Mom is spending Thanksgiving in Kansas

Be on the lookout for someone familiar beginning later tonight. Mom is flying back to Kansas today and will be there until next Tuesday. Tell her hi if you see her around. Happy (early) Thanksgiving to all of you in Kansas! We miss you all!

Early Thanksgiving Dinner

Since Mom will be back in Kansas for Thanksgiving, she decided to host the Arizona Thanksgiving today. And boy was it good!! Lots of amazing food and good company! Thanks to Mom and Dad for getting everything ready and cooking everything! I know Allison and I had a great time with everyone (Dad, Mom, Mike, Holly, Teri, and Bill)! As of right now, we're both still full!

New light fixtures

Stan and I have been looking for new light fixtures for the foyer, utility room and bathroom for a while and we finally found some we liked yesterday. We put them up this afternoon.....the pictures don't really do them justice, but we really like them.....for "non mechanically inclined" people it was an accomplishment!

Utility Room:

Master Bathroom:

Foyer:

Pizza night last Friday

I just wanted to pass along a couple pictures when Mike, Holly, Teri, Allison, and I went over to Dad and Mom's for some pizza last Friday!

Family visit

Allison's parents joined us in Arizona last Thursday for a visit, and I don't think we could have asked for better weather (except for the 5-minute rain shower)! They flew back to Illinois this morning, but we took a few pictures last night after dinner over at Mom and Dad's. Enjoy!!

Such a cute kitty!

As I was watching some TV tonight, kitty was in her normal spot...asleep on my shoes. I couldn't resist taking a couple pictures. She's been sleeping on my shoes for a year or two now (she's weird), and tonight her face was actually in my shoes. I have no idea how this is comfortable for her, but it's cute nonetheless!

A nice sunset...

There's a sunset setting on my camera, so the colors come out much brighter in the pictures, but I wanted to show everyone a nice sunset from this evening. Beautiful, isn't it?

Holly's Baby Shower

Here are a few pictures that I snapped at Holly's baby shower on Saturday afternoon....so many cute little things! Thank you to Holly's Aunt Mary and Teri (Holly's mom) for hosting a most enjoyable afternoon!

Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport Open House

Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport had a free open house today from 9am to 2pm, so while I was out running around for a few other things, I decided to stop by and check it out. It's only about 15-20 minutes northeast of us, and below are a couple snapshots I took.

If you ever see the back of a running engine this close, it's probably a little too close!

Back to "normal" after our trip....

I guess we are "back to normal", whatever that means! We had a wonderful time on our trip, but it's also good to be home. Since Jeff and Mike kept you up on our itenerary, all I need to add are some pictures so here you go.....

One of the many "towel animals" provided by our room steward!


Our "Dining Mates" for the entire trip on Elegant Night:


Dinner on the Ship:

Our Ship docked in Acapulco:

Near the Cliff diver area in Acapulco:

Cliff Diver area in Acapulco:

Fish Market in Ixtapa:

Downtown Manzanillo (the old downtown):

Old Church in Puerto Vallarta:


Puerto Vallarta, if you look closely you can see the Walmart in the background...

Harbor at Puerto Vallarta:


San Diego, at the beginning of the trip:

Ship at Sea Fun Day

Well, today is Dad & Mom's final day of the cruise. :-( But we sure are looking forward to having them home tomorrow evening! We hope they're having a blast enjoying their last day at sea! I'm sure this is what they're up to... ;)

Very "engaged" in life

"Uhhh, quick announcement here before bell time..." (sorry, I had a high school flashback there for a second)

It's already on Facebook, so I suppose it's time for a post here on the blog, too. As of last night, Allison and I are engaged :) We don't have a date planned yet or anything, but we'll get there. We've been together since April 2007, and I look forward to many, many more years!

In other news, the weather here is beautiful! Low to mid 50's at night. Upper 80's during the day. Almost perfect! We took a walk through Cooper Commons this morning and took just a couple quick pictures of the amazing flower colors right now.

And here's one of kitty a few days ago...she LOVES to lay on shoes (and actually sleeps on them at night!)

Spirit in Port of Acapulco

Obviously, Dad and Mom couldn't write to say HI from Acapulco, so I figured I would do it for them...


"Hola! Como estas! Cinco margaritas por favor!"
Love, Dad and Mom


The picture below isn't from their cruise--but it is of the Carnival Spirit in port at Acapulco. So this is what they're enjoying!

Parents with cell phone cameras...

This is what happens when you have parents with cell phone cameras...they start using them at random :) Dad and Mom made it to San Diego this afternoon, and just a short time ago, Mom snapped a picture on her cell phone and sent it to my email address. Message text: "Dad getting ready for the cruise"

Note that this is not from the cruise ship; I believe this is from somewhere downtown near their hotel where they stopped to get something to drink. They go on the ship tomorrow.

They've got "Spirit"

There won't be any blog postings from Mom and Dad for the next 10 days or so, but we hope they have some exciting pictures after that! They're driving to San Diego today, and tomorrow they'll head out on a 9-day Mexican Riviera cruise on the Carnival Spirit cruise ship.

Their schedule will look something like this:

10/18: Leave San Diego
10/19: Fun Day at Sea
10/20: Fun Day at Sea
10/21: Acapulco, Mexico
10/22: Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa, Mexico
10/23: Manzanillo, Mexico
10/24: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
10/25: Fun Day at Sea
10/26: Fun Day at Sea
10/27: Arrive in San Diego

We hope they have a safe, fun trip and take lots of pictures!

Window kitty and candy pumpkins

With the much cooler overnight temperatures lately, it's the perfect opportunity to get some fresh air into the house. And with that, it also means it's a good outside viewing opportunity for Kitty! She loves to look outside...even if there's nothing going on.

And this is what represents the fall season around Dad and Mom's house...candy pumpkins!

Allison and kitty

Just a couple pictures today of Allison and Kitty... We both think Kitty has a pretty darn good life with all the attention she gets!!

Happy Anniversary!!!!!

Happy 2nd Anniversary to Mike and Holly! Have a great day! Mom

Good morning, Kitty

I'm just messing with the video capture setting on my camera, so I figured I'd give Kitty some web publicity...

Is the PBA in the future?

Psst! The latest news for the family is that Mom bowled a 200 game today during their weekly bowling session...a 221 to be exact! She's officially kicked my butt...