Happy Birthday Dad!

I am fairly certain you are turning into Benjamin Button and actually anti-aging in your retired life. Traveling, going on overnight adventures, not getting eaten by bears (glad you are still safe on these adventures) are all so fun to hear about and and an inspiration for those of us who spend these weekends working endlessly...It lets me know there is an end in sight (even if retirement is still 20 years away for me).

I hope you have many more years of adventures!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

So, turns out today is July 25 not tomorrow (Sunday).

Glad I got this in just under the wire, but I still don't get to win daughter of the year points.

Anyhoo,

HAPPY 45TH ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!!!!

It seems like you too have been together forever (at least my forever). Keep up the good work, you are awesome role models for what love and commitment should look like.

What a wonderful family you have created just by coming out of a closet...

LOVE YOU!

Welcome to Miami

This post is late but here goes. 

Last month I got to attend a conference in Miami. I was pretty excited 1) because February is a great time to go to Miami 2) I have never been to a Southern state and 3) beaches!

I also got to attend the conference with my work bff. We had one slight bump in the trip when we showed up to the conference hotel and our reservation was missing. Turns out when I called to make the reservation it was scheduled for the same dates in March - not February. LUCKILY, they had a guest check out early and we waited an hour for the room to be cleaned and it was ours! While we waited another guest tried to check in and the front staff turned him away. We actually got the last room. 

We stayed in Coconut Grove. It is a great neighborhood next to several marinas, city hall, and a great downtown area within walking distance of our hotel. 

Something I did not know about Miami is that it has LA-level traffic. We were 5-6 miles from the conference venue and it took 45 minutes to get there from the hotel. We spoke to staff at the venue and they said living 10 miles away took 75 minutes to travel to and from work. It was pretty crazy. 

Something else I hadn't thought about was the palm trees. Or maybe I never considered AZ palm trees and the difference between desert palms and tropical palms. All of the palm trees are totally different than the AZ trees. I always thought it was weird when a student visited campus and was blown away by the palm trees, but I was in awe of just how different the palms were in Florida. 

We were at a university in Miami and the campus was beautiful. They just built a fancy conference center on campus. It was fun because we were at a vendor conference, so we got to meet other people from universities also learning how to use a software program we have started using and we even got a free dinner from one of our vendors. It is fun to be the client. 

The conference was only a day and a half long so in the afternoon of the second day we decided to check out South Beach! We had brought bathing suits but figured we wouldn't get in the water so didn't put them on. We were both a bit sad that we hadn't - because the water and outside temperature was perfect! We still walked along the surf, and it was worth it just for the people watching! We also had to get a selfie in front of the Kardashian store Dash - we even went inside and bought some candles (cheapest thing in the store). 

And the food was amazing. I had seafood at every meal I could. The paella in South Beach was delicious! I had Salmon and ceviche another night. Yummy!

It was a great trip!

Happy Birthday Ariana!

It is your Golden Birthday!

You are turning 7th on the 7th...how lucky! Enjoy your day.

Happy Birthday Julian!

I can't believe it has already been two years and only two years. 

Happy Birthday Nephew!

Super Bowl in Town

I don't know if you know this but the Super Bowl is in Phoenix this year. (Actually, the Waste Management Phoenix Open is this week too, so we have had fans of football and golf in town all week! roughly 1 million people are expected to be visiting the Phoenix Metro area in about a 5 day span of time) We have hardly noticed a difference...

Yep, it is as if the Super Bowl...or more likely Bud Light and Pepsi exploded on the city. My friend Eliza and I took the lightrail downtown and it took about an hour, packed like sardines. We were happy to do it because when we got downtown anyone in a car was in a standstill trying to park (where? I don't know) But I will say the organizers of the Downtown Super Bowl Central space are excellent. Although there were hundreds of thousands of people downtown you could still move around, the lightrail ran smoothly, everything was clean and there was definitely a strong police presence so you feel safe too. 

We did a quick walk around some of the sites and tents. There was a line for everything but it was all free and you could get free stuff, or a picture or video of you doing something funny. We got our pictures in front of the roman numerals (the "it" thing to do) and then headed over to a volunteer shift at our university tent. 

Our tent was pretty fun. You could get pictures with our mascot, play solar-powered electric football and watch videos. We had free swag too like eye-blacks, water bottles and foam fingers. It was fun but man am I sore after standing for 8 hours on asphalt. 

We had a Flat Stanley sent to our office so I brought him along to our tent.

I will safely be watching the Super Bowl from a friend's house, away from the crowds. As dad said, it might as well be happening anywhere since I will watch it on TV as usual.