Spa Day!

Today (yes, I am actually up-to-date!) Mikele and I did our spa day that we had been planning since Christmas 2006. We went to the J.W. Marriott Desert Ridge to their Revive Spa.

Mikele signed up for the Deep Tissue Massage and I had the Aromatherapy Massage. I loved my massage and the hour went by way too fast. Mikele said that she was in pain the whole time during her massage but I guess that is why it is called "Deep Tissue." After our massages we had lunch in our robes on the patio of the restaurant. We both had the pasta chicken dish which included spelt pasta (I have never seen spelt anything at a restaurant before so that was very exciting).

Eating lunch in our robes.

The rest of the afternoon was spent sitting by the pool, reading our trashy magazines (US Weekly, So Scottsdale) and eating hummus and drinking smoothies.

Very relaxing

Eating again

Getting some sun!

We had a great time and are planning to do this every 4 months - I think that puts us at about the beginning of August for our next trip.

Happy 2008!

This year we did our family New Years Eve dinner with the Grandma's at Wildfish at Scottsdale Fashion Square.

After dinner I stopped by Todd and Jennifer's to say hi to everyone and then I went out to Desert Ridge area to a Highlands party. We played games most of the night and I was home by 1am - I can't stay out until 4 or 5am like I used to on NYE :).

Midnight!

The Beginning and Ending of a Career

I was surprised to hear the news today that Chris Webber announced his retirement. I remember being at the America West Arena (or possibly Phoenix Civic Center) for the 1993 NBA Draft when Webber was selected as the #1 pick. My dad used to take Kyle and I to draft days hosted by the Phoenix Suns, and I would fill in each of the players selected in the draft booklets that were handed out. I can't believe that was 15 years ago and I can't believe I am old enough to remember a player being drafted and now retiring.

Christmas and Easter

My next post in line is Christmas 2007, but since it was just Easter yesterday I thought I would combine the post. Plus, you can't have Easter without Christmas, right?

This last Christmas was our standard - Christmas Eve with the Horton's, Christmas morning with immediate family and Christmas afternoon with the Balmer's.

Some of my cousins.

Colby and Dad trying to figure out Grandma's new slippers.

The Horton grandkids.

Dessert!

Kyle, Kellyn and I and Zoe, Otis and Sam on Christmas morning

Playing catchphrase at Grandma Hazel's.

The Balmer grandkids.

And some of my few pictures from yesterday:

He is Risen!

Colby, Leslie and Shane on the trampoline.

Christmas in the City

My parents and I made a trip to New York City in mid-December. I had two coupons for $99 fares with the purchase of a regular price ticket (I basically bought my ticket and my parents each paid $99 round-trip). Since I was not feeling well, we went back and forth numerous times as to whether or not we should go. I started on prednisone (steroid) the week before the trip so I was feeling good and we decided to go (which I am so glad that we did). We flew in to JFK on a Friday night and took the subway directly to our hotel. We stayed at a Doubletree in midtown (51st and Lexington) which worked out perfect as there was a subway station also on that corner. We checked in to our hotel and then went to dinner at Sea. Sea is a Thai restaurant that I had been to a couple of times with Lauren and loved it, so I wanted to take my parents there.

Waiting for the train to get to Sea

Dad was freezing most of the trip :)

After dinner we were going to do some walking around, but we were all freezing so we just came back to the hotel. The average temperature was about 30 degrees during the day and probably in the teens at night. Our Arizona blood is not used to those temperatures :)

Saturday morning we did breakfast at H&H bagels on the Upper East Side. This was another favorite of mine from my visits to see Lauren. My dad wanted to go here also as this is where Kramer has a job for a short time.

H&H Bagels

After breakfast and Starbucks, we took the subway to South Street Seaport to buy tickets for a Broadway show. We had planned on seeing Mama Mia, but my dad saw that A Chorus Line was available so he wanted to see that. I had never heard of it, but I guess it is a long-running Broadway show. (I think we all wish we had seen Mama Mia.)

A Christmas tree at South Street Seaport

After we bought the tickets we headed down to Canal Street (Chinatown) as mom wanted to get a knock-off Coach wallet. Once we got to Chinatown, a lady came up to us and said "You want bag." I said yes so we followed her. In my previous Chinatown experiences, they always would take us into a warehouse building and that is where they kept the Coach, Gucci, Prada, etc. bags. This time was a little different. As we were walking down the street, the lady said "Man can't come." I just told my dad to keep walking as I did not understand why they wouldn't let him come (and if they were going to take us into a building and not let my dad in then I was not going in either). Finally, the lady starts to unlock a min-van and I now understood why "man can't come" as there was not enough room in the back of the mini-van. So, my mom and I crawl into the back of this van and there was another lady in there with all the bags. They close the door so we can make the purchase and my dad waits outside. The lady who led us down the street told my dad "Be careful, Bolice." (I did mean to spell that with a "B" rather than a "P" as that is how she said it.) My mom found the wallet that she wanted and we negotiated the lady down from $20 to $12. On a side note, a few days after my mom bought the wallet, she went to pay for something and had to unload the entire wallet in order to get her credit card. The credit card slots in this wallet were extremely deep so all of the cards fell to the bottom. Kyle, Kellyn and I ended up getting here a real Coach wallet for Christmas but our Chinatown experience still makes for a fun story. I do not have any pictures either - I was hoping my dad would have taken a picture of us crawling into the van but I think he was a little nervous :)

After Chinatown, we went to the West Village to meet up with Jenn. There is a Pinkberry right near Jenn's apartment so we met there for yogurt. When I was there in the summer, there were long lines for Pinkberry - not so much in the winter. I wish they would open a Pinkberry in Scottsdale - the closest one is in LA and I can't justify driving 6 hours just for Pinkberry :)

Pinkberry!

Jenn and I

After Pinkberry, we headed back to midtown to buy tickets to see the Rockettes. We saw the Rockefeller Tree and then went back to the hotel for an hour to warm up before the Broadway show.

Midtown - notice the temperature in the background

Midtown

A Chorus Line on Broadway

When we came out of the show on Saturday night it was snowing and it snowed most of the night. On Sunday morning we went back to the Upper East Side to this place called Vinyl for breakfast. We then walked through Central Park and then along 5th Avenue to look at windows.

Upper East Side

Central Park

More Central Park

Taking a break and warming up in Tiffany's

We walked 5th Avenue until we got to Rockefeller Center, and then we took a subway to Lower Manhattan because my mom wanted to go to a 9-11 firefighter museum. On Friday night on our way home from Sea my dad commented on how nice it was that I know my way around the city and he did not have to bother with subway maps or knowing where to go - he could just follow. Well, on our way to the museum I missed our stop and we ended up in Brooklyn - I figured it out fast enough and we just hopped on a train back to Manhattan :) After the museum we went back to the hotel for about a half hour before going to Radio City Music Hall for the Rockettes performance - which was amazing.

On our way to the Rockettes

After the show we had dinner at Stage Deli in Times Square - dad's favorite restaurant and I think he has eaten there everytime he has been to the city. On our walk back to the hotel we stopped at Rockefeller to get some pictures with the tree. Every other time we had been there it was jam packed with people.

The Rockefeller Tree

Dad and Mom

Mom liked these angels (also in Rockefeller Center)

I liked the snowflakes in the background

The tree is better in "real life"

We flew back to Phoenix on Monday afternoon. I love this city and I can't wait to go back :)