"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood... And sorry I could not travel both. I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference." --Robert Frost

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Surprise! (Arizona that is)

Surprise, Arizona
Happy Trails RV Park


After our time in the White Mountains we headed down to Surprise where the in-laws live.  I'm always impressed with how clean it is around here and all the beautiful color.

 
 
This is one of my favorite plants.  Anyone know the name? 

The boys being goofy.
 
All four of our kids flew out to visit and celebrate Steve's birthday.  It's always a treat when you can get all of them together at once with their busy schedules.

We all went out to dinner at a new Italian place.  It was only mezza mezza. (so so).

Guilty?

Shane, Brennan & Ryan

   
Brennan "modeling" his Ron Burgandy interpretation.  Keep it classy Phoenix!

We planned a big homemade lasagna dinner and Kaylee baked Steve's favorite banana cake.
 
 
 
 Kaylee making the pasta sauce.
 
Plenty of lasagna for another dinner
 
Some card games after.

My Dad had a car like this when he was a teenager.

 
A breakfast out and after a short weekend, the kids all flew back to their homes.

The kids with Steve's Dad and Bunny.
 
 
Arizona has the prettiest sunsets!

 
We were doing some geocaching and this particular cache took us to a cabbage field.  There was a guy nearby so Steve had to not be obvious he was looking for something.  Well the guy later asked us if we wanted to join him in the mud!  Apparently this is the best mud in Phoenix.  We politely declined. If you look closely, you can see he is covered in mud up to his very short shorts.

He sure enjoyed his "soak".

We met back up with Curt and Glenda as they spend the winter down in Gold Canyon.  Curt decided he had finally felt ready to get a tattoo.    He was going to get a compass to symbolize his journeys.  We had all been talking about this for months so we went along and decided to get another also.
 
Steve's All Seeing Eye.

 
Curt and his new compass.

 

Mine.  Glenda is still holding out for skull and crossbones (not :-)
 
While we were in Colorado we had met a really nice couple, Skip & Tammy.  They are both retired firefighters from the Phoenix & Prescott areas.  While most of their time is in Colorado, they still come back to spend part of the winter in Phoenix.  Turns out it's only 10 miles away from Steve's Dad.  We had a great visit with them again and then it was time to head for California for the holidays.
Skip & Tammy

Another great, but short, visit in Arizona.  We'll be back to spend January through March here next year.  More time in Quartzsite visiting lots of RV friends, more time with the in-laws then some new places to check out before we head to the East Coast! 
 

13 comments:

  1. You and Steve were my inspiration. Glad we were able to get together. The tattoo still looks great. Family time is the best too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wonderful family time:) How sweet to have all the kids together at one time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I always tell people that Surprise is the cleanest city we've seen - so far, still true :-) Your family is beautiful, how wonderful to all be together in a pretty spot. That's a lot of lasagna!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love their landscaping and colorful overpasses too. Can't have enough lasagna!

      Delete
    2. I read your line about how clean Surprise is and thought 'that's what Jodee just told us!' 😄

      So nice to have your kids all fly in to be with you. Very cool, Deb and Steve!

      Delete
  4. Time with the kiddos is precious! Great memories for all :-) A friend of ours had a second home in Surprise but she sold it after her husband died. They'd always go there during spring training.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a nice area to visit. There's a lot to do.

      Delete
  5. What a luxury having all your kids together for Stevie's birthday. Nice pictures as always. How many geocaches have you found so far? How did you get the RVillage map to be interactive in your blog?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's always great to get them all together. We have 1777 caches. There is some code you can add to your blog on the RVillage site.

      Delete
  6. Nothing like some quality family time. You've got some great looking kids!
    Safe travels!

    ReplyDelete

I’d love to hear from you! It’s more fun when you leave a comment!