our arizona people

the hard part about visiting az is finding time to see everyone we want to see. we thought we'd made up a pretty good schedule, but it seemed like we were rushing from one person to the next. wish we'd had more time to relax with each of them, not to mention the friends we didn't even get to see. next time, we hope.

here's sar, above, posing with the gigantic dog bag we brought her from toronto's chinatown. she's great.
and her parents, below, who are also pretty awesome. we ate mexican food together at their classic family spot.

dean & kathie, below, super cute as always. love that we got a photo of them in their backyard, where we were married. dean made us his famous crepe-like pancakes - sooo yummy.

we spent some time with my phoenix cvb friends. sara (who is expecting a baby in january!) had a baby shower. so, so happy i could attend! so good to spend time with them all. (maria, can't believe i forgot the thing.)

rachel and mateo:

and maria and mateo:

we went to one of our favorite spots in phoenix, the farm at south mountain, to have lunch with luke's aunt and godmother. she's so beautiful, inside and out, and asks really good questions. loved seeing her.

we spent our last two nights with my aunt and uncle. usually we see them at big family events, so it was really great to spend time with just the two of them. can't even express how much we laughed with them. seriously, we had so much fun. (mateo as well, obviously).

luke (and me, a little bit) also got some quality time in with his friends from his nau days: pat, janet, ryan, lindsay, and little corbin. we did the artwalk together and luke went with them to a greek festival in scottsdale. love seeing him so happy with his good friends.

so amazing seeing you all! love and hugs till next time!

we went to arizona

we went to arizona. for 5 days. luke presented a paper at a conference. we soaked in all the sun and heat that we could get. mateo was amazing on the plane (pictured above) and on both flights got comments on what a great traveler he is.

the two door rental car we'd signed up for was out, so we ended up with our dream car (seriously) instead. a prius! it was so smooth and quiet and made us want it even more. seriously, you push a button to turn it on, how great is that? love it. we made sure to get our money's worth of arizona and listened to the spanish pop radio station and npr the whole time.

we saw good friends and family. we ate the mexican food we'd been missing. we hiked. we took the new light rail. we even attended a baby shower. and church. and the artwalk. we'd forgotten how beautiful arizona sunsets are.

we shopped. well, i shopped. at last chance and star of india. we sold books (and bought new ones) at bookmans.

downtown has changed so much - a light rail, asu, people walking and riding bikes, art spaces. the art walk which used to be small with a real grassroots feel where we used to have a booth is now huge (and, unfortunately, a little more corporate).

it was so great to be back in the city we love and to spend time with the people we miss. we wish we'd had more time. but suprisingly, and in a good way, it was nice to come back home as well. i don't think we would have felt that way about michigan a year ago. glad it's finally feeling like a place where we have lives, not just a place where we live.

more photos to come.

101 head starts on the day

the minimalist did it again! in today's new york times bittman lists 101 recipes to prepare ahead of time for thanksgiving. anyone else super excited to try some of these? numbers 15, 51, 65, 85, & 99 are so on my list.

the last of the leaves

before we left for arizona we wanted to take advantage of the last bit of fall. so we went for another hike. the leaves were just past their peak.

we hiked along the river on what we thought was a beautiful day.

the ground was completely covered in leaves and we couldn't see the trail. it was perfect.

it started raining a few minutes into our walk, so we didn't take too many photos, and the ones we did take are a bit blurry.

but it was beautiful. and just what we needed.

we attempted a few family photos but a dark day, wiggly dog, baby who just wants to look at the dog, and rain made it a little difficult.

two weeks later, these days, the trees are completely bare and the sky is gray. so we are really glad we got out there.

we've been enjoying seeing our blog photos go from summery greens to autumn-y yellows and oranges. not so ready for whites and greys, but we'll get there. :)

ps. check out how unica has changed since our hike 1 year ago at the bottom of this post.

at 6 months mateo

:: weighs almost 16 pounds ::
:: and is 26 inches long ::
:: is so happy and smiley all day long ::

:: rolls both ways, all the time ::
:: sits up for a few long seconds before falling over ::
:: scoots around in a circle and backwards ::

:: is very talkative and super ticklish::
:: has had his first fever ::
:: and makes lots of silly faces ::

:: looks longingly at someone until they look back at him, then breaks out a big smile ::
:: prefers playing with our empty water bottles than store-bought toys ::
:: but prefers playing with papi more than anything ::

can't believe it's been 1/2 a year already. so blessed to be his parents.

happy halloween!

the pumpkins we carved

last tuesday we carved the pumpkins that we picked the week before.

everyone was so creative!

i think ours turned out great for being done in an hour while (carefully) holding mateo. the best part was how much he enjoyed it. he laughed and laughed and kept stretching backwards to see the pumpkin while i carved away.

(ours is the one next to the heart ears)