Over the winter break, while I was in Arizona, Peirce and the boys went to New Jersey to visit Will and Tricia and the rest of the family. They had a great time!  Since I wasn't there, I only got a few pictures submitted to me by the Macgill family (thank you!), but good ones they are.

Everyone took the train into the city and got to see New York at Christmastime. 

They walked and walked and walked.  Here are Eddie and Ben in Central Park.

Looks like they stayed warm in the very cold temperatures! Thanks for the coats Aunt Tricia! I had to laugh when I saw the picture because I could see that with me gone, the proper outerwear was not packed. Boys!

Meanwhile in sunny warm Arizona, I got to enjoy some different weather. Every day was a high of 68. I could get used to that.  This is Peg and Larry's home that Sarah and I visited for five days. Larry built the entire part on the left. (behind his truck). That was my room which we will get to later.

We walked around the park campus and checked the place out again. I was glad to get some more pictures because my computer hard drive burst after my last visit and I lost every picture I had of my last trip here. This is the heated pool and I was proud of myself that I actually went in it at 8 p.m. one night. I couldn't let the "old folks" be cooler than me. So, I had to join in. I don't know how they do that most nights. You have to get out. That's the problem.

The next day (but in the same clothes because apparently, I didn't like what I packed and borrowed my mom's shirt the whole time), we went to the Musical Instrument Museum, otherwise known as MIM. Sarah and I giggled when Larry suggested that this is what we might want to do. We thought it would be boring, but we were definitely wrong. The museum was packed and huge. 

They had a visiting exhibit from the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame. It was the Women in Rock exhibit and we got to go in there and learn about different women who influenced rock. It was so fun to see some of their clothes and hear some of their music. Of course I died when I saw Madonna's clothes. I also loved seeing others clothes too, for the record....Tina Turner, The Supremes, Janis Joplin, Melissa Etheridge. But I miss my days of Madonna. Those of you who were at our wedding can get what I'm saying when I broke out into full Madonna dance routine with my friend, Jessica.

Check out this big bass. At least that's what I guess it is called. How would you even play it?

On our trip, we also went to Lost Dutchman State Park where we got a lesson on cacti. This one might be about 5 years old, just like Ben.

Later, we took a boat tour of Canyon Lake.

It was so cool to see the rock formations. We even got to see a Big Horn Sheep.

 After our boat tour we drove to Tempe to see the city. On the way, I asked Larry if we could scout out the new Cubs spring training stadium so I could take some pictures for Peirce and Will. It looks to be on its way to be a beautiful facility. I couldn't get too close because the whole area is still a construction site, but you could tell they are sinking a lot of money into it.

One day, maybe I can get a souvenir at the Team Shop. 

Back inside Peg and Larry's home, you can now see my bed and my cozy little room. Sarah was kind enough to take the living room pull out sofa. 

And here is the living room, dining room and kitchen. We were enjoying a lunch for the Ravens game. Too bad the lunch was better than the game. Total bummer.

After the game, we went to the bocce courts and tried our best to put a hurtin' on the place. It is such a fun game and we had beginners luck the night before, but we struggled a bit on our second showing.

On our last morning there, we played Pickleball with Peg and Larry's friends, Judy and Jerry. It can be described as a cross between tennis and table tennis. There are Pickleball courts and everything. All I can hope is that Peirce and Gordon can one day have a Pickleball throw down match. It was really fun and I'm glad we got to experience it. 

Thanks for the visit Arizona. This is one of my favorite landscape pictures in the dessert. Next time, I want to see a Jackrabbit or a coyote. See if you can work on that in the meantime, Mom and Larry. Thanks for a great time!