but I'm not complaining. I had one of those weekends that was packed with non-stop cool stuff to be thankful for. I got up at 5:00 a.m. this morning and at 5:15 I received a sweet text from my 23-year old niece in California - just to say good morning and that she loves me. {Hi Brit!} How could I be grumpy on a morning like this?

♥

Doug and I met some friends for breakfast in downtown Phoenix on Saturday morning. We ate at Matt's Big Breakfast (highly recommend!!!) and then after our meal Doug and I strolled around the area to check out the latest wall art. I've blogged about this part of Phoenix before here and here - I love it. These photos were taken around the Roosevelt/3rd Street area within a 10 block radius.

 

This string "art" was random and somewhat lost on Doug (haha), and while not all of the art is really to my taste, I'm always amazed at the creativity of the pieces. Like this next piece - the subject matter is dark, but the vision and the execution - all on the sides of a building?!?! Wow...

♥ ♥

So cool, right? And that was just Saturday morning! Yesterday I spent the day taking a little road trip to Sedona with Carrie. Loved that so much and will have photos of that adventure later in the week.

And with that I'm off to see what this week holds in store.

Have a great one, my friends!

♥

My weekend and Doug's photos

Good morning, blog friends.

♥

I hope you all had lovely weekends! Mine was busy, busy, busy and yesterday afternoon I realized I hadn't taken any photos to use for my weekend recap. What to do...what to do...

And then Doug came home from a weekend in the wilderness and he had these photos on his point and shoot. Perfect!

Doug spent the weekend in Ashfork, Arizona, hunting for deer and scouting for elk. Unfortunately for Doug, and fortunately for the deer, nothing dead came home with him.

I have yoga teacher training every Thursday and Friday evening, and then the first Saturday and Sunday of the month. So this morning finds me fresh out of four straight days of yoga school - a little sore but a lot of happy and wishing for another day off to get some things done around my house.

 

Time to switch gears...

I hope happiness finds you this week, my friends.

And if it doesn't find you, go look for it yourselves!

xoxox

♥

Longest Weekend Recap Ever

Hello, my friends!

♥

~sigh~ This past weekend lasted nine whole days for me and I loved every minute of it! Doug and I headed to California where we spent the first five days on Coronado Island soaking up sun, eating yummy food, drinking fun drinks, and...well...having lots of fun. Of course, I have photos to share.

Strands Beach, Dana Point, California

 

The road trip to the coast is a six-hour drive, so I kept myself busy by doodling a starburst {inspiration here}.

 

The first part of our California stay was a working gig for Doug, so while he worked on his job, I got to know the area. First stop: Seaside Papery as recommended by one of my local paper-loving-friends. {Hi Vee!}

 

And I found the restaurant Vee recommended. We ended up having a few meals {and margaritas} at Miguel's. Yum!

We were within walking distance of the famous Hotel Del Coronado and we frequented its beach a few times during our stay on the island.

I had an opportunity to do a lot of sketching during the course of the week and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I used watercolors and color pencils, and played with a  few techniques that I've been learning from Sketchbook Skool. Love!

San Diego's skyline from Coronado Island:

We had an amazing latte and chocolate crepe at Bonjour Café in Dana Point. Holy smokes it was good!

Crossing over the bridge from San Diego to Coronado. Kinda' scary but cool...

 More food at Miguel's - a tostada grande that I barely made a dent in...

Doug and me in the sun...waiting for sunset. ♥ ♥

I found a yoga studio really close to where we were staying so I did manage to have one hour of healthy living while on the island. This photo was taken on my walk to yoga one morning:

We spent some time on Coronado's Central Beach the last afternoon of our stay. This young couple struggled with assembling their shade for well over a half an hour. Poor things - the wind was really whipping around and it was difficult to watch without laughing out loud. We hid behind our umbrella as best we could, shielded from the flying sand they were stirring up and hiding our poor attempts to curb our laughter.

 And...last but not least...the final margaritas...

We returned home late in the day on Thursday, and I have spent the past few days unpacking and taking care of stuff around here. The last thing I really want to do today is go back to work, but Monday mornings can be that way most of the time.

So, here goes nothin'...I'm off and running...

 

There's change brewing around these parts, and it's going to be an awesome week!

♥