Andrew Visits

This past weekend Matt's brother Andrew came to visit. It was great because we didn't get to see him a couple of weeks ago with the rest of Matt's family. Matt was busy working so I got to spend a couple of days with Andrew!

After I picked him up I took him to In-N-Out. He said if that was all we did the whole time his trip was most than worth it! So either I had set up some big expectations or my job was already done with him being there in the first 30 minutes. After lunch we took a trip over to Mesa Riverview Park. It was SUPER hot, but we still did some climbing.

That night we took him up to Rustler's Rooste for a great view of the city accompanied by some excellent food. I had the BEST prime rib!

Friday morning Matt took Andrew golfing before he headed to work. It sounds like they need a little work on their game, but had a good time either way. Then I took Andrew to the Phoenix Park 'n Swap. I had heard great things about this place, and this was the first time I could get there. It totally lived up to its expectations. I will definitely be back! It is basically a huge garage sale, and we know how much I love those! ;)

Then I took him over to Papago Park to see the Hole in the Rock. It was very hot!

Andrew decided to chase the biggest swan I've ever seen.

Saturday we took Andrew up to Sedona to take him hiking and cliff jumping. 

Matt took him to his "rock throwin' spot" to throw rocks down to the creek at the bottom.

After an hour or so of hiking in 100*+ weather, we got to the "pool". It is so pretty.

Then the boys did some cliff jumping.

Love the photobomber in the back!

They started getting brave and decided to go for the big jump.

Check out the next Phil Dunphy in the making-my husband!

Matt was taking tips from a pro up on the higher rock. 

This guy was not with us, but he was pretty talented. So I went ahead and took pictures of him doing a backflip!

Pretty cool right? And then it was Matt's turn.

They jumped from all different angles. 

After we made it back to the car (again, HOT!!!) we headed into Sedona and took Andrew to the Chapel of the Holy Cross for the view. 

No matter how many times I go there I will still be in awe of the beauty.

We went to dinner at a local Italian restaurant, Troia's, and I must say they were the nicest people ever! We were still in our hiking clothes and just wanted some pizza. This was a pretty nice white tablecloth restaurant. We felt really guilty, but they were so nice. I feel like most people would be rude to us, but the hostess and server treated us so well!!! If you are ever in Sedona we totally recommend it! The food was amazing, too!!!

We hope Andrew had a good time while he was here. It was just about as hot as it could get while he was here, but hopefully it was a nice trip before he goes back to school. I'll be back tomorrow for another Tasty Tuesday. See you then!!

A Friendly Visit

We had our first friend visitors stay with us this weekend. It has been so great having my family visit us this Spring, but it is always good to see some old friends. We had been given lots of great places to take friends so I am very glad we got to finally try them out. And who better than with Andy and Jess!? They got in Thursday and we left them a car at the airport with a very extensive Welcome Packet. After 6+ pages of reading, hopefully that had an idea of what to do while Matt and I were still at work. I know they spent lots of time in the sun. I took them to Papago Park and the infamous hole in the rock to get a good view of the valley. I think they were pretty impressed we actually got to go inside the hole in the rock. 

That night we took them over to Four Peaks Brewery. I had heard it is a great place to go but never on the weekends because it is so crazy busy. It was PACKED! Luckily, this place is huge so they found a way to serve us. Everything was amazing, especially the spinach artichoke dip! 

Friday, the boys got an early start with a round of golf that included free breakfast! Then we gave them a list of things to do while we were at work. They took another hike, this time at South Mountain, tried out our amazing Waldo's BBQ and picked their own peaches at Schnepf Farms. Friday night they treated us to some homemade cooking, and we laughed for hours over Taboo. I never knew it was so hard to explain the word biscuits, but the boys proved to us it is nearly impossible. We also took them to our new favorite shaved ice place, Bahama Bucks for some Bahama Rama Mama's. 

With the temperature rising to triple digits in the valley, Saturday we headed north to check out Sedona for the day. We started with what I thought was going to be a quick 2 hour hike that turned into 5 hours of breath taking fun. 

After hiking for what seemed like hours,  

(but with views like this who can really complain??)

we finally found the creek we had been searching for, and it was totally worth every drop of sweat! 

At the creek we took some good ol' fashioned senior pics, 

let these two show off their true colors, 

found the tiniest baby pine cones you'll ever see

 hopped over many rocks,

found a camouflage tree

and some of the prettiest red rock you will ever see.

 After a hot and hungry hike back to the car we enjoyed our late lunch and headed for our initial destination, Sedona. We were pretty exhausted from our hike so we enjoyed the shortened Sedona tour including stopping at a scenic route to take in some amazing views, a quick break at The Chapel of the Holy Cross, driving along the downtown and uptown shops, and of course more food.

 

Make sure you click on this photo to enlarge it: awesome view!

We ended our day enjoying some well deserved Mexican food with yet another pretty incredible view. It just doesn't get much better than this...

We very much enjoyed hosting our friends for their long weekend in Arizona taking them to see the beautiful state we currently call home. We got to enjoy some of our favorite things: hiking in the sun, eating way too much food, laughing, and just spending time together. We hope they enjoyed the same and can now go home and show off their newly tanned (mostly sunburned) bodies! We love visitors!! Who's next?