My Sister Rose's Visit

It's been almost 2 months since my last post. Things haven't been that exciting except for the many hours of work I've been putting in. And then as Emeril would say "BAM!"

My sister, Rose, flew in from Bartlett, IL on Saturday. This is her first visit to Arizona and she came by herself and left the 17 degree temps behind. She has a husband, Mike, and two grown sons, Michael and Anthony. We've been having a ball with Rose while she's here. Nicole has been laughing non-stop and Dan has been fantastic about chauffeuring us around.

We went to Sedona all day on Sunday. Since all of us but Rose have been there before, I always like to add something to the agenda that none of us have seen. As we drove in from route 260, we first stopped at Red Rock State Park by accident. Years ago, friends of ours (Jamie and Michelle) had taken us to this cool scenic area and I thought it was this Park. It wasn't. The Ranger was nice enough to refund our money. Then we took a dirt road for about 10 minutes to "Red Rock Crossing". This was the place that I remembered! Alot of photos are taken from this one particular lookout point for magazine shoots. When the water is higher, it covers the rocks, but it was low for our visit. We ate lunch at The Wildflower Bread Company. I highly recommend it if you like sandwiches and soup. Everything was fresh and it was packed which is a good sign for any restaurant. Then we browsed around the shopping district. I don't even think any of us bought anything.

As we left Sedona via Route 179, I wanted to visit the Chapel of the Holy Cross. We tried once last year to go there, but it was raining and my Mom, unknowingly, was coming down with pneumonia. It was strange, because we remembered that Chapel Road was closer to the city and we thought we had passed the street. It was late and there was alot of construction. I said "oh well, maybe next time." because I really didn't want to find a turn around it the traffic mess. Then about 5 minutes later, I see Chapel Road and we turned off to visit the church. Someone was watching out for us. We found a parking spot at the top of the hill, 2 spots from the walk up path. Another bonus. My Mom saw how high and winding the path was up to the church and didn't feel like she could climb it. We kept telling her it wasn't that bad and so she pushed herself. Was she ever glad she did. We all were! This was the most awesome experience to see this church and the views of the city. I can't even describe it. Lastly, as we walked into the church and the gift shop below, my sister hears this music playing that a dear friend of hers from Illinois always plays at her house for prayer services. As they say "It was meant to be!"

I took my Mom and Rose shopping the last three days. Nicole said "Mom I like it when Grandma comes in because we don't go shopping for the other 9 months of the year". My Mom said to me "Oh good, she caught the bug". As you can tell, I don't take after my Mom or sister.

Today after dinner, Dan drove all of us to Lake Pleasant, which is about 25 minutes north of our house. It's really funny driving through the the desert covered with cacti and all of a sudden there is this huge lake. We had some awesome views. But we didn't see any wild burros.

Tomorrow Nicole has a half day and we plan on going up to the pool after lunch. Our heated pool is closed for maintenance, so I don't know how long Nicole could last in the regular unheated pool. We'll see. Stay tuned because Friday is the Daddy/Daughter Dance at Vistancia and Nicole is Dan's date....or is it the other way around?