A Celebration of Love

The daughter of a good friend got married this past weekend.  It was not only a celebration of love, it was a celebration of a great Arizona landmark.  This is an old picture of the Wrigley Mansion built from 1929-1931 in Phoenix. Yes, it's William Wrigley the gum guy.  He had it built for his wife for their 50th anniversary and died a year later. 

Today it still stands.  It is 16,000 square feet and the perfect place for a wedding.

 

The view from the top is amazing. You can see the Valley of the Sun 360 degrees. 





And this is during the daylight hours.  Wait till the sun goes down.

This is the view of Camelback mountain and you get a great view of the Praying Monk.  It is a rock formation that looks exactly like a Monk kneeling to pray. Multi-million dollar homes are built by that Monk.

This is the old switch board operators room in the Mansion.  It's completely covered with Wrigley silver gum wrappers for the wallpaper. Spearmint flavored.

The Bride was beautiful and her Dad, Frank so proud.





The architecture of the house is so large it makes everyone look short.

The Bride and Groom let white doves out at the end of the ceremony.







As we left I had to get one last picture of the entrance.

What a beautiful wedding and beautiful memory.

Congratulations Sophie and Kevin!

 

That Twang and Trains and Hillbilly Thang!

Country Thunder is the Woodstock of country music.  It has come to Arizona in April for the last 20 years and we have never attended. Well this year it was the VIP treatment. Mike received free tickets for the SRP VIP event.  Salt River Project is our power company and we figured with all those high summer electric bills we have to pay, we would take advantage of their hospitality. We invited my cousin Mary and her husband Dan to go along with us. Apparently someone in the SRP head office must like that twang and trains and hillbilly thang.

 

The event is held at a ranch just outside of Florence, AZ.  That's about an hour from home if there are no traffic delays. There are about 100,000 people who camp for four days for this event. When we got to the entrance it looked like we had reached the Arizona/Mexico border. Then Mike says "what about this VIP treatment?"  So they let us cut past all these people and got that parking spot that you always wish for.



SRP had their own tent right in front of the stage and free drinks were flowing.

 

 

 

The night brought a catered dinner and more country singers.

This is the only way to go to Country Thunder. All those thousands of people in front of us jam packed next to each other and here we are with our special seats with full service, even had flushing toilets. Now that's VIP.

They even took souvenir photos for us to take home.

Good Times!  Hope we can go VIP again next year.

Neverland Giraffes

Who would have thought Michael Jackson's giraffes would end up in Arizona and only a mile from us. When Neverland was closed, four giraffes came to Arizona. Unfortunately, some super smart individual with money had them shipped to Page, AZ.  It's cold in Page and two of them died. The super smart individual was then told to give the remaining two a home where the climate was more suited to giraffes. So now a super, super, smarter individual with money provides a great home for them with plenty of room.

Horses are Good for Little Girls

Once a girl gets a taste of riding, she wants more.  That is true for my niece, Nikki.  She has been around horses since she was a little girl and she loves every moment with them. I caught this picture of her at a recent horse show.  I could see she has a special relationship with horses and I am sure it has helped her grow into the young lady she is today.

Good job Nikki! I am a believer, horses are good for little girls.

March Memories

It seems like March came and went in the blink of an eye. The perfect Arizona weather brought lots of weeds.  Chuck has been filling up the entire bed of his truck for several weekends with weeds and spring trimming. Killing weeds while they're still growing is like shoveling snow while it's still snowing.

My baby Casey turned 22 in March. Makes us all feel a little older.

It wouldn't be life at the Joneses without a little car trouble.  Here is Mike working on his truck into the night. You can see the moon coming up. My good old suburban is ready to turn over to 200,000 miles. It's been ole' faithful, that's for sure.

March also brought a welcome surprise.  Mike's Aunt Freida and cousins, Brian and Sandy came for a visit. Brian brought his son Blayne  out for a baseball tournament. We enjoyed dinner at one of our favorites.

You can certainly tell they are all Joneses.

Easter morning brought a delicious breakfast which included "the divine swine".  The kids asked if I cooked all the bacon and I replied: "can't you see all the burns on my neck and forearms?" They didn't offer to treat my wounds but offered to eat my food. I hate cooking bacon but love to eat it.  All those little splatters that jump out at your skin and then smell the house for a week. Mike figured out a way long ago - cook it on the burner on the outdoor grill.  Wish he would have done that on Easter.

