In Loving Memory of Costco

Well, the games have begun!  I do have to start at the beginning tho...

We had a 9:10pm flight out of CID that was delayed by 40 min... plus some.  So, not terrible, but we were at the airport at 6:45pm, so we were really hoping the flight would have been on time.  We board the plane and are wheels up around 10:10pm.  I tell ya, 10:10pm is about my limit on a Friday night.  I think working all week and up early just makes Friday a good night to go to bed.  It's really so sad, I'm only 32... but that's the way I feel about it all.  :)

SO, I'm ready to sleep!  BUT, we were on a booze cruise in the sky!  Holy mackerel.  From the young to the elderly everyone was raring to go.... and then the 5 drunk people got on the plane.  And the dull roar turned into quite the little party.  I will say, I was amused by them for the 1st 20 min... after that... I was on the verge of stabbing one of them.  They insisted on communicating across 10 rows in the airplane by screaming at each other and they all had to pee, I know, because I heard about it for 30 min straight.  The only woman with them was very outgoing and had a lovely laugh.. again.. for the first 20 min... then after that I wanted to stab my eyes out thru the back of my head as a friend of mine likes to say.  :)

Well, we finally made it to the airport!  It was a relief.  We waited for the airport workers to get the ramp to the plane (only took 20 attempts and 2 announcements from the pilot) and then we made a bee-line for our luggage and rental car.  The luggage belt broke down numerous times, but in all honesty, it felt about right.

When we had our car keys in hand we practically RAN to the rental car location... where we found a Crown Vic waiting for us.  "I guess I should have indicated to the rental place that I was 33," was Nick's response.  LOL.  Hilarious.  SO, we get in our black CIA/Cop car and make our hour drive to my aunts house.  we were planning on being to her home around 11... and it's after 12 at this point with an hour drive.  We both felt really bad. 

SO, we get to my aunts house, pull or CIA car into the drive walk up to the door and try to open it... no luck... so I give her a jingle and she says she's up and waiting for us... but oddly the dog hasn't barked.  hmmmm... well... we're at your front door... Do you have a little table at the door w/ a plaque that says, "Faith, Hope, Love."  -- "No."  hmmmm... Do you have a pool table?  --- "No."  hmmmm... I looked at Nick and told him we had to get out of there and broke into a sprint.  I wanted to just run up to her house, it was about 4-5 down, but Nick insisted we take the car. 

Well.. by 2:00am we layed our heads down.  And as Nick so graciously reminded me, it was 4:00am in Iowa City.  So, needless to say, things started off w/ a bang.  :)

It was nice to have a couple of days to get or strength back and to see family!

My aunt and uncle are very gracious hosts, and laid back souls.  They have two midgets are very beautiful and well behaved as well as 4 cats (they finallly came out today!) and an adorable Shar pei, Reggie.

Here's Reggie!

My Aunt, Uncle, Cousin and Grandma and Grandpa stopped over.  I hadn't seen my aunt, uncle and cousin for quite some time!  It was nice to catch up w/ them.  And it's of course nice to see Grandma and Grandpa.  :)

Grandpa (what a chick magnet w/ that hat and sunglasses:), me -- Look at my windblown hair!, and my grandmother, who like my mom, is an awesome laugher.  You want to tell grandma stories, she just knows how to laugh!  My grandpa spent about 5 min looking over our Crown Vic and asking me questions like "what year it was." lol!  Ha ha.  How would I know.  I probably could have sold it to him.  ha.  He was cracking me up!

My hair has been FANTABULOUS!  On a scale of 1 to moving here... I'm about at moving here.  My hair, as many of you know, has too much power over my days.  It has behaved swimmingly!  I literally did NOTHING with it when I woke up on Saturday and it could have been in a shampoo commercial, unlike most Saturdays where I could be in a help-the-homeless ad.  Definitely loving the climate!!

Uncle Don and Nick chilaxing! 

I stole Uncle Brad's long lens!  Nick was being fierce.  :)  Poor boy, he ran himself down pretty bad before we left, ended up congested and horse, but he's pulling thru.  He did take a few naps tho! 

Me and my aunties!  :) 

Aunt Lizzy, Uncle Brad and my cousin Kyle.  :)  

The reason this post is named whatever it is... I can't remember... something about Costco... IS my family talked about Costco ALL night.  There was general appal when they found out I had never been to one.  My Aunt Karen brought an AWESOME chicken pasta salad from there, I ate it for snack, breakfast and lunch.  YUM! 

Liz, pulled out this dress of my mom's that she said mom wore as a teenager.  My little cousin modeled it for us.  Lizzy couldn't believe mom could wear it as a teenager.  I could have wore it open, or taken yarn and wrapped it around a button gave it 20 inches and passed it thru the button.  I also could have hulked out of it.  Impressive Mom!

The collar was outdated, but past that, it was still a really cute dress.  My cousin wore it for 60's day at her school.  :)

Well, it was time to bid everyone a fond farewell, hopefully we'll catch them on the way back!

We headed to Sedona and then on to Flagstaff.  Both beautiful areas. 

I can never remember the name of anything, Chapel of the Holy Cross, is this church name I'm PRETTY sure.  :)  What an awesome location.  It was built in the 1950's and considered very cutting edge for the time frame. 

From the church parking lot. 

A classic Nick Timmerman shot. :)  He was applauded by a group of guys perched above for this shot. lol. 

Front of the church.  Very cool.  

The weather in Phoenix was beautiful!  It got increasingly cooler as we climbed up the mountain.  A little bit cooler was nice too.  It was about 83 degrees in Sedona (I'd guess 7-10 degrees cooler than Phoenix), and about 70 degrees in Flagstaff. 

Slide Rock National Park.  The place was packed!  It's a natural water slide that was packed with people sliding down.  It was FREEZING!  We watched a ~20 year old decide to get in and you could hear her screaming for miles.  Everyone was laughing.  She couldn't get out for quite a while because of the current and speed she was sliding, so there was quite a bit of screaming. :) 

Not sure if you can see the guy by the tree.  I caught him mid air as was jumping off the cliff.  Such a sickening sound when he hit the water.  He seemed happy tho. :) 

Beautiful white trees in the area. 

A photo Nick took from a look out.