Artin and Margaret Visit - Oct 2017

ATV Tour: Kelly, Margaret, Keith, Shawna, Kate and Keith

Kate was planning on attending a conference in Scottsdale and since the conference was close to our house, she decided to stay at our house for the week.  Keith was also able to come out for the weekend thanks to JoAnna who offered to watch their kids for a few days.  Separately, Margaret had planned a hiking trip to the Grand Canyon with her friend Kelly and thus they stayed at our house for one night as well overlapping with the Artins.

McDowell Preserve: Shawna and Kate

Kate arrived on Monday. Keith picked her up at the airport and we had dinner at home - Shawna had made some Indian food.  Since Kate was still on East Coast time, we did not stay up late.  Kate's conference ran from Tuesday to Friday mid-day.  She had activities in the evenings except for Thursday evening when she and Shawna went out to dinner at Herb Box, sharing a yummy vegetarian sampler and salmon dish.

Camelback: Keith, Kate and Keith

On Friday, Shawna and Kate went for a two hour hike in the afternoon at McDowell Preserve.  It was quite hot but still a nice hike.  Once home, they took a quick dip into the pool to cool off before getting ready.  They picked up Keith A at the airport while Keith D went over to Barrio Cafe straight from work to put our names in so that we would not have too long of a wait once we arrived (Barrio does not take reservations).  Once we arrived, they seated us right away!  We shared several dishes - guacamole, stuffed pepper, pork, filet and chicken mole.  While they were all tasty, we thought the filet was the best!  After dinner, we returned home and went to bed as we had an early and long day the next day.

Cornish Pasty: Keith, Shawna, Kate and Keith

On Saturday, we had a quick breakfast at home and then went to Camelback to do our usual hike.  Everyone made it to the top except for Shawna who turned around about 3/4 of the way.  After the hike, we had lunch at our usual spot - Cornish Pasty!  We then drove straight to the ATV tour with Desert Wolf Tours where Margaret and Kelly met us.  This was our fourth time doing the tour so Shawna did not drive, letting the others do all of the driving.  We had a great time and got some good photos!

After the tour, we returned home, swam for a while to wash off all of the dust from the tour and then got ready for the evening.  Keith A wanted to catch up with a high school friend of his who lives in the area, so we invited him and his wife (Scott and Liza) to join us for dinner at our house - since Margaret and Kelly were also joining us for the evening, we thought it would be more social to host everyone.  We grilled flank steak and sausage and then also made Mexican corn, sweet potato stackers and roasted cauliflower.  Liza brought dessert which was a very tasty cream cheese sopapilla.  We stayed up quite late chatting (until about 11:30) when Kate had to finally say it was time to call it a night!

ATV Tour: Keith and Margaret

On Sunday, Shawna made chorizo, egg and corn/bean tostadas for breakfast.  Margaret and Kelly left around 8:30 to drop Margaret off at the airport and for Kelly to drive back to Denver.  We hung out on the back patio with Keith and Kate until 10:30 when Keith drove them to the airport.

It was so nice to have the Artins visit and to see Margaret and Kelly (even though their visit was short)!

ATV Tour: Keith, Kate and Keith