My family and I left for Phoenix, AZ on Thursday morning early March 13. We flew to Phoenix on Frontier airlines from Nashville thought Denver and had good flights all the way! When we landed and got out luggage we headed to the car rental location to get our rental car for the long weekend. While we were in line Gary our son called to say that they too had arrived from Virgina. We are very excited to get together with him and his family. We met Gary in the hall way of the car rental building as we had rented cars from tow different places. We decided to meet at our hotel and go to lunch. When we went to pick up our car a PT Cruiser it was a completley different car and much to small for our luggage and not a mid size car as we asked for. So after much waiting we were giving a mini van for the price of a mid size car. That was fine wth us and worked well for the entier weekend. We met Gary, Kristie and Our Grandson Alesander (2 yrs old) for lunch at a great place called Cleain Jumpers for lunch! We had a great time visiting and catching up with them. We then went out seprate ways for the day!
We then went and checked into our hotel. The Ramada Inn that was from Hell....excuse my french! WE left to go run some errrands. When we came back we found out that the TV did not work the channels that did come in were staticly and you could not understand what the people said, the other chanells did not come in at all such as CBS. The wireless internet did not work. The blankets on the bed were too small, the toilets only flushed when they wanted to. We were so disappointed. There were about 3 or 4 college age baseball teams there also and they were in the pool so the pool was full at all times. Our room was right outside of the pool and they were of course very noisy too. We went across the street to the AZ Mills Mall that evening for a while to eat dinner and just to get out of the hotel. We spent the one night and then in the morning we checked out. We then found a Holiday Inn and were able to get a room there for us and my Mom for the remainder of the weekend! It was 110% better and we were all so very much happier!
Friday we switched hotels. We had some lag time between checking out of the Ramada Inn till we could actually check into thw Holiday Inn so we went out to breakfast and enjoyed a nice meal. Then we went to my sister's home and visited a bit with her and her two children. Sofia 4 years old and Reid 6 years old. We had a wonderful time with them. We were glad to be able to visit with just them beofer everyone else was to arrive later that day! We then left Maria's and checked into the Holiday Inn. We had a quiet afternoon there and the kids got to swim and really did enjoy tht time. Then we all headed to the first even to begin the 75 birthday party of the weekend!!! We went to a really neat resturaunt called Buca de bepo and Italliain place that was so neat. We got a big room and a huge round table and in the middle of the table is a huge round lazy susan. The meals are ordered family style. So Darrin my wonderful Brother in law took charge of that part and ordered for all of us. We got a couple of salads, three pans of garlic bread, spaghettii and meatballs, lasagna, fettachini alfredo, veal parmagiana, chicken marsala, lemon chicken, and raviolli and very good. Then the food all goes on the lazy susan and you turn it for everyone to get some. It was such fun. Then for dessert we all had some cheesecake, chocolate cake, apple something,and terimisue (sp). It was a wonderful night and a great time! There were about 20 of us there laughing and catching up on old times! Mom was all smiles!
On Saturday monring a group of us met at the Phoenix Zoo. All who went were Mom, Maria, Darrin, Sofia, Reid, Margie, Al, Jennifer, Andrew, Gary, Kristie, And Alexander. The kids Alexander, Sofia and Reid loved seeing all the animals. Alexander's favorite animals were the monkeys, he got very excited to see them. Sofia really enjoyed the elephants. We all had a good time and all the animals were pretty active that day which made for a very enjoyable moring.
For lunch on Saturday a group of us met for lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe Mom (Mary Ann), Mom (Helen), Pat, John, Al, Margie, Andrew, Jennifer, Gary, Kristie and Alexander. It was our first time to get with Al's family and it was a fun time. We had a big lunch and our waiter was veryyyy slow. We were there for 2 1/2 hours long! Then we did a little bit of shopping with Mom as she wanted a new pair of shoes.
For the couple of hours after that we spend time just resting back at the hotel! We needed that time beofer our eveing event!
For dinner a big group of us met at a place called Rawhide Western Town and Steakhouse. They take you on a hay ride back to a cook out area where ther is a band singing country music and other entertainment throughout the evening. You get the choice of ribs, chicken or stak for dinner with beans, toast, and a baked potatoe and then aple pie for dessert. When you arrive everyone gets a straw cowboy had and a bandana to wear all evening long. It was a very good time. Those that went were Mom, Elaine, Sonny, Maria, Darrin, Mary Ann Young, Diane Durand, Tom Durand, Liz, Margaret (Margie), Al, Jennifer, Andrew, Gary, Kristie, and Alexander. Alexander had his first roasted marshmellow and thought it was a pretty good treat.
On Sunday we all slept in some and some of us met for a river boat ride at Canyon Lake. What a neat adventure and a gorgous ride on the road to get there and on the boat ride. It was a small group that went this time Al's family Helen (his Mom), John and Pat, (his brother and sister in law), Mom, Liz, Al, Margaret (Margie), Jennifer and Andrew.
Sunday afternoon was another time of rest and also a time for us to get things organized and packed up as we were leaving the hotel to go home about 4:30 am. At 4:30 we arrived at Maria's home for the big celebrations party where EVERYONE came together!!! It was a wonderful party and a GREAT time. We had orderves and visitied with everyone and then had a marvelous meal for dinner. We took lots of pictures and made lost of special memories! Mom opened her gifts and the Durands brought her Michigan memories.......Faygo Rock N Rye pop and Faygo Red Pop also Saunders ice cream topping!! She lit up with a huge happy smile it was so much fun to see her so very very happy! She also got some nice photo albums for all the many pctues we all took and certainly will share with her. She also recieved a nice digital frame too. She had a great birthday weekend. Mom told us as we told her good bye Sunday night that this was the best weekend of her life besides her wedding!! I was thrilled that she felt that way and that it turned out so well.
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