Birthday Weekend!
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008The Redhead flew in Thursday evening and her flight was scheduled late enough that we just came home and went to bed. Whew!
Friday, we tooled around and met O’Kerri and Jon for lunch. We did a little shopping (doggone, REI is like a big kids’ toy store!) and hung out in the pool. We tried to go dancing Friday night, but TK was on call and ended up getting called in to work. It was a bummer not to be able to hang out, but we were pretty tired, so it worked out ok anyway.
Saturday, we got up and packed the car. We headed north and set up camp. We went hiking up around the Mogollon Rim, then to Mexican food (I know of 2 s-i-l, one m-i-l, and a Sunshine who are jealous!). We had so much fun just playing around and being silly.
We went back to camp after dinner to take showers (yes, it was sort of princess camping - got a problem with that?!), but were informed by our campground host that the showers were closed for the evening. O’Kerri said something like “yes, I guess it is getting late” as we’d all been yawning. She asked the campground host what time it was. His response - “it’s 7:12.” Seriously! We were completely crashed out and ready for bed at 7:12 on a Saturday night!! Well, it was really dark!! Man, maybe we’re lame! Luckily, we stayed up giggling and talking for at least another 2 hours past that, so maybe that saves us some face. At one point, we made the Redhead go to the car to get chocolate and water bottles.
Sometime Sunday morning, we all woke up and heard this crazy snoring. Not wanting to make fun of each other, we sort of cautiously looked around. Realizing it wasn’t any of us, we giggled about it later. It was apparently a guy in the tent in the next campsite!
There was also a discussion about a horse or javelina making a noise that was actually an elk bugling. We think he might have been just outside our tent, but none of us wanted to get up. Something was snuffling around the tent in the wee hours of the morning and it wasn’t any of the three of us.
If you haven’t been princess camping with girlfriends before, I highly recommend it. We had a blast!
We went to breakfast, then to Tonto Natural Bridge State Park on Sunday morning. This picture was t
aken after we’d finished a “strenuous” hike that was actually kind of hard to follow. (Sunshine, no one tried to push me into the water because we went around the other direction - it was fabulous!)
After our hike, it was time for yummy Italian food. If you live around here, go to Gerardo’s Italian Bistro in Payson (512 N. Beeline Hwy). It was very good, though a bit pricier than a normal lunch/early dinner during a camping weekend. We shared the pasta special, which was butternut squash ravioli with alfredo sauce and we also shared the Bianca pizza. Are you kidding?! It was SO good. There might have been a homemade brownie involved. Mm ..
Next was the long drive home. We got home, took showers, made mojitos, grilled brie and bread, and watched Sunday Night Football with Jon. Awesome!
Monday, I went to work while the Redhead kept the boys company at home. I came home and we watched “chick flicks” (No Reservations and 27 Dresses). We sat in our jammies with cats and glasses of water until Jon came home.
The Redhead flew back to Colorado at 6 this morning, so I was up at 4:15 to drop her off at the airport. Thank goodness for work from home days so I didn’t have to get dressed by 4 am. Yuck!
Whew - that’s all. That was the weekend - what a blast! I’m going through pictures and will post some on our site once I figure out how.
Next, we get ready for O’Kerri to stay with us for a bit before she moves back to the land of Braum’s. So jealous!!