Lewis Family Christmas and dinner with Friends!

So, we spent Xmas eve with my family and spent Xmas day with the Lewis family. Carol my mom-in-law was in town, so we spent the day at Erin's house. I was still pretty sick during Xmas hence the lack of pictures - I was not in much of a mood to take snapshots. But, here are a few:

Then, yesterday we went to our friend Peter's art show and out to dinner at this great place called Hanny's. We have out of town friends visiting too, so it was really nice to have a chance to spend time together. Garrett has great friends! Here are pics of some arial shots I took from the top floor of the restaurant...the place was very contemporary and that weird mirror shot...yah - well, that's the entry to the bathrooms. I got totally lost trying to find the potty, because I thought that those were just mirrors, until my friend Bobby was like, "No - you fool, walk thru space in between" Wow, I was super glad she was there....LOL!

Merry Xmas and Onto the New Year.

Love, Adela and Garrett

Carrie's Christmas Party!

Last Friday we headed out to Carrie's house in grand ol' Queen Creek...45 mins later we arrived safe and sound ready for some good times. There was plenty of good food, good times and good drinks for everyone. We played a nice, friendly game of White Elephant where Garrett and I won an awesome wine bottle opener...sweet! My gift was a very cool Hanna Montana lip gloss microphone and Garrett brought a Spiderman Bath set to the table - they were pretty nifty!

I, however, have been sick since last week and am currently still sick. I hope that Santa takes away my cold for Christmas...sad face! So, that's all the writing for today, my head hurts.

One quick addition, I forgot to post a really cool photo collage I made for Carrie's husband Scott.

Viola!

I thought it came out really well and Scott seemed to really like it! It's so hard to get gifts for men....

Okay, now this post is done, for realzy!

Janette Comes to Visit from Michigan!

So, I have been friends with Janette Biewer now Janette Beaudry since about 1st grade or so, when I met her on the swings during my brother's soccer practice. While went to the same elementary, junior and high school - we didnt really have any classes together...but we were constantly at each other's houses and were active members of the youth group at church (in my Catholic days). Janette came to visit and we got to meet her cute little boy C.J. and her very nice husband David. We started our first meeting with dinner at a place called Juan Jaime's, which was pretty good and had great tequila and tacos.

Later on the week - I was able to invite my pal Carrie to come out and we headed on out to Tempe Marketplace, where we looked at the Xmas tree, played in the (artificial) snow and ate dinner at Cadillac Ranch, which was followed by drinks at Duffy McGees' Irish Pub.

After Duffy's Carrie had to go home SAD FACE, but her husband got home late from work that night and he was hungry and he missed her....aaaaaaaw!

But the rest of the girls, Janette's brothers and I drove to downtown Chandler's Irish Pub Murphy's. It was great and downtown Chandler has a great nightlife - all types of stuff going on.

It was so much fun spending time with my old friends from school - Faith, Daniella, Angie, Janette and Carrie...I love you all!!! You are some of my nearest and dearest pals!

Thanksgiving Goodness in Payson

So, after dinner with the family we headed up to Payson to visit our Czech family! We got there about 5:00p or so, it took no time at all. Garrett and I were both amazed by how short the trip seemed to take. We both grew up going camping with our families and as young kiddies we remembered how the trip seemed to take FOREVER, and now as adults we realized it really took no time at all. Heck, we might go up there every weekend...okay maybe once a month! We stayed overnight at the casino hotel in Payson and then ate at our favorite local breakfast eatery The Knotty Pine, then we went shopping for gifts and stumbled upon this beautiful park and historical museum complete with a large lake full of ducks and GIANT geese....so much fun!

Can't wait til Christmas!!!

Thanksgiving Goodness at Home

So, this Thanksgiving we offered to provide ALL the pies for the Huge Ramos Family celebration at mom's. Mom was like, "Pies, that easy right?" But, Garrett and I were all about BAKING these pies from SCRATCH right now to the pie crust. And we did, we baked several Dutch apple pies, pumpkin pies and pecan pies. It was yummy, fun and a little stressful towards the end of the night....

Garrett got the honorary position of Turkey Carver and we had a super yummy turkey dinner!

We stayed at mom's until about 3p or so then we headed up to Payson to see some friends and we stayed the night.

That's the next blog....

Kristin's Big Day!

So, Kristin Clifford is now Mrs. Jacob Johnson as of November 15th! She is a married lady now and she couldn't be happier. Garrett and I went to the wedding and had a very nice time with the family. I was able to help Kristin out by playing "DOC" for her, which stands for Day of Coordinator and helped keep the wedding flowing and on schedule with her D.J. Kristin is Mormon and this was like a huge family reunion for them, it kind of stole the show from Krissy and Jake which was annoying, but the wedding was still beautiful and I am sure the pictures will be great. They got married in the temple, but had a special ring ceremony at the reception hall for everyone that couldn't go into the temple. They got lots and lots of gifts, those two...yay! It's such a special and weird feeling opening up all those presents and realizing they are for you and your new husband...because you are MARRIED now! After the wedding Carrie, Scott, Garrett and I went out to Dos for some after wedding fun....

Yay I love weddings...I can't wait until March when we get to go to our friends Jonah and Sarah's wedding!!!

Love, Adela.

We're Godparents (again)

So, this past weekend we had the delight of being Godparents for the beautiful daughter of our very good friends Melina and Peter! Melina is Greek Orthodox and Peter is Catholic, so they had a private ceremony at a beautiful resort in AZ, Sanctuary on Camelback Mtn. It was a very special day for both Anya, our goddaughter and Zara her sister who was also baptized that day

(but by a different couple, sad face). We then had the most wonderful lunch at Elements there at the Resort, I'm not eating any carbs right now and the restaurant was super accomodating! After lunch we and some friends went back to the suite and celebrated the night away. Garrett had a presentation due the next morning that he was in no mood for come the next day...such is life!

High School Musical 3 and Halloween!

So, my niece has been dying to see HSM3 ever since she found out that the Disney people were actually releasing a 3rd one...I have never seen any of these, but when no one else was quick to volunteer to take her, I stepped up to the challenge. It actually wasn't that bad, the dancing was good, the songs were cute and it was a very wholesome film. I think I liked it...my niece sure did:

This Halloween Garrett had a test to study for and I have been super busy at the office, so we just took it easy. I passed out candy with my mom, the kids dressed up as Scream and Sharpe the blonde girl from HSM3, of course!

The next day of course was Dia de los Muertos, Garrett, Natalia and I went to historical downtown Chandler for a festival. We bought some stuff and made some crafts. We also made some new friends:

October Wedding Fun!

So, Carrie's sister gets married in a couple of weeks and Carrie is the Maid of Honor (no curse of the MOH, here) She asked me to go with her to help her pick out a dress, since her sister is a lot more laid back on the attire of the wedding party than I was (hah!) So, off we went searching at all major department stores until we finally just ended up at David's Bridal, where we made a fine selection if I do say so myself:




Then my new manager decides that she and her fiance are going to throw caution to the wind and get married on a Thursday downtown and forego all the unnecessary wedding drama, so my co-workers and I threw her a little post wedding shower at our office:

October = Good times with Friends!

So, our good friends Gina and Roy were in town for a few days and we met up with them for some good times at The Salty Senorita. It was Taco Tuesday night, yay, $1 tacos and $5 Coronitas in a bucket! So, we enjoyed ourselves with them and some other friends!



Later that week, I went my good friend Carrie's sister's "bachelorette" party, it was a murder mystery dinner...kind of cheezy but we had fun together!