We spent Christmas this year in Phoenix with Brian's mom and brothers. This was the first Christmas all were together in a really long time, so it was definitely special. To everyone's surprise, the weather in Phoenix was much cooler than anticipated (30s-40s). The cold weather was a bit much for me at times, since I didn't really pack appropriately. I originally had several sweaters packed based on the weather forecast on TWC, but Brian told me I wouldn't need them... Who knew that The Weather Channel would on target with the weather forecast? :-) I guess they had a snow storm in Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon right before and during our time there.
Overall, the trip was nice. We spent time together as a family and were able to meet Jeff's girlfriend, Krista. We played pool, ping-pong, went bowling, and ate plenty of cookies. I bowled an all-time high score of 150... YEAH! I really wish we went bowling more often. Prior to last week, we haven't bowled in over a year. Ping-pong was really fun. It was challenging to understand the rules of the game. It seemed as though everyone had their version of "the rules" so I never really knew what was going on...
Brian, Aaron and I drove to Sedona the day after Christmas. On the way there, we stopped at Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well. Both very interesting! Sedona was cool - just a lot of road construction. The signs and barricades made it difficult to see the area.
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
On the drive back from Sedona, we approached this dark cloud... ended up being a snow storm. This was the first snow fall I've seen - ever! Brian pulled off to the side of the interstate so that I can truly see the snow and enjoy it. If you look hard enough at the pic of me below, you'll see snow on my red sweater... It was way cool!
On Sunday, we went to the Cardinals game since they were playing the Seattle Seahawks. It was cold outside, but it was much cooler inside the dome... The security at the stadium wouldn't allow me to enter with my camera bag since it was bigger than 12". WHAT? Where did they get this stupid rule from??? We've been to several stadiums and none of them required me to go back to the car to drop off my camera bag. And by the way, they didn't seem to apply this rule uniformly, given that we saw several others with backpacks and diaper bags that were bigger than my camera bag. Urgh! As expected, the Seahawks lost the game. I was disappointed with the stadium, the Cardinal fans, and the TINY jumbo-tron. The fans acted as though they were NFL Champs already - very out-of-line and crude. The Cardinals organization doesn't do much to get their fans excited, nor do the play the right music to get fans out of their seats. I guess I'm used to the atmosphere at the Bucs stadium... it's a "party" the entire time - regardless of score or team affiliation. And us Bucs fans are in no way shape or form rude and crude like the Cardinals. So, given that their fans don't know how to behave - I REALLY want the Atlanta Falcons to BURY the Arizona Cardinals this weekend in their playoff game. Go Falcons!
