Sun in Scottsdale, AZ

After all that snow, a trip to Scottsdale, AZ was much deserved! We met up with two of Scott's medical school roommates and their spouses, Scott and Laura and Ray and Kristen, for a relaxing, warm vacation in sunny Scottsdale. We rented a condo for 5 days and enjoyed our time checking out Old Town Scottsdale and the Arts district, catching a Cubs pre-season game, indulging in massages at Day Spa followed by a day next to the pool, and hiking in the red rocks of Sedona! Oh, and of course eating lots of good food!

It was great catching up with old friends and catching a few rays at the same time! Looks like the next reunion will be in Alaska, where Scott and Laura will be moving in September!!

Check out all of our pictures here.

A New Doctor in the Family!

A few weekends ago, Amy and Frank and the rest of the Vivio crew came to Memphis for a momentous occasion: Chris' final recital in his almost finished quest for his PhD in Tuba. It was great to have Amy and Frank visit, and they certainly enjoyed the repreive from the Michigan snow. We spent the Friday before the recital on our back deck, enjoying 70+ degree weather, sipping cocktails, listening to music, and discussing lawnmower spark plugs. How many boys does it take to fix a lawnmower?

Saturday's recital was a huge success! The recital was great. For ears that have never had the pleasure of enjoying a tuba recital, they were quite pleastanly surprised! Way to go Chris!

And let's not forget to mention that Stanley had a blast - 3 Vivio boys to spoil him rotten...what more could he ask for?

What was Scott complaining about?

So, while Scott and Stanley were getting excited about a little snow in Memphis, I was literally stuck up in Cleveland during the great 2008 blizzard, as 18 inches of snow had me trapped. The whole family had gathered at my parents' house, minus Scott and Frank, for my grandma's funeral. We were all anticipating to head out on Saturday, March 8th, but plans quickly changed when the skies unleashed their rath starting Friday afternoon. We all quickly realized that Jacob and Travis were not heading back to Springfield for his basketball game, Amy was not going to drive up to MI, just to be caught in more snow, and I was certainly not going to get on an airplane back to Memphis (in fact the Cleveland airport closed!). Interestingly enough, when I called the airline on Saturday morning to change my flight, they mentioned that my 7 pm flight was still on-time. This is when I realized that I was actually speaking with someone in India, yet I was looking out my window at this:















So, for a good 48 hours, it was lots of family time! Lots of games were played: UNO Attack, Blink, Connect 4, and two nights of Poker. We managed to find enough food in the house to feed 9 people for two days, thanks to the neighbors! We watched Night at the Museum not once, but three times (Cole just loves this movie!), made cookies, took naps,

and Jacob, Travis, and Dad played in the snow.

Though it was fun, by Sunday, the troops were ready to head home. I unfortnately had to wait until Monday evening to fly out! Check out more pics from our family bonding weekend here.