Michelle Comes To "Relax"

We'll just say it...Michelle, Mara and I relax the same way...by punishing ourselves phycically so we can enjoy the rest...:)  Michelle made her annual trek out to the desert to escape the cabin fever awaiting her in mid-winter Wisconsin.  It started out a little sketchy on Wednesday when she showed up.  I got off work and waited for her in the cell phone lot of PHX.  When she called I went to start the car and...nothing...the battery was toasted (luckily that and nothing expensive!).  Fortuitously, Mara was off her rotation early and came to the rescue.  After a quick jump start and a stop by our favorite German bakery (Old Heidelberg German Bakery), we continied to one of our favorite restaurants, That's A Wrap.  We  hit up an Autozone for a new battery and then dropped Michelle off for a massage with our favorite RMT...Jeanette @ The Little Bohemian. While Michelle got a 1hr+ deep tissue massage, Mara and I climbed at AZR across the street.  After climbing we grilled a pesto chicken & pine nut pizza and went for a long walk around a very affluent area near Camleback Mountain.  Not a bad way to introduce Michelle to AZ!  We all slept like rocks that night!
Thursday morning Mara ran Rohan into daycare and Michelle and I went and watched the sun rise over the McDowell's.  When Mara returned we headed up to the 104th St. trail in the McDowell's and went for a 5mi trail run!  It felt awesome, and we all had a lot of fun exploring the preserve!  Afterwards we met Greg & our favorite yogi, Jeanette again, back at our place and had a private yoga session.  The session was AWESOME!  We all had a great time, and even earned a few nicknames...:)  After everyone disbanded, we soaked our calves in the hot tub and then headed to Tempe and ate at California Pizza Kitchen before we grabbed Rohan and took him to a park for a long run/soccer session.  We capped the day off with some more grilling (portobellos and sweet potatoes) and some well deserved wine and beer!
Before the beer & wine we had to do some micro-surgery on Rohan's hand.  He had a HUGE sliver from the mulch playground at school in his palm which was starting to get irritated and we wanted to remove it before it got infected.  We got the tweezers and showed them to him, let him play with them, he seemed pretty OK with the instrument.  As soon as we started to operate on his hand he flipped.  We felt awful, but we had to hold him down and Mara did an awesome job getting in and out, with no blood, but 3 big pieces of mulch extracted.  Rohan calmed down well, and eventually started showing off his "battle scar".  Such a little trooper!
Friday I had a "Sequencing the Genome" lecture for work I wanted to attend, so I dropped Mara and Michelle at the Cholla Trail of Camelback Mountain where they traversed it, and came down the Echo Canyon Trail where their car was parked.  After their hike they hit up a YMCA to try and completely exhaust themselves!  They came and picked me up from the seminar and we headed to Greg & Nico's to BBQ and see baby Mila again.  It was great to see them all doing so well, and Mila is such a cutie!  We picked up Rohan and grabbed a quick bite before we hit up AZR again.  Michelle showed off her athleticism and totally scaled the walls at AZR. Not even doing "beginner" routes, she took right to the 5.8s and had no problem!  Too bad they don't have a gym in GB, I think she would really like it!
Saturday we tested Michelle's nerves by heading to Superior, AZ and hiking a lone mountain called Picket Post Mountain.  It's a pretty shear cliff at some points, and Michelle can have a sometimes debilitating fear of heights.  We had some fun finding the trail, but eventually we made it about 3/4 of the way up, across some pretty sketchy areas, before we thought it'd be best to turn around.  Rohan was with us as usual, but his backpack was starting to get in the way, so we turned back.  It was an amazing view, and now we have an excuse to hike it again and get to the top! :)  Michelle did surprisingly well on some of the outcrops and scrambles given her fear.  We even got her to pose on the point of an edge for a pick...very proud of her...:)
We stopped by Triple C Coffee House in Superior for lunch and brought it to a train park so Rohan could get out and play since he was such a trooper on the hike.  We headed home and hit the hot tub again before Michelle took us to dinner at Bombay Spice (one of Mara and I's favorites!).  We capped of the night with a long walk with the dogs and enjoyed the last bit of warmth Michelle gets before heaeding back to WI.
We dropped Michelle off at 5:30 and then headed to Tempe Town Lake to watch the sun rise (which was gorgeous).  We spend Sunday cleaning, airing out the house since it was mid-70s, and playing baseball with Rohan.  While we were playing baseball, the sunset was so nice, we hopped in the car and drove to the TPC Scottsdale Golf Course next door to snap some pics and they turned out amazing!  What a great way to cap off an awesome visit and fun-filled week!  This week we probably won't be able to match the level of intensity of this last week, but we'll try! :)
Hope everyone had an active week, and enjoy the pics...the are a lot of them...


Rohan getting his kick in the tub...I think he splashed out a gallon of water: