Memorial Day 2011

We had the great pleasure of spending the extra long Memorial Day weekend at Mingus Mountain with a small group of close friends. We arrived Thursday after work and found our spot.  It was fairly easy to level (for a change).  We discovered, however, that a window on the driver's side of the RV was broken during our journey.  Fortunately, we have dual pane windows and only the outer pane was broken.  We called the insurance company Friday and got the claim started.  The window is being measured and ordered tomorrow morning.  The entire window, frame included, has to be replaced.  We are hoping that it will get replaced prior to our Flagstaff trip in just over 2 weeks.

Friday was a relaxing day for us with 2 more RV's arriving after work.  We had a nice dinner of pulled pork and baked beans followed by a campfire.  Saturday, the rest of our group arrived and we helped them set up their tent.  It was fun, and faster for them than doing it themselves!  Dinner Saturday was Bring Your Own Meat with lots of great side dishes.  Another great campfire ensued, but this one wasn't as fun due to the wind.  Sunday took us to Jerome to do some shopping and sight seeing.  It was very windy all weekend and Sunday, it was windy AND cold.  We skipped the campfire and ate dinner inside.  Tri-tip with great side dishes and birthday cake for me and one of our friends made for a great end of the day. 

Monday was pack and go home day.  After a very long and relaxing weekend, it was sad to have to go home.  Surprisingly, traffic on the way home was very light.  We stopped in Cordes Junction to dump our tanks and headed home.  It was a beautiful day in Phoenix and we took the opportunity to power spray the dust off of the Jeep and the back 1/3 of the motor home.  After taking the RV back to storage, we stopped at Panda Express to get some take-out and went home to eat and relax. 

Today was a rough day after such a long weekend.  The good news is that tomorrow in Wednesday already!  I hope everyone has a great week, and enjoy the pictures of our group campsite at Mingus Mountain.

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We are at 7,500 feet in the pines at Mingus Mountain.  It's gorgeous up here.  We arrived around 6:20 last evening, 10 minutes later than we would have if it weren't for the motorcycle accident that was being cleaned up on one of the last 15mph curves before we turned off onto the dirt road.  It wasn't a fatality but the guy was taken by ambulance to the hospital.  The sad part is that it looked like a bunch of older men who had no business riding motorcycles at their age and condition - especially on the steep, mountain curves of Highway 89A.  We are planning to stay until Tuesday morning.  There are 5 rigs here right now, more are expected to arrive today.  It's going to be fun!

Please say a prayer for the family of Officer Travis Murphy, Phoenix Police Officer, who was killed in the line of duty on Wednesday morning.  He was 29 years old and leaves behind a wife, a 2 year old and a 2 week old child.  Travis used to be one of my team members at Wells Fargo right after he was out of college and before he joined the police academy.  He was shot and killed while investigating a report of shots fired.  It's very tragic.  He was a good kid and very brave for joining the police department. 

Please have an enjoyable and safe Memorial Day weekend.  Watch out for the crazies!!

Rodney & Dennis

Busy travel season

It's Tuesday night and I'm watching Lee and Crystal battle it out on American Idol.  Very exciting!  I think they will both be successful, but I believe Crystal will win the competition.  She's having a much better night tonight. 

It's been an amazing week.  My birthday on Monday was awesome.  My team surprised me with great decorations for my cube.  Then, about 11:15, they all came together to sing Happy Birthday to me and gave me a Costco cake (my favorite!).  My California partner in crime and a my leadership team took me out to lunch at Chili's.  When I got home, Dennis and I went to dinner at Claim Jumper.  It was a great day and a very memorable 40th.  THANK you all for your part in the perfection!

Tonight, one of my vendors was in from Texas and we went out to dinner at Aunt Chilada's.  It was so good.  I haven't been there in probably a year.  It rocked!  Their Chambord margaritas are awesome! 

