Easter Weekend

Hey friends, hope you all enjoyed your Easter weekend and are back into the swing of things this week! Matt's sister Erica visited us for the weekend. We had a great time!

Saturday we took her to the Desert Botanical Gardens. But first we made a quick stop at my favorite tourist attraction-The Hole in the Rock!

We headed into the gardens before it got too hot.

We were able to get really close to a hawk and an owl on display that day.

I have been wanting to see the new butterfly pavilion, and it was so cool! It was very peaceful in there. (I had more pictures in there, but for some reason I am having a hard time locating them.)

I love it when the ocotillos are in bloom. It only lasts a couple weeks, but I think they are so pretty it makes the other 50 weeks of the year-when they look like they should be chopped down-totally worth it!

There was a selfie station so naturally someone had to participate!

I think this might be the tallest cactus I've ever seen!

Such pretty views!

We grabbed lunch and came back to the house to dye Easter eggs. My family has dyed Easter eggs every year so I am trying to continue the tradition with my own family.

I got the "marbled" kit so we attempted to make some "marble" looking eggs.

Matt placed his eggs into the cups about 15 minutes at a time. Some turned out great, but then another ended up like this! Oops!

Our pretty batch of finished eggs!

Sunday we enjoyed Easter services and came back home for lunch. 

We spent the rest of the day at home playing lots of board games. We ended the night with LIFE. Matt and Erica ended up each having 5+ kids during one round. I've never seen so many "people" packed into those little cars!

Monday morning Erica and I headed out to do a little baby shopping. We had a blast! Good thing I don't know the gender of this baby or I would have two closets full of baby clothes! They are just too cute! I couldn't help myself and had to get this fun little onesie. I thought it was too funny and was sure to share it with my speech therapist friends!

We had such a fun visit with Erica. We have more friends coming into town this weekend, and then it's our turn for a vacation. Keep watching for more fun posts to come!

Birthday Dinner

Hi friends! Well it's happy birthday to me today. We did most of the celebrating this weekend. Saturday morning I headed to Vera Bradley for a sips and sweets birthday event. We had some yummy cookies and received a free gift. Saturday night Matt surprised me with dinner reservations at KAI! It's the only five star restaurant in the entire valley and only a few miles down the road from us. The restaurant is located in a hotel a couple miles off the beaten path, right in the middle of the desert. We arrived to the hostesses wishing me a happy birthday. It always makes me feel so special when people I don't know wish me a happy birthday! We waited in the lounge for our reservation time.

Our waiter was incredible! Our food was seriously delicious!! I had the buffalo and Matt went for the Elk Loin. What we thought would be one hefty main course, ended up being a five course meal! I didn't take many pictures as I felt it was too fancy of a place. There were only about 10 tables in the whole restaurant. We started with an amazing amuse bouche, followed by an assortment of breads, with a sorbet and raspberry sauce to cleanse our palette. Our main courses arrived and man oh man were they good! My buffalo fillet was on a bed of chili that was to die for! Then they brought out this desert centerpiece. 

Our waiter then poured a fancy tea over the centerpiece to release the steam. We didn't take pictures the first time so our waiter was actually so sweet and brought it out again! 

The waiter also asked what I would want for dessert and made a great executive decision! I ended up with a red velvet and beet cake over a chocolate ganache. I wasn't crazy about the beets, but the rest was amazing!!

I even had a candle to blow out!

Matt also got dessert. He had cornbread donuts and creme brulee. They were so yummy!! 

After dinner we walked around the hotel. It was beautiful!

We had such an incredible evening and felt like a million bucks. Just when we thought the night couldn't get even more special, the valet brought our car with two more bottles of water, more dessert, and a handwritten card from our waiter!

Best birthday meal ever! I am celebrating today by taking the day off work and hanging out with my friend, Jenny. We are having our sand volleyball team and neighbors over for dinner as well. See you all again soon!

A Weekend of Driving

While we were living in Kansas City I remember Matt telling me about how cool he thought these Tesla vehicles were. Once he started his job in Scottsdale he found out one of his friends has a son that works for Tesla. He got us in contact with them and a few months later we got a test drive! Matt was so excited, and I must say I was looking forward to it. 

We each spent a few minutes testing out how the car works. Matt's favorite part was "opening up the throttle." He says it went 0-60 in about 4.8 seconds. 

The guy that drove with us told me I was the first person he knew to drive one with flip flops! I felt like I was on a roller coaster. It was a very smooth, quiet ride.

The car screen is huge! Everything is touch screen-the Bluetooth radio, navigation system, heater and A/C, everything. The door handles retract once the car is in drive to make it more aerodynamic or something sophisticated like that. I actually saw one on the road a few days later and thought the feature made it look pretty sweet. Give us a decade and maybe we can take you for a ride in our own Tesla. 

While we were in Scottsdale we used a handy-dandy Groupon to check out a new winery and explore Old Town and the Art District. 

 We had a great time; I think we will be back!

Sunday we took my grandparents' convertible out on the open road-i.e. through the Indian Reservation/desert.

My fabulous driver

Hitting the open road

It felt so good to get out and enjoy the open road with the top back. Normally I don't do selfies but this time I just couldn't resist.

Selfie time!

 

We enjoyed our trip on the open road, and I think we will have to head down to drive the convertible around some more this summer. Thanks for reading!