All these cute kids came to the Jones Center for Exceptional Grandchildren to participate in the Easter Egg Hunt.

T.J. Joyner ends up finding the Golden Egg and receiving the fabulous prize this year. Knocked out Hailey's winning streak.

The Easter Bunny actually was found in our backyard during the egg hunt.  I wonder how many kids can say that?

Good-bye March.  We're ready for you April!

It's a Guy Thang!

Barbecue is such a guy thang!  A throw back to when man discovered fire.  After that they all thought they could grill anything and this weekend they did.  We attended the Chandler Great American Beer and Barbecue Festival this past weekend.  No beer for us but plenty of great barbecue. 

 

Men and their smokers.  Who says size doesn't matter?

 Our friend, Dan provided great barbecue with his special Prickly Pear BBQ sauce. For those of you who don't live in Arizona, the prickly pear is a cactus.  There is a sweet fruit that grows on top of the cactus and has been made into jellies, cocktails and other delicious delights.

 

 Dan had a great menu and we tried a little of everything. He has a special spice mixture available at

www.flavormadesimple.com that we use on everything.  I haven't found anything yet that it doesn't work on - except maybe ice cream.  

 

 Some of the chain restaurants were also there showing their grill skills. 

 I stood for a while and watched the ribs.  I am a vegan but only when I don't eat meat.

 These are pork ribs but they also had a contest to see who could eat a rack of beef ribs in less than 10 minutes.  I don't even know if that's possible and why would you want to. You have to take it slow and steady, just like the art of barbecue.

 

It's Always Sunny In Arizona . . . .

Until it isn't.  Today brought a rare occurrence for us,  it snowed.  Cactus just don't look right with snow on them.

It won't last long.  The weatherman says 70's this weekend. That's Arizona for ya'.

 

 



Why Do Auctioneers Talk Like That?

To put you in a trance.  They talk like that to hypnotize the bidders. They don’t just talk fast, they chant in a rhythmic monotone so as to lull onlookers into a conditioned pattern of call and response, as if we were playing a game. The speed is also intended to give the buyer the sense of urgency:  Bid now or lose out. You will never see a poor auctioneer, they usually take 10 % of the sales price home with them. Even if it’s junk, it’s 10% cash from junk.

 

 

My Dad and I have made it a tradition to go to our favorite auction every February.  It’s usually held the weekend of my birthday so it’s a great chance to spend time together. This auction is held at a horse stable and with parking so far away, they bring you in on a wagon hitched to a team of mules. Being the mule lover that I am, I asked the young guy handling the team if he would let me sit in the drivers seat and see how it was done and he agreed.  This is the view from the top of the wagon. Love it!

Then it was time to look over all the goodies, from wagon wheels to Amish quilts. The covered wagon is a shepherd's wagon. It reminded me of the old gypsy wagons.

 

It takes two days to get through all of the antiques and then it's on to the mules and horses.

They bring in mules from Tennessee and the ones with spots are always popular.  This one was a beauty.

This was a lineback mule. A beautiful freak of nature. I mean that in a nice way.  This was nature's science experiment that came out well.

 

This little colt happened to be in one of the nearby stalls.  He wasn't for sale but I couldn't get over his two blue eyes and dark hair.

I did buy some old tractor seats because they go from this......

To this with just a milk can and a tractor seat. Most comfortable seat in the barn.

Then they start bringing the wagons.

This Amish buggy was fancy. It had working lights and turn signals. It had all the leather covers for winter too. The owner lived in town and said he took his grandkids for rides all the time in it.

The wagons were all lined up to come in the sale barn.

This cute little veterinary wagon had little tools on it and signs for all the ailments that a vet might cure.  It was a steal at $700.00

This was a jewel.  I called it the Suburban - 1898 model.

 

It's not only fun to watch and hear the auctioneer, it's exciting to get a deal. I don't know why I love this old stuff so much but I have a feeling there will come a time that we won't see very much of it. Now go enjoy an episode of Gunsmoke and see some of this ol' stuff.