WEEKEND WITH MY MA

For five glorious days I had my mom all to myself. Among the things we did, in chronological order:

• Had Sonoran hot dogs WHICH SHE LOVED SO I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER WORD ABOUT IT

• Ate a delicious authentic German meal called rouladen - it was always one of my favorite meals growing up so I specifically asked her to teach me to make while she was in town. And yes, I just now learned how to spell 'rouladen' after 23 years of demanding my mother make it for me. This meal also included asparagus and "crash hot potatoes".

• Watched Kung-Fu Panda while tickling each other's backs. Jon did not participate in one portion of this bullet point.

• Went on a drive through Saguaro National Park. Jon and my ma made up a delicious lunch of egg-salad sandwiches, oreos, bananas and Pepsi while I was at work and we took off right when I got home.

• Went to the dog park (twice - once when there was hardly anyone there, and again the next night when it was packed).

• Went to Frost, our favorite gelato shop. Twice.

• Watched highlights from So You Think You Can Dance, season 3.

• Caught a Saturday matinee of Coraline in 3D. I encourage you to do the same.

• Ate lunch at Pei Wei. Mmmm. Honey seared chicken. Mmmm. Rejuvenation. (see previous post)

• Fed the ducks and saw a turtle at Agua Caliente Park - a desert oasis only 10-15 minutes from our apartment.

• Skipped out on most of church to go to the Horses in the Sun show that is currently in Tucson of all places. It's a fairly important equestrian event that travels from city to city. We caught a Grand Prix showjumping competition with a $25,000 purse. It was SO much fun, though Jon later admitted his disappointment that only one person got thrown into one of the jumps.

• Made corned beef, cabbage and potatoes for dinner. Another one of those meals that I grew up on.

• Watched Mamma Mia. Sang along. (but we didn't put it on the "sing along" version of the DVD, so that counts for something, right?)

• Went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. It's more interesting than it sounds, I promise. It's like a zoo and a museum and a botanical garden all wrapped into one. We were there in time to catch a live demonstration of hawks in flight. We were in the perfect location and even had to duck a couple of times when the hawks dive-bombed through the crowd. The old lady docent hawk-expert that was narrating the demonstration was shocked and appalled when two wild redtail hawks came out of nowhere and mated right over our heads. She was right in the middle of explaining the courting behavior between them when WHAM! Poor female bird never saw it coming. I'm pretty sure some children's eyes got covered. Jon summed it up when he remarked, "......that was definitely PG-13". Anyway, we were in T-shirts the entire day and came home sunburned. Jealous?

• Last but not least, we made rice krispy treats.

PICTURE TIME! But there are only three so don't get too excited. My mom took more than me so maybe I'll post some of those later.

Our picnic in the park:


And at the horse show:





Um, weird ending. But that's all I've got.