Rock and Roll Marathon

Sunday morning was the PF Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in Phoenix.  T and I went with my parents to a location close to our house where we could watch the marathon and be near one of the bands.  The band was great and playing rock and blues.  We had so much fun listening to the music and cheering the runners on as they ran by us!  After the marathon, we went back to our house and watched the Cardinals win the NFC Championship, so it was a pretty great day!

Phoenix Light Rail

About two weeks ago, the new Phoenix Light Rail opened, so T and I rode it for the first time last Sunday.  We decided to pick it up at the end of the line, which is near our house, and ride it downtown for brunch.  I picked this great Thai place that came highly-recommended.  We drove to the park-n-ride (which was FREE to park the car!) and hopped on the light rail (only $2 to ride it all day!).  The train was packed and it was clear that there were even families on it just riding it from end-to-end!

T and I easily found the restaurant that we were looking for and discovered that it's closed on Sundays!  So, we walked back to the Light Rail platform and as we were waiting for the train and discussing where to go next, we saw my brother and his girlfriend drive by!!  We waved them down, they parked their car and then we decided to all go to brunch together.  I love that Phoenix is a big city, but yet, at times, so small!  

We hopped back on the Light Rail and rode uptown to a great, new cafe on Central.  Sidenote: we sat outside on the patio while eating brunch.  ;)

Grapefruit!

Check out one of the grapefruits from our tree!  It was extra-chilly around Christmas (in the low-30's a couple of nights) and the colder weather helps to sweeten the grapefruit.  T and I have been enjoying our grapefruits for breakfast -- no sugar needed!  YUM!

Christmas in New England

T and I spent Christmas in Massachusetts and Mother Nature made sure that we wouldn't forget what winters are "supposed" to be like...we were hit with two separate snow storms totaling around 30 inches and we made sure to do a little bit of shoveling too!

Our New Car

T and I bought a new car!  Check out the pic of our 2008 Ford Explorer.  We love it and are so happy to have more than one car again!

Christmas Tree Chopping 2008

Last Sunday, T and I went out with my family (Mom, Dad, Bro, Bro's gf) to get our Christmas tree.  In AZ, you can buy a beautiful tree from Oregon or Washington on pretty much any corner.  You can also buy a $15 permit to go out into the Northern AZ forest to cut down your own (clearly, we opted for the latter or this post would be a little less interesting).

We started out at my parents' place in Payson (less than 2 hours from the Valley and about 5000 feet in elevation) and headed further North to the Mogollon Rim (pronounced "mug-ee-on").  Along with our tags, the Forest Service (USFS) provided maps to the cutting areas that we registered and descriptions of the species in the area.

  

Our first stop was about 2 miles into the cutting area where the forest was filled with Ponderosa Pine.  We hiked off from the road with our handsaws, chainsaw, and lopper.  After about 20 minutes of walking, we found a perfect Christmas tree ponderosa.  

We carried the tree back to the car (very heavy since it's still filled with water) and kept on driving north.

We pulled over a second time to the side of the road where we saw more spruce and firs (we estimated that we were around 7,500 feet in elevation).  The Fam hiked down a raveen where there was a lot more snow still on the ground and where we found our other two trees!  Bro's is a Blue Spruce and ours is a Douglas Fir.

Back to Boston

Tomorrow, T and I are heading back to Boston for a week (mainly for work).  I checked the weather in Boston and it's supposed to be in the upper-40's / low-50's and rain.  Bleh.  Have I been back in Phoenix long enough to be totally spoiled by the weather??  I found out today that it hasn't rained in Phoenix since August 31st!  That's nice (even though my lawn could probably use a healthy dose of rain water right about now!).  Will post more when we're back from our trip!