Arizona

Alec and I had the opportunity to go to Tucson, AZ for a trip with his work.  Each year Maytag puts on a conference for their commercial laundry distributors to attend.  So Alec and myself along with the owner of the company and his wife attended the conference. 

It started Thursday evening, but we arrived Wednesday evening.  We drove to Dearborn where we dropped Brie off at my parents house for the 4 nights (that was full of mixed emotions for me!) and then flew from Detroit to Phoenix.  I have some cousins that live in Phoenix, we were able to meet them for dinner which was so fun because we had not seen each other in so long!  From there we drove about 2hrs to Tucson to the resort we were staying at. 

We stayed at the JW Marriott Starr Pass resort, it was absolutely beautiful.  The setting around the resort was just gorgeous; saguaro cacti everywhere.  We went on a couple walks and checked out the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.  It was amazing to walk around in shorts and a tee shirt in 80 degree temps.  I have never been on vacation somewhere warm during the winter, it was so bizarre to be sitting by the pool knowing what the weather was like back home. 

During the day Alec had to attend meetings; but I was able to spend time by the pool, go out to lunch at the resort, and take naps.  I was a little worried how I would do with so much alone time, but I adjusted just fine :)  Each afternoon we were delivered an invitation to dinner and the evening event.  Maytag did an amazing job the entire weekend, it was great!  The food was a.m.a.z.i.n.g!  One of the days wasn't such great weather, it was 65 and rainy.  Unfortunately this was the golf day, most people did not finish all 18 holes.  Alec made it to hole 15 I do believe before the weather really picked up and they had to call it quits. 

Brie did GREAT at my parents house, and we are SO thankful they were willing to watch her for a few days.  I missed her like crazy though and was very ready to go home come Sunday.  

We arrived to the resort late Wednesday night; this is what we drove up too, the picture doesn't do it justice. 

This was the view from our balcony. 

Overlooking one of the pools:

Ready to PowerUp with Maytag!

 Getting some vitamin D :)

Posing with a cactus, they were seriously everywhere!  We learned a lot about them, they don't even begin to grow arms until they are 75 years old! 

No such thing as a true vacation for Alec, always always working.  

At the museum, we were looking at some things posted on the walls and the guide says to us in a very calm tone "I am going to be taking a snake out of this box now, just in case that bothers you"   Yes, yes it does bother me, thank you for the warning!  

 Sitting in the warm sun felt absolutely amazing.

A few of the golfers drying off and saying how crazy the weather was.....needless to say golf was not a huge success:

Our last night party: 

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 They had a live band the last night for entertainment that you could sing karaoke with if you chose too.....we did not: 

Dancing with our glow sticks! 

They had a caricature artist, our picture did not turn out great I didn't think.  It really looked nothing like us.  And the guy doing it was SOOO grouchy, it was weird. 

We had a great time on our first 'vacation' away from Brie and first time away together like that since our honeymoon!