Tomorrow we're picking up the motor home to bring it to the house to cool the fridge, then we're going to Happy Hour for my friend and former co-worker Ken who is moving back to Oregon from Phoenix.  We'll pack some things into the motor home as well.  Thursday is our last day this week and month.  We'll finish the motor home pack up on Thursday and then Friday morning, we are heading up to Mingus Mountain.  We plan to stay there until Tuesday morning.  We are camping with 10 other RVs for a total of about 22 people.  It should be fun and relaxing.

I hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend.  If you haven't already, check out the CellPhoneShop link above for cell phone accessories including wall chargers, car chargers, plastic covers, leather cases, bluetooth devices, etc. all at unbelievably low prices.  Don't pay Sprint or Verizon prices - go to CellPhoneShop via our site. 

Take care, and thanks for reading!

Independence Day 2009

What a great weekend! We left work around 3 on Thursday, grabbed the puppies and jumped in the motor home and car. Dennis drove the RV and the boys and I followed behind in the car. I was worried about towing the car on the sharp curves and mountain grades going up to Mingus Mountain. We encountered a few sprinkles on Fain Road, just outside of Prescott Valley. We got there around 5:45. There were a total of 6 RVs Thursday night. We stayed at the Playground area on Mingus Mountain, hosted by our friends Brandon & Jeremy. The weather was so gorgeous.

Friday we had a nice breakfast. Jeremy's mom Shane and her husband Steve came from Temecula to spend the weekend with us. Steve made bacon and pancakes, and hash browns and Ron & Bob made a nice egg casserole. It was an excellent breakfast! The rest of the day was spent hanging out, setting up the Easy Ups for our group dinners and preparing for our Friday night potluck. Barb & Karen arrived after taking the 'long' way to Mingus Mountain so there are 7 RVs there Friday night. After a nice wine and cheese happy hour hosted by Ron & Bob, we had a fantastic dinner - 2 kinds of pork, salad, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, veggies followed by apple crisp and ice cream. YUMMY!

Saturday we had a red white and blue breakfast, compliments of Jim & Greg. We had blueberry and strawberry pancakes with whipped cream and sausage. Yum! We then put together the smoker that we bought to smoke the meat that Brandon & Jeremy were making for dinner Saturday. Once that was done, Dennis and & went into Jerome with Melinda & Dorian. We wandered in and out of some of the shops there, then went to the Mile High Grill for lunch. It was fantastic! We got back to camp just in time for about 8 or 10 more sprinkles of rain. We played a little Wii bowling, then started happy hour about 4.

Saturday night's dinner was a fabulous smoked brisket, salad, corn on the cob, Parmesan bread followed by peach cobbler made on the dutch oven and homemade ice cream. NUMMY!! about 8:15, several of us headed to the campground down the road to get ready to watch the fireworks. We had 2 vehicles and 11 people going, so we had to make a couple of trips to get everyone there. We were able to see the Cottonwood fireworks from atop Mingus Mountain, which is about 7,700 feet (Cottonwood is about 3,200 feet). It was pretty cool! We also caught a glimpse of the fireworks from Flagstaff at the same time. We then shuttled everyone back to the Playground and enjoyed the fabulous fire that the 3 who stayed back had built and enjoyed.

This morning it was time to pack up to head home. We left the camp about 9. Dennis drive the motor home and was having trouble with large moths that had taken up residence in our motor home over the weekend. At one point going down the hill, he pulled over and started swatting them. In all, he encountered about 10-12 moths that somehow got into our motor home while up there. We stopped at Cordes Junction before getting on I-17 to use the dump station and put some gasoline in my car. I-17 was moving surprisingly well for Sunday of a summer holiday weekend. We got home about 11:30 and got everything unloaded. We then stopped at Safeway to fill up the motor home before taking it back to storage. After getting everything put away, we were back home by 1. We've been relaxing ever since.

The weekend was a dog weekend. We had 12 dogs at the camp. Everyone got along well. Our boys had a BLAST on Friday chasing a tennis ball with Haas and Diva. They got SOOOO dirty! We had to give them a bath Friday afternoon! They really enjoyed it! Jeremy and Brandon had their 3 dogs Daisy, Peggy and Joey. Jim & Greg had Haas and Diva. Shane & Steve brought Molly and Zeus. Melinda & Dorian brought Pat and Henry. And Ron & Bob brought Sedona. Karen and Barb left their dogs at home and enjoyed a weekend without them! But....our little lovers gave them some attention.

