Superman, dinosaurs, elk, and some love

I've been working on this for awhile now and finally decided I just needed to post it!  Be warned that it's a long one!

To kick off our spring break one of my best friends from high school and her husband came for a visit. From here on out they will be known as Mr. and Mrs. S or just the S’s because that’s just so much easier! A little history – Mrs. S and I became friends in fifth grade.  During our junior high and high school years we most definitely got in some trouble together (nothing serious of course) and probably encouraged some not-so-smart decisions of each other but we managed to have a lot of fun and make some great memories.  Once we called my brother and sister-in-law to rush over to the house to fend off the attacker we heard on his way to get us.  I still SWEAR that we heard something but of course no one was there when they got there…just us locked in the bathroom deciding if it was bad enough that we should break the window and make a run for it.  At least we knew we had people to come save us though!   

Mrs. S is one of the friends I haven’t kept in super close contact with as much as I’d like but I know she’ll always be there if I need someone to listen and I think she feels the same.  She and her hubby tied the knot this past year in NE and Mr. C and I were lucky enough to be able to attend.  We were super excited when they said they wanted to visit over spring break because we hadn’t had much time to spend with her new hubby until then and with the distance I hadn’t seen her too much since moving to AZ either.  In case you were wondering, we decided that we still like her and he’s pretty awesome too :)

Friday

Friday night we picked the S’s up from the airport and headed over to one of our all-time favorite dinner spots, The Spaghetti Factory.  As usual, I thought the food was amazing and nothing beats spumoni for desert!  However, the most exciting part of our restaurant excursion happened before we actually got into the restaurant.  I’m so disappointed in myself for not taking a picture because I doubt you’ll believe this next part but I'll tell you anyhow.  Mr. C parked the car while Mr. and Mrs. S and I walked into the restaurant.  I looked to the left to check out the lightrail and you’ll never guess what I saw.  Just try.  Nope, guess again (I’m just assuming you’ll never guess but if you did then my apologies).  I saw Superman!  Yes, I said (or wrote) SUPERMAN!  He was standing at the lightrail with his hands on his hips and his sunglasses on.  He wasn’t just loitering or hanging around; he was obviously on a mission and looked pretty serious.  He was most definitely facing the restaurant looking very superheroish.  Like I said, I’m super disappointed in myself for not having a picture.  When I finally realized I could take a picture on my phone I turned around and he was gone. 

Saturday

The next day we headed over to the stadium for my very first spring training game.  It was the first warm day this year I can remember but being in the shade made for some perfect weather.  Mr. C fell asleep every once and awhile, I zoned out A LOT, and Mr. and Mrs. S wandered around every now and then but I thought it was pretty fun overall.  Sometimes I like the idea of doing things better than actually doing them!  The IDEA of a game is great but then I get there and don’t even realize when it started.  I’m not saying this happened but I’m not denying it either… 

Sunday

The next day we left early for the Grand Canyon.  This was definitely my favorite day with the S’s.  Apparently there was a little communication error and Mrs. S thought the trip was 4 hours in total but it was really 4 hours each way.  Thank God for gmail so I was able to prove that I wasn’t crazy and I really did tell her 4 hours EACH way.  We had a good laugh and no one threw anyone else out the window during the drive so it worked out.  Being stuck in a car with someone for 8 hours is a great way to find out more about them!

On the way to the GC there’s this random Flintstone camping/diner area so of course we stopped for some random pics.  So there’s a Flinstone car, a huge Fred, a dinosaur and of course a jet.  What?  A JET?  Yes, I was confused at first too.  After careful deliberation however I realized that the jet must have come to protect the flinstones from the dinosaurs.  This clearly explains why the dinosaur is a skeleton.  I’m just brilliant sometimes.  Here are a few of my favorite pics from the Flinstone/jet stop.  Notice how super strong Mr. C is in one. 

After lunch I drove us into the park.  I saw something down the road a little bit but didn’t think much of it until we got closer and I noticed it was a big ELK!  I stopped a little suddenly and the Elk hung out for a few minutes.  I’d never seen one before and I have to say I was pretty impressed.  I always get mad when I see those signs that say to watch for certain animals for like 100 miles and then I NEVER see them.  Of course we didn’t see any other animals but at least I got one checked off my list!  This was my fourth trip to the GC and it never gets old.  In the words of Mrs. S, it’s “very grand”.   We drove around the south rim stopping every now and then for pictures.  Mrs. S and I were a little jumpy when the guys got close to the edge to get some pics.  I really didn't want anyone in our group to be in the news for getting too close to the edge.  Obviously we all made it out alright and they probably weren’t that close to the edge…we were just edgy.  Ha ha. 

Monday

After lunch we headed to the Scottsdale Civic Center area to look for this love sculpture I’ve always wanted to check out.   Since we had the new camera we figured it would be perfect to take some pics there and I’d get to see how my photography skills were.  I’m not sure I learned much about my photography or directing of people skills though.

A spring training game was going on so we couldn’t find a parking spot, well not a legal one anyhow.  We were going to just park in a not-so-legal spot but I was a little worried about a ticket or coming back to no car.  Then we spotted a guy leaving so Mr. S ran down to stand in the spot while Mr. C pulled the car around.  Group work!  Thanks to that the car was not towed and we managed to find the sculpture (which is amazing cuz my directions left a lot to be desired.  Here are a couple of my favorite shots. Dave and Buster’s was our last stop before the airport and I was so excited to be going on a Monday.  Weekdays off work are like candy to me!  They’re just the best!  We racked up a bunch of tickets and had a lot of fun playing games even though I did pretty horrible on about everything I tried.  I think the little kid next to me on skeeball got like 20 tickets in one game.  I only got one per game and I think that’s just the pity ticket so you don’t leave empty handed.

So, a great weekend and such a great way to kick off spring break!  I’m so glad we got to spend the weekend with Mr. and Mrs. S.  We hope to have many more fun weekends with them, especially if the plan to move closer pans out!