Phoenix

After a sad loss to Oklahoma, we went out for a retail therapy to forget about the loss. I think it worked!

Later that evening we had dinner in the sky above the city of Phoenix at the Compass Restaurant. The food was fantastic, as was the staff at the restaurant. It was similar to the Space Needle in Seattle, although not as high in the sky. As the restaurant slowly spun in order for us to take in the city views there were note cards along the wall to describe what we were viewing. It was quite entertaining. We even found out that we were eating dinner in an old Playboy Club. Yikes! Hue Hefner and his buddies used to party there?

After dinner we walked over to the Herberger Theater for a show where we sat right in the very front row. I snuck in this photo before it started. It was a hilarious show about marriage. If "You Say Tomato, and I Say Shut Up!" comes to town you'll be rolling, laughing if you go and see it.

After church on Sunday, we hit up Piestewa Peak to work off the fabulous dinner from the night before. I can't remember the last time I saw cactus that was taller than me.

The city views were beautiful.

It was quite a popular hike that draws a ton of people. It's the second highest peak in Phoenix, and for that I am thankful that we came down from high altitude. It made catching my breath a little easier on the steep inclines.

It was sad to say good-bye to Phoenix, especially knowing that we would be returning to snow, but it was also a little too quiet for us without 9 children jabbering in our ears all day.

The Cactus Bowl

There's something about skydivers that really gets your adrenaline going. Am I right?

Seeing the skydiver carry your school's flag,

and then our country's flag also gets the adrenaline going. The crowd started going nuts!!

Our team took the field and the rush kept going!

It was so exciting to watch the Huskies take the field in their awesome shiny helmets.

The helmets, however, did not help them play exceptionally well, which is what they needed to do in this bowl game.

The first half of the game was quite disappointing and I had lost all hope of our team winning the game.

Then, as the third quarter began it looked like comeback was beginning.

We scored not one, but two touchdowns!

Oklahoma came out strong, so we had a lot of catching up to do.

In the end, our team lost 22-30. It was sad and disappointing, but we recovered quickly with some retail therapy the next day. ;)

Warmer, Citrusy Weather

We woke up Friday morning and it was just a short walk to Mills Ave where Starbucks was filled with "Dawg" fans.  Obviously, the barista did now attend the University of Washington, so she did not know the proper spelling of the word "dawg."

The Huskies were selected to play in the Cactus Bowl which was to be played at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, AZ. Knowing that Arizona has warmer weather than Denver we thought it would be fun to take a quick trip to Arizona and catch our alma mater play a little football.

We grabbed our coffee and took a little stroll around Arizona State University (ASU). They have oranges just growing on campus. How cool is that? ASU just happened to be the university in which I wanted to attend. I applied and was accepted, however, out-of-state tuition was not something my parents were willing to pay, so I settled on the University of Washington and after walking around the campus it was a choice I'm glad I made. ;)

The campus was pretty and green, but I just wonder what it would be like in the spring or summer. It was not however, as beautiful as the University of Washington, which has views of the lake and mountains.

As we walked around we found the stadium where the Huskies would be playing that evening. We took a little peek inside and saw many people there preparing for the evening festivities.

Then, from afar we saw a little mountain(?) that many people seemed to be hiking, so we decided to hike it too. Three wiseman were still on their way to bring gifts to Jesus.

From the top we could see our hotel and the city of Phoenix.

Along another side you could see Sun Devil Stadium. The blue skies were beautiful, especially since we had left a snowstorm, in Denver, behind.