We hope everyone had a fantastic Independence Day weekend. We sure did. Happy Summer! I've attached a couple of pictures from the weekend. Have a great week!

Sunday update

It's Sunday morning after another weekend at home. Sometimes its nice to not travel, but to just stay home and not have to do anything - unless we want to.

Dennis and I carpooled every day this week except for Wednesday morning. That made for long days since he is working overtime. We were there before 7 and stayed until 4:30 or 4:45. Friday we left at 3:30 which was very nice!

Wednesday I took the motor home to Payless to have the jacks fixed. They broke down after we got home from Flagstaff a few weeks ago. We are really hoping to get it back by Wednesday so that we can go out of town Thursday.

Friday we went to PF Chang's with Ron & Marilyn. We then stopped by Cold Stone for some ice cream to go, then came back to our house for some ice cream and wine. It was a fairly early night, we were in bed by 10:30. Saturday, the dogs woke us up at 5:30. We got dressed and went down to Ron & Marilyn's because they were having a garage sale. We bought some stuff and helped drive in some traffic for them by putting our neon green signs out at strategic places. We had a new alarm installed Saturday morning - ADT didn't want to make it worthwhile for us to become their customers again, so we signed up with American Alarm/Monitronics. We got a new keypad with cell phone communication to the monitoring station and got all new batteries in our sensors. The monitoring fee is about the same as with ADT. It's ADT's loss.

After a couple of naps and lots of relaxation, Lyn and Dan came down and we drank some wine, had some appetizers, and then had dinner. We watched The House Bunny - which was very funny - and then they left. It was a very nice evening.

Today the dogs let us sleep in until 5:45. They've both been very emotionally and affectionately needy this morning. I think it's because they are cold. They're 10 pounds, and with the a/c and ceiling fan going, it gets cold for them at 12" off the floor. We kicked them out of the bed this week - by setting up a bed for them on the recliner that we took to the bedroom from the family room. Drama does a great job staying in the chair but Brother Boy gets out of the chair several times a night and jumps on our bed. And several times a night, we get up and put him back in the chair. It is nice to sleep without worrying about rolling over onto one of them. But they don't like it very much!

We've also taken to giving them free reign of the bedroom and bathroom when we go to work. We did it 3 days this week and they did great. They are less energetic when we get home because they romped around all day, and they entertain each other. Thursday they got some bar soap out of the bathtub and chewed on it. Friday, they found a wooden ball that was somewhere in the bedroom and chewed it up. Now we know we need to leave some of their chew toys in the room with them to keep them occupied. They're such good boys!

This week is a short week. We are off Friday and - assuming we get the motor home back - leaving early Thursday to head to Mingus Mountain. We're really looking forward to taking the dogs camping in the forest with little/no electricity. It should be fun!

We hope everyone has a great week and an enjoyable and thankful Independence Day holiday. We should never forget the freedoms we have or what has been sacrificed in order to guarantee them for us! Also enjoy the picture of Drama sleeping on his back between the cushions on the couch.

June update

It's Saturday morning, bright and early. June has been a busy month. The first weekend of June, we stayed home and worked around the house and yard. The week of the 8th, I traveled to Charlotte, NC on business. I'm part of the Coast-to-Coast integration team and our in-person meeting this time was in Charlotte. The weather was great - mid-80's but the worst part was the humidity. 75% humidity was horrible! It was a great meeting, and I managed to have a little fun while there.

Five minutes after getting home from the airport that Thursday, I jumped in the car that Dennis had loaded up and we headed to the mountains. Thursday night, we stayed at Clint's Well. It was beautiful there. The temperature was in the 30's Friday morning when we took the boys out. About 10, we pulled out, hitched up the car dolly and car and headed NW to Flagstaff. We camped at the KOA with Rainbow RV and had a great time. The weather was beautiful, it's a great park, and we had a very relaxing time. It was quite windy but we staked down the Easy-Up and sat outside most of Saturday, enjoying the weather. Our site became somewhat of a gathering place for the people we know best from RRV. It was great.

