Happy St. Patty’s Day!!

-From a happy girl because of the sunny filled weather forecast in NYC! It’s about time. Out for a fabulous “girls day” with my visitor for the week…Mom!!

my brother and sister-in-law are having a baby. it’s going to be a boy. i am going to be an aunt in june!! and you know what…i am going to be an aunt that spoils him rotten!!! just thinking he might need some of these:

Surprise, surprise. I did it again. I fell off the bloggin’ wagon. I won’t bore you with excuses here. I just blame it all on what we call LIFE!! You know how that storyline goes. Always changing. The past week, the setting of my story has changed from east to west. Chelsea to Upper East Side. From the 1-2-3 train to 4-5-6 train. From dessert to snow. And from this beautiful Arizona sky to a gloomy, dark New York City sky.

Since we last chatted, I have changed jobs (more to come on that one), been to Arizona and back, become part of an AU-some National Championship Family, and started a daily routine of freezing my tail off  on the streets of NYC. So for my body to thaw out, let’s think dessert.

A week ago today, Stan and I boarded a plane just in time to miss the NYC snow storm and land in Arizona. We headed  out a little early for the National Championship game  so we could first head to Tucson for the weekend to spend time with my aunt. It was a LONG day of travel. And right upon arrival I greeted her (and mom and Andrea) with hugs before sneaking away to her lovely backyard. Why? I was eager to snack on the goodness of her citrus trees, while she shared with me the new architectural plans of her soon to get under construction guest house addition. It’s grand and lovely. I pictured it in 3-D. I already hug the curtains, made the bed and booked my next ticket to come out and break in the newness. I am just thinking I will be one of those “old snow bird” types, who jet sets half way across the country to escape the cold.

Aunt Nancy is the ultimate hostess. The bedroom was stocked with fresh fruit and water. Fresh flowers adorned each and every single flat surface in the house. Candles burned. The sheets were soft and the pillows were fluffy. Jars of almonds and cranberries sat on the counter. Fresh juice and tea filled the fridge. And best of all the view out of up into the foothills from her back windows. It doesn’t get much better than that. Take a look for yourself:

We dined at the luxury and historic, Arizona Inn where my dear cousin served us up one of the most fabulous dinners that has ever graced my mouth with it’s presence. We even indulged in prickly pear margaritas (made from the “the yellow catusy thing” pictured below) and a little duck appetizer to tease the palate. [Yes, we were feasting on our football enemies for that upcoming Monday, The Oregon Ducks.]

Early Saturday morning, we rose early to hit Sabino Canyon for a morning run. We ran the canyon. It was a little chilly, completely populated with cacti and from all the warning signs I saw…lots of no so friendly wildlife.

We left the canyon in really high spirits. We were shining like the sunflowers left on the bedside table back home. The day was great. The company was even better. Despite that face that Stan was stuck in the car with 4 girls, we managed to laughed to be lovin’ life. Then Aunt Nancy’s iphone makes a beep/buzz/ding, or something. It is a local news app on her phone, alerting us of some kinda of shooting down the road. We kinda hit rock bottom. What? Where? It’s the Safeway, my cousin Michael always shops at. Is he okay? We were saddened. We were informed the entire area was closed off. The roads that direction were all closed. Traffic was being completely rerouted. Talk about hitting close to home. This one did. What kind of person would (or even could) think of taking innocent lives? Slowly as the day goes one, the facts start to spill out. We’d just been by University Medical the Night before. We were looking at the UofA Campus, and hearing from my cousin’s fiance about her upcoming masters work she’d being doing at UM. The excitment for the upcoming BCS bowl game, and the mini-vacation to Tucson was saddened by this crisis, literally just around the corner.

We went to the Mission, on the way to greet my other family at the Tucson airport. And we lit a candle and prayed for the fallen and injured.

My sister sent me this picture. Were just a few days later she went with Mom and my Aunt. Within just a few days the ground was completely covered with balloons, flowers, posters, candles…Just thinking about this awful tragedy, and how “real” it felt brings tears back to my eyes. So I digress…

…let’s try to smile a little and think happy thoughts.

we ate, smiled, took lots of pictures, and i even took a pretty really rough fall at the La Paloma resort before finally making our way (caravan style) to Scottsdale.

Sweet Denise, my Aunt’s dear friend, housed us all at her home in Scottsdale. We spent the night in great company at her house. We ordered in. Made a BIG ole’ salad. Poured wine…and waiting for the BIG day to come. It did, and brought about a lot of orange and blue spirit! Just take it all in for yourself here:

So this goes without saying, We WON! You just need to look at those smiles on our faces and all the confetti flying in the air. For those of you who are not sports fans, well just get this one right. You need to understand one thing: WE WON, YES AUBURN WON THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP by a field goal. And with that, Good Night!