A visit from Paul, Juli, and Sawyer

Paul, Juli, and Sawyer recently came down to AZ to visit for several days. Here are some of the highlights of their visit:
- A backyard BBQ complete with smoked salmon and chicken (courtesy of Chef Scott) and some competitive badminton amongst the family.
- A trip to the Scottsdale train park so Luke could show cousin Sawyer his stomping grounds.
- Lots of time outdoors! Since it's been in the teens back in KS, we really enjoyed some time outside in the 70 degree weather ... whether playing out in the yard or going to the park.
- Watching Sawyer boogie to his Blue's Clues dance! He's got some great dance moves!
- We also celebrated Paul's birthday with a special sweet treat -- a pazookie. Basically it's a fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookie in a pan with vanilla ice cream slowly melting on top. Luke, the expert candle blower, helped Paul with one of his candles!

Luke and Curious George

Luke enjoyed a special Valentine's treat today ... his first trip to the movie theater! "Curious George" was the feature film, and Luke loved it! He sat still through the entire movie. The only issue was when he spilled his drink down the front of him ... oh, well, it dried by the end of the movie. Here's a picture of Luke and his buddy George.

Travels here, there, and everywhere.

In the last week, the airport has been our second home. Scott made a quick return trip to England to resolve some work issues on the project there. He spent all week in Swindon, but this time they were brave enough to let him rent a car and test his skills at driving on the other side of the road!! Scott noted that it was a little hard to get used to ... especially those round-abouts. Scott returned home late on Thursday night and swapped suitcases with Jami who caught a flight to LA on Friday to attend a leadership conference with some Theta officers from the ASU chapter.

As a result, Luke now has some funny associations with the airport. When he wakes up in the morning and asks about Dad, the explanation is "He's at work." Well ... when Scott was gone to England, we explained to Luke that he went on the airplane for work. He seemed satisfied with that, but now it's having a reverse effect because when we mention work, he thinks Scott's at the airport. He must have a pretty warped view of the airport.

Rolly Pollies

Scott and Luke have started a class at a nearby kids' gym called Rolly Pollies. The class focuses on coordination, balance, motor skills, etc. Music is incorporated into each session, and the kids have a ball going from station to station. Luke is a champ at swinging from the trapeze (is the circus in his future?) and jumping in the inflatable bouncy. He also loves to do forward rolls and jump on the trampoline. Not sure who has more fun ... Dad or Luke!

The Greek chapters we advise...

Scott, his brother Eric, and I have been pretty involved with advising for our fraternity/sorority chapters at ASU -- Delta Upsilon and Kappa Alpha Theta, respectively. The DUs are making a comeback on the campus and have had marked success over the past year with the guidance of Scott and Eric. Whenever I see the Greek Life Advisor, she always raves about how much Scott and Eric have done to help the chapter turnaround and gain ground at ASU. Theta is one of the top sororities at ASU, and the 13 sororities are highly competitive. As you can imagine, there are some unique challenges with advising at an urban university.

Last night, ASU held its Greek Life Awards (sort of like the Oscars for fraternities and sororities at ASU). Both DU and Theta earned numerous awards. The DU Advisory Board even earned recognition as "Outstanding Advisory Board" among all fraternities at ASU. Theta earned a long list of awards, which helped the chapter achieve the top overall honor of "Chapter of the Year." The women have been striving to reach this for several years, so they were ecstatic about this!

Da Bears.

We went to a Super Bowl party hosted by our friends Rob and Lori. Apparently, these two little guys thought the Bears were playing in the Super Bowl!! Luke and his buddy Robby preferred tackling these bears over the Steelers/Seahawks game!

Kicking off another soccer season

Scott has started another soccer season. He plays on Saturday mornings with a group that originally started out several years ago as a bunch of Motorolans and their friends, but now it's sort of a hodge podge of players. This season Scott stepped up to the role of co-captain (a good friend of ours Kenn Welling is the other co-captain) ... and brother Eric plays on the team, too. We'll let you know if any Olympic hopefuls emerge from the team!