We didn't even make it to the Pride Festival. Saturday morning, we met our friends from Munds Park at CostPlus WorldMarket and did some wine shopping. After we dropped the juice off at the RV, we then took the boys and headed to Camping World to buy some new chairs. We got some very nice lounge chairs and also stumbled on some very comfortable and light-weight chairs for our guests to use. It was time to replace our old lounge chairs and the old-school "Coleman" camping chairs we've been toting around for years. It was a productive shopping trip!

Sunday we headed back to Phoenix because we wanted to get the car dolly back home. We're planning to go to Mingus Mountain on 4th of July weekend and we want to take the Polaris up there. Next weekend we're hoping to retrieve it from Clint's Well.

Monday morning, Brother Boy woke me up at 4:30, pacing on the bed. He then jumped off the bed, so I got up and let him outside. He promptly went out and threw up. Poor thing was obviously having stomach pains - probably over something he ate that he shouldn't have. He came back inside, then got up again and needed to go out. He threw up again. When we came in the 2nd time, he sat on my lap in the recliner for about 30 minutes, sleeping soundly. He seemed to be better after that. I got showered and dressed, but when we were getting ready to leave, Dennis suggested that I stay home with him - so I did. He was pretty lethargic all day but did have an emergency poo-poo around noon which he finished the worst of outside. After that, he slowly got back his happy personality.

Tuesday I worked at home because we had our new recliners and fridge and dishwasher delivered. We got stainless steel to replace our 10 year old fridge and our recalled dishwasher. They look great! We also rearranged the family room to fit the recliners and took out the old recliner. The new ones have massagers in the back and seat and also have a full-chaise which the doggies LOVE. It's nice that we can both sit in front of the TV instead of me having to sit to the side of it. Tuesday night, I put the old fridge (which still worked) on Craigslist. I got about 10 calls/e-mails about it - I think I priced it too low - and Wednesday we sold it for $150. That along with the $150 back from GE on the recalled dishwasher, and the dishwasher ended up being about $100. Not bad!

Friday, I participated in the Junior Achievement Hula Bowl for Wells Fargo. I raised $120, most of which I donated, and had a really great time. Dennis stayed home and hung out with the dogs.

Today, we are hoping to power-wash the back patio and pool, wash the cars and get the new bed frame put together. It's going to be hot today. June has been the coolest June on record since 1913. We haven't had many days over 100 degrees. It's been great! I'm sure it's coming, though! We had a dust storm last night while I was driving to the Hula Bowl. No rain to speak of hopefully that's coming too.

We hope everyone has a great weekend. We'll blog more when we have time. The picture above was taken in the motor home at the KOA in Flagstaff. Aren't they all cute??

Friday morning

Good morning! Long time no post.

We've been very busy since we got back from our Easter camping weekend. We've done some work on our house and yard in preparation for summer. Dennis' sisters Joan and Sheryl were here for about 6 days. While they were here, I took them to Sedona for a day trip. They spent time in the pool and just enjoyed our weather. It was really great to spend time with them. We played lots of games, had some cocktails (imagine that) and sugared up. It was fun. They left Tuesday morning and the rest of the week has been spent getting ready to go camping.

Today after work, we're heading up to rim country to camp at Clint's Well. We're planning to leave the motor home there so that we can go back up for Memorial Day weekend. We're also planning a trip to Flagstaff in mid-June, then a dry camping weekend at Mingus Mountain for 4th of July weekend. Beyond that, not sure where we'll be but know that it will be somewhere in the cooler country!!

The dogs are doing great. They love being outside. We'll see if that continues when it gets hot. We've had an amazing Spring. It's been very pleasant while cool at night. It's awesome. We got the dogs in August so they didn't get a lot of experience with our 110+ temps. They are such cuddlers! When the ceiling fan is on, they cuddle up with one of us - or each other. It's so cute.

We hope everyone has a great Friday and an awesome weekend! My immediate family is heading to Louisville for Derby Weekend. They're going to have a great time. Blog more later!