In Early April Oma and Opa came to visit for a long weekend. We had such a fun time with them! We hung out with Ash and Afton, took the kids to the zoo, went to the buffet at Talking Stick Resort, and introduced them to Five Guys.
Oma's birthday is later this month so we were also able to celebrate with her. Ash and Afton made her a cake, we had a couple of birthday dinners, and she got her presents from us. One of the best gifts that she got was a special serenade from Hayden on her keyboard. It took her some time to get into it but by the time she started shaking her head and singing we were all cracking up.
What a fun weekend! Thanks for coming to visit us Oma and Opa!
How many of you watch The Amazing Race? We've watched several seasons and constantly critique the players, scrutinize their decisions, and berate their every move. So, when Matt found an "Amazing Race" type scavenger hunt in downtown Phoenix a few weeks ago we immediately signed up. This was our chance to prove just how awesome we are!!
At first we were trying to find another couple to compete with us. We asked several friends and no one was available that day. (In hindsight...maybe all of our friends know how crazy competitive we are and were coincidentally "busy" that day?!?)
Anyway, we ended up competing as a team of two and we had a blast. The weather was great, we got some great exercise running around downtown, and it was so fun to spend time together as a couple.
There were just shy of 1,000 competitors and we met at Coach and Willies. Each team designated one team member to stand in the starters circle to get the sheet of clues. They did a 10-second countdown, everyone ripped open their clues, and we were off! There were 12 clues and we had to get 11 of the 12 completed before we could check back in at Coach and Willies. Each of the clues required us to take a picture of our team at a certain location downtown. Some of the clues were easy but some of the clues took some Googling on our iPhones.
We did really great and we were making great time. And then...
...One of the clues required us to take a picture in front of a Saguaro cactus over 5 feet tall. How hard could that be?! We live in the desert. There are millions of cacti in Arizona...literally millions. However, as we quickly discovered, there are very few in downtown Phoenix. In fact, we only know of one. And, had we known this, we wouldn't have wasted an extra 30 minutes at the end of our race to go back to the beginning to find one near the first clue.
It was very frustrating but also pretty humbling. I guess we're not much better than most of the contestants on The Amazing Race. However, we are already planning for next year when we can bring home the gold!
For those of you wondering...we placed 100 out of 235 teams. :)
In March, Vin, Sheila, Vincent, and Stella Lecce came down to visit from Rochester. They were greeted with amazing weather for the entire weekend and we all had a blast.
On Friday, the guys played golf and the ladies went to get their nails done. Vincent and Hayden even spent some time out by the pool and shook their booties a bit.
After the guys got home from golf and the girls went out to the nail spa, the kids woke up and wanted to go outside. So we went out back and Hayden and Vincent wanted to put their feet in the pool. It was pretty cold, but our feet got used to the temperature after a little while.
Then that night we all went to El Encanto Mexican restaurant in Cave Creek which is a great small artsy, touristy town about 15 minutes north of us. The food is great but the coolest part about the restaurant is that they have a duck pond in the middle of the restaurant. We had to wait a little for our table so the kids fed the ducks and loved it. We were even treated to a couple of songs by a great Mariachi at the end of our meal. He took a liking to our youngsters and the feeling was mutual.
On Saturday morning we ate a feast of a breakfast which included, scrambled eggs, potato pancakes, bacon, toast, and belgian waffles with blueberries and whip cream. YUM!
Then we packed up the kids and went to the Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale. This is one of the coolest parks in the city as it is train themed. There are huge decommissioned engines, rail cars, and cabooses all over the place. Plus, they have a brand new model train building that has all different sizes of model trains. Vincent and Hayden really loved it (and so did Matty and Vinny, their inner boy may have come out).
Also in the park they have a little train that goes all around the park on which park guests can ride. We went on the train and the kiddos loved that too.
Hayden and Vincent also went on the Merry Go Round and played in the giant playground as well.
