Rewind: Phoenix

A few weeks ago Grady went to a conference in Phoenix and I tagged along. Since I had a good bit of work to do, I went in to work at the Blufish Tempe office for a few hours every day while we were there. Delia stayed home with her Grandma Amanda and did great.

In the 3 years we lived there, we never hiked "A" Mountain (the small hill right on the edge of the Arizona State campus) that hugs Sun Devil Stadium, home of the Fiesta Bowl. One morning, Grady and I got up and hiked it. It took a whole 8 minutes, so we did it twice. The view from the top was beautiful - we could see the whole city. I didn't bring my camera on this trip, but thanks to the internet, I found some pretty good examples of everything. Photo courtesy ASU Campus Tours.

I had no idea there were real petroglyphs up there! This mountain was in the center of an old Hohokam Indian city. Pretty cool! I used to work in the building right across from it and I never knew! Photo courtesy of GlyphHunter.

We met a lot of our Arizona friends at our FAVORITE restaurant, Rancho de Tia Rosa. Just the name gives me warm fuzzy feelings memories of their pulled pork carnitas and mango margaritas. Photo courtesy Tia Rosa website.

We got to see lots of our Arizona friends - this was just one table! This picture is my Blufish coworkers and their families. The table to the left was Grady and his ASU buddies. Photo courtesy Aaron's facebook page. Don't worry - back to Baby Delia next post.

Fun with Photoshop

In the last few weeks we have taken a trip to Phoenix, thrown Delia a birthday party, thrown our friend Brandy a baby shower - tons of fun stuff to keep us from blogging! To hold you over until I can round up some of those other pictures, here is Delia in her tutu, taken in September when she was about 9 months old. For Photoshop nerds who care, I put a black and white version of the picture on top of the color version, then "erased" the black and white layer only over the pink areas.

Happy Birthday Grandaddy!

Whose birthday is it, Delia?

"Hi Grandaddy. Hope you are having a great birthday! I love you and I will see you soon!"

Delia's First Birthday!!

"It's my birthday! YAY!"

We had a small party and cookout for Delia's birthday. Even though the high was in the 40's, Grady cooked burgers, hot dogs, sausage, and chicken on the grill for everyone. As we finished eating, we heard a bell ringing outside. It was our neighbor, Dr. Wax, inviting everyone to take a ride on the train he made from old lawn mowers. Too cool!

Riley, Carmen, and Amelia want to ride that train!

It was Delia's first time outside in about a week and it was serious business at first.

"Riley, can you believe we are on a real live train?"

Wes and Wesley stay warm in the coal car.

John, Carmen, and their Eskimo baby!

"What a fun birthday ride!"

"It's my birthday! YAY!"

"It's Delia's birthday! YAY!"

Delia and Dad snuggle up and watch the trees and the neighborhood dogs go by.
"Thank you Dr. Wax!"

"It's my birthday! YAY!"

Too excited to sit down in the high chair.

"Mommy, what are you doing with that fire?"

"Daddy, what is Mommy doing with that fire?"

"OK. Seriously. Don't come any closer."

"If I jump now, maybe I can get to my getaway stroller..."

"Finally someone blew that thing out!"

"Cake... icing... eh, it's alright I guess."

"I love to party!"

It's always good to have a sharp dressed man around to put together your new toys.

"Keys? Cool! My new BMW must be outside! Let's go!"

Buck & Jana

Our friends Buck and Jana came to visit last weekend from Atlanta. For Jana's 30th birthday, she ran the Mississippi Blues Marathon in Jackson. Buck took this picture at the end of the race - Jana looks fresh as a flower!

Delia was SO excited to meet Buck & Jana!

Cheerleader

Our friend Brien invited us to go to the MSU basketball game with him last night AND to use his extra floor tickets. Sweet! Our regular season tickets are very high up in the coliseum and Delia REALLY liked being close to the action!

Chicago Trip

On Dec. 27, Bryan and Christine met us in Southaven and we set out for Chicago. The trip and tickets to see a My Morning Jacket show were Grady's and my Christmas gifts to each other.

Sunset from the top of the John Hancock Building. When you go to the John Hancock Building, you can pay the $25 admission to the John Hancock Observatory OR you can go to the Signature Room on the 95th floor for free and enjoy an extremely overpriced drink. Mmmm... chocolate martini. If you really want to go on the cheap, just go to the Signature Room's women's bathroom. I think the view from their floor-to-ceiling windows is even better than the view from the restaurant.

Highs in the 40's with lots of wind! Here we are at Millennium Park in front of the giant shiny bean.

At the Holiday Inn Mart Cityscape bar (mmm... chocolate martini), waiting for Grady to sleep off the killer strep throat that plagued him the whole trip. Luckily, Christine is a pharmaceutical rep with lots of antibiotics and decongestants up her sleeve, and of course, a few NuvaRings.

The My Morning Jacket show was awesome and the Chicago Theater is a beautiful venue. Our seats were in the mezzanine boxes, and couldn't have been much better!

On our last night, Bryan, Christine, Grady and I met Erica and Fuzzy at an amazing restaurant that they recommended called Hopleaf that had crazy beers that we'd never even heard of, but were happy to try. The food was very tasty too. I had stuffed turnip greens! Thank you Christine for sharing your pics!

Partners in Crime

"Crackers? What crackers?"

Before the Chicago pics, here are a few from Delia's stay in Southaven. It was just too cold to take her to Chicago, so she stayed with Wes, Jenn, Wesley, and Grandma Amanda for a few days. I swiped these pictures from LW's blog. Apparently the babies were sneaking into a box of crackers.

Two tired munchkins.

"Wesley got some sweet Christmas presents! I am making my birthday list..."

More Christmas, Wesley's 1st Birthday

We went up to Southaven the day after Christmas to see Wes, Jenn, Wesley, and Grandma Amanda. We opened presents that night and these 2 pictures were taken the next morning.

What is more fun than babies in their Christmas pajamas?

Oh what fun it is to wear pajamas all day long!

Delia got her first purse, which sings songs, makes sounds, and says "Let's get ready!"

Little did we know, we were about to see Wesley take his first steps! (I think he was going for the purse.) Ready...

. . . set. . .

. . . go!! Way to go Wesley! We cheered and squealed loudly, which startled Wesley, who then fell down.

The next day we celebrated Wesley's first birthday with a sports themed party. Wes cooked Boston butts all night, while the ladies made tasty (and super cute) cakes.

Baseball cake and cupcakes!

It was a fun day for everyone.

The weather was mild, but very windy, which, of course, called for a monkey hat.

It was so windy that I think Delia thought she could fly away. We didn't know what wind was until we got to Chicago the next day! Next post: our trip to Chicago to see My Morning Jacket, whose new album was voted #4 in the Top 50 Albums of 2008 by Rolling Stone - for whatever that's worth.