Monday, April 15, 2013

Arizona in April... the best time to visit!

When Mark was asked to lecture for Invisalign in Arizona, 
I decided to fly out a few days earlier to spend some time with my dad. 
I timed the trip just right and also got to hold my little niece, Tammy's brand new baby girl, 
and celebrate my sister, Susan's birthday at lunch with some of her girlfriends.
It is always wonderful to be with my family in Arizona, 
but it seems like a bonus when the temperatures are in the 70's!
It was lovely to feel the warmth of the sun and see the sky so blue! 
 If only it could stay that way all summer:)!
Mark is getting into the spirit of things, after lecturing in Old Town Scottsdale.
Isn't he the cutest wire bending, Invisalign lecturing orthodontist ever?!
Here is Grandpa Olson with his newest little great granddaughter!
Introducing Emma Joyce!  Love her name!
So much hair!  Absolutely adorable!!
While Mark was at the conference, I took a morning walk around Old Town Scottsdale and enjoyed the sights.
I have to confess, I've eaten my fair share of Pinnacle Peak sundaes at Sugar Bowl.
Lots of friendly folks (and friendly mannequins) on the streets of Old Town Scottsdale!
In the afternoon I sat by the pool and look who came to visit me in between speakers.  
He brought me an ice cold diet pepsi.  What a good husband!
A trip to Arizona wouldn't be complete without dining at our favorite mexican restaurant, Tia Rosa's.
The grilled salmon with orange mango sauce was delicious!
Grandpa loved the fried ice cream...
and so did little Cameron!  Love this!
We took my dad on a Saturday morning drive to Canyon Lake.
My Dad and I enjoying a beautiful view of the lake.
This is the gorgeous view that we enjoyed as we ate lunch.
It was such a wonderful day with my dad!
We love spending time with him and he loves showing us the town!
It was a great trip! Mark got to lecture and teach other orthodontists about Invisalign, 
I spent quality time with my dad, ate some yummy mexican food 
and enjoyed beautiful spring weather!  This Arizona girl couldn't be happier!

Friday, April 5, 2013

Allie's Birthday Surprise!

I put a fun video together last January but I didn't have space on my computer to download it to YouTube. 
 (Does this ever happen to anyone else?) So after lots and lots of One on One lessons at the Apple store 
(I LOVE those guys! They always make me feel so good about asking the dumbest questions about my computer!) 
and after sorting through a gazillion photos, files and documents, I finally emptied my photo trash 
(with confidence that I wasn't losing any photo that I would someday regret)
 and got rid of tons of stuff that I didn't need on my computer and found that I have lots of space now. YAY!
 It felt SO good to get organized and I was so happy to finally get this downloaded for Allie. 
 I know. It's April... I had A LOT of duplicate photos and hitting that "delete" button was really hard!

 So finally, here it is... Allie's Birthday Surprise! 
 You know I LOVE surprises and so does Anise, Allie's best friend from high school, 
 and we both wanted to surprise Allie for her 25th birthday. 
 We wanted to do something she would never forget!
 So when I found out that Anise was going to be in New York City for Christmas, 
 I told her to extend her vacation to January 2nd, when we were arriving,
so that we could spend the day with Anise... and she did! 
 We started planning and scheming the big surprise, 
Shake Shack being the perfect location for this all to go down.
I don't know which was more fun, the planning and scheming part 
or watching Allie's reaction when Anise walked in!
 She was totally surprised and it was fun to have Anise join us on our family vacation!
 It wasn't the first time that Anise has been on a Holt family vacation. 
 One summer, she came with us on a roadtrip to Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, and Idaho Falls to visit Kimber. 
 Our favorite spot was "Bear World" outside of Rexburg, Idaho.  Ha! Ha!
 Lots of good times with that girl! We all love her and she has been like part of the family for a long time 
 and has spent many hours days in our home during high school... and we loved it!
 So as you can see in the video, we are all very happy to see Anise and Allie was very surprised!
Happy 25th Birthday, Allie!  And thanks, Anise for helping me pull this off!  We love you lots!