Turkey Time in Arizona

November 2004

We arrived in Phoenix just in time to head over to Cheryl and Sean’s to meet Maura. It was so cool to see the new parents, Barbara, Glenn and Grandma Rice. We spent the next few days visiting and preparing for Thanksgiving. Eric’s parents threw an “open house” party so that some of the folks in Arizona that hadn’t yet met Sarah could meet her and stop by to tour our van and hear about our travels thus far. We had a great time catching up with everyone and while sipping some beers. A big THANKS to Mom and Pop Waterkotte for doing so much to throw a great party.

Thanksgiving week was spent collecting various family members at the airport, including Eric’s sibs, Alison and James, as well as Sarah’s Mom, Mary Jo. Even Sarah’s Aunt Janie and Uncle Dan made it to Tempe for the holiday. Cheryl and Sean hosted the Thanksgiving Day festivities, with everyone fixing and bringing a dish so that the new parents didn’t have to cook the whole meal while trying to keep up with little Maura’s sleep and feeding schedule. The big feast followed Team Aztec Pride’s second place finish in the Landis Thanksgiving Day relay triathlon. A good friend of Sean’s, John Walker, ran the 5k, Captain Sean (a.k.a. Lance A.) rode in the bike leg, and Eric swam the last leg of the race.

The day after Thanksgiving, we headed up with Mary Jo, Dan and Janie to visit our long time family friends, Wanda, Cleo, David and Sheryl Walker in Cottonwood. We had a lovely day visiting with them and got to take a little side trip Jerome, an old copper mining town that lies precipitously perched on the hillside. We ate lunch at the Asylum, a hotel and restaurant converted from a hospital that served Jerome and most of the surrounding valley during Jerome’s heyday. That night we met up with all the siblings and a bunch of friends at Casey Moore’s, a Tempe bar that reminds us a lot of pub hangouts in Seattle. It was the first time all of the Waterkotte kids had hooked up for beers since Alison turned 21 and we all had a great time.

Over the next couple of days, we said goodbye to James, Alison, Grandma W., Uncle Dan and Aunt Janie. We then packed up the van and headed northeast through Payson, Heber and Holbrook en route to Farmington New Mexico with Sarah’s Mom. Our purpose was to spend time with Sarah’s Grandmother Annette Cain. We had a most enjoyable visit and stayed busy eating scrumptious home cooked meals, Christmas shopping and catching up with Annette. We had a very memorable visit and decided to cap it all off by visiting The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park on our way back to Tempe. The next day we said goodbye to Sarah’s Mom and made plans with Glenn and Barbara to celebrate Glenn’s birthday at their cabin near Payson and the Mogillon Rim in celebration of Glenn’s birthday. The big surprise of the trip was the near foot of snow that fell at the cabin.

When we returned from the cabin we spent our last few days in Arizona working on a Habitat for Humanity project with Barbara, snuzzling with Maura and visiting with Alison (back again from Eugene for winter break) and the rest of the family for the final few times. We then packed up the van and headed for Joshua Tree National park for some climbing.

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