Weekend Update: Do They Have Air Conditioning? And Birthday Celebrations...

As you can imagine, it was a whirlwind of a weekend! We had such a great time with Stacy, Tricia & Sean I don't even know where to start...though I hear the beginning is always good, so let's give it a shot.

Thursday, I worked all day which was a challenge knowing my sisters were here in town! But I snuck out a little early and got home by around 3:00. They had slept in and spent some time at the pool, so by 3 they were refreshed! Jay had just gotten home from work too so we hung out for a little bit until Sean was ready to be picked up from his conference. It was super convenient because the event was only a couple miles from our house! After picking up Sean, we headed to the Rustler's Rooste for Happy Hour and to enjoy the sunset over the valley.

Sisters

Brothers (in-law)

I had planned to make chicken piccata - one of my favorite dishes - but when Jay suggested pizza, I didn't complain. The chicken wasn't thawed and we were all hungry! We went to our favorite pizza joint and caught up over a few slices. It was a pretty early night, but we had a busy weekend ahead of us!

Friday morning, the boys went to work and the girls and I headed to the Camelback Inn Spa. It is frequently ranked as one of the top 10 spas in the world! Tricia and I had Swedish Massages and the Desert Rain Loofah (highly recommended) and Stacy had the Desert Nectar Honey Wrap which she loved.

After our treatments, we let everything "soak in" in the sauna for a few minutes, then enjoyed lunch outside by the pool. The food was delicious! For dessert, we had chocolate fondue - making sure to cut all the dipping items into 3 pieces so nobody missed out! After lunch, we laid out by the pool for a while (Tricia & Stacy actually swam - they thought it was hot out!?) and then headed home around 4.

We picked Sean up from the conference and then I brought everyone to Tempe Marketplace to walk around while we were waiting for Jay to come home from work. Tricia & Sean liked our printouts from the "Gene Machine" at Dave & Busters, so we had them make their own. Basically, the machine takes pictures of two people and prints out an image of what your future child might look like. Someday I need to post them on here so you can see how petrified I am of having a girl. It's BAD! :)

Once Jay came home, we headed to Chino Bandito for dinner - it's a must for first time visitors. Tricia didn't like it last time we took her but this time she found something she liked. Stacy did as well, but it was super busy and the end of the night so they ran out of what she ordered! And they ran out of Snickerdoodles!? It was just wrong! But the Chino experience is a requirement and we checked it off our list.

Saturday morning, Tricia & Sean got up early to run. Weirdos :) Sean took his own route by our house while Tricia went running with our friend Erin and her running group. Saturday's run happened to be up South Mountain, so Tricia was in for a (steeeeeep!) treat! She had a great time, enjoyed running in a new place, and I'm guessing worked on her endurance (now 11 miles on flat terrain should feel easy, right?!).

And, just in case that wasn't enough for them, we decided to take everyone on a hike up Squaw Peak. Here are the girls at the top:
Stacy got her Saguaro (cactus) pics on the way down and we headed home to "rest" before going out on the town for dinner. Sean and Tricia went to the pool, Stacy & I got ice cream and went shopping and Jay "rested at home" (turns out he was wrapping my birthday gifts!).

We went to Rula Bula for dinner on Saturday night. I love Irish pubs and this one is in downtown Tempe on Mill Avenue. I thought our guests would enjoy all the activity down there as it reminds me of Church Street back home. I was so happy to have so many friends come to celebrate with me! Here are all the girls:

Tara, Stacy, Kelley, Tina, Tricia, Krista, Kiera and Me

Here are all the boys...misbehaving as usual.

Sean, Joe, Jay and Jeff

Here is the whole group: And the birthday girl (that's me!) with her favorite man:

Sunday was my actual birthday and though it was such a happy feeling to wake up knowing my sisters were in town, it was sad because we had to say goodbye. We dropped Stacy off at the airport around 10 and then Tricia, Sean, Jay and I went out to lunch before dropping them off around 1:30. I kept my tears to myself until we were in the car and managed to hold myself together pretty well considering.

Wanna know the best way to distract yourself from sad things like saying goodbye? Laundry. It works like a charm. So laundry I did - 5 loads in fact! Towels, sheets, and clothes are now all fresh and sparkly clean. So I got home tonight and was able to take a nap - now how cool is that?

I have more to post about the rest of my birthday, but that will have to wait! Be back soon!