After the park we went to In and Out Burger, which Vinny loves and must get every time he comes west. However, after tasting a Double/Double Animal Style one more time, he proclaimed that Five Guys Burgers was now at the top of his best burger list. Matty agreed and it was settled for the world.
When we returned home, the kids played around before going to bed. It was good to see Hayden and Vincent get some quality time together as they did everything together from throw balls back and forth, to pushing each other in the wagon. They were great at sharing and taking turns, amazingly enough.
Stella and Ellie also played together. Stella is 3 months older and much more advanced physically, but she took a liking to Ellie. She expressed her love this way:
That night we had more guests join us as Afton and Ashley came over and our good friends Heather and Fermin Moreno were in town from Seattle. We then had another feast for dinner: a blue cheese lettuce wedge salad with crumbled egg and bacon bits was the first course, then the main course was chicken marsala and vodka penne with sausage. Savannah was smart enough to suggest dinner at 8pm so that the kids would be in bed and we could peacefully enjoy it. It was great. For dessert we had silcilian sundaes: freshly baked chocolate chip cookies topped with ice cream, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream. Sensational.
After dessert we played some games and it was a magical evening with great people. We are happy to share those kinds of nights with the ones we love.
It was a gorgeous day for baseball and we were going to see Ubaldo Jimenez, one of the best pitchers in baseball, pitch. It was a fun day as we had pizza, garlic knots, and ice cream at the stadium. Matty and Hayden were even selected as fans of the game and were on the Jumbotron! (We narrowly beat out Vinny and Vincent, most likely because Vincent was wearing Yankees gear and Hayden had a Rockies shirt on)
The Rockies won, and after the game, the little tykes decided to start their own journey to the majors by running the bases, on the little kid field of course:
It was another great day to keep our string going. That night, Hayden and Vincent decided to have a dance party to Vincent's favorite song, Dirty Bit by the Black Eyed Peas:
The next day the Lecce family packed up and went back east. What an amazing time and what memories. Enjoy the videos above and the photos below.
Anabelle turned six months old today and it goes without saying that the last six months have flown by. It's been so much fun watching her grow and transform from a newborn into a baby.
She has such an amazing personality. She is a very relaxed and easy going baby. Don't get me wrong, when she's hungry she's knows how to scream, but otherwise she's just happy to go with the flow. She sleeps really well at night and also goes down really well each night. She smiles all the time and has also begun doing little half laughs. She especially loves to smile and laugh when Hayden plays on the floor with her.
She is a champ at rolling from her belly to her back but has yet to roll from her back to her belly. She pushes herself up on her arms really well and gets her little legs kicking but we have a feeling it might be a little while before she's interested in crawling. As soon as we set her down on her belly she rolls onto her back. Later this week we will start her on rice cereal. We can't wait to start taking pictures of her with food all over her face!
She still loves to be swaddled at night and looks like a little caterpiller in a cacoon. When we wake her up in the morning and unswaddle her she does a full body stretch. It's adorable. Her personality is starting to come out a little more every day and we're so happy she's a part of our family. We have so much fun watching our little girls grow and learn.
Here are some pictures from the past few months. Enjoy!
It has been said that the best place in the country to be in March is Phoenix. Ding, correct. The weather is gorgeous and Pop as well as Grandma and Grandpa came to visit already this month.
We went to a Spring Training game and saw the Rockies in their new spring home, Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. It is an amazing facility as has been much documented by me.
Other than that, everything is good here. Enjoy the pics and video.
The weather (until this week) has been beautiful and we've taken a few family walks around the neighborhood. Anabelle always gets to ride in the Baby Bjorn and on this night Hayden wanted to take her baby on our walk too. So cute.
The four of us were hanging out on the floor this weekend and Ellie rolled over from her tummy to her back. Matt saw the whole thing and I caught it out of the corner of my eye. We were so excited that we yelled and clapped and laughed. She started crying because we scared her, which made us laugh even more.
Later that night we put her on her tummy again and she did it for the camera. It's about a minute and a half and she gets a little fussy at the end but the beginning is great! Enjoy!
