Anna and Juan at our wedding reception
Okay, so that's not a very clear picture of them, but I love it anyway. This picture was taken at our wedding reception, the night Juan (John's friend from college) developed a crush on Anna (my cousin). They were both members of our wedding party. Juan took Anna on a plane ride for their first date and they've been together ever since.
Anna and Juan have come to visit for the week. It has been wonderful to entertain guests and catch up with one of our favorite couples. We take full responsibility for their togetherness. It is just such a great meet cute.
So I have been focusing on spending all my time with Anna and Juan. We did the boring stuff (groceries, post office) and the fun stuff (pool, eating, drinking, exploring). So far it has just been things here in Phoenix. We started off Tuesday night with dinner at Z'Tejas in Old Town Scottsdale. There was a location a little closer to us, but we just had to show them this part of town. It also enabled us to drive down Tatum Blvd. to show them the ritzy mountain houses in Paradise Valley.
There's a good picture of them!
A good picture of us, too!
The food at Z'Tejas was downright amazing. I am not usually over-impressed with restaurant food, but it was delicious and filling and well-presented. Now I know why everyone raves about this place. (I've been wanting to try it for a while now.)
Our margarita and mojito drinks at Z'Tejas
John's form of compliment: "We should make this place the new Malone's*."
*Malone's: a famous steakhouse in Lexington, KY with pricy, amazing steaks**.
**I do not like steak. I can neither confirm nor deny the deliciousness of these steaks.
Malone's had a pretty good lettuce/tomato/bacon/ranch salad called the Lexingtonian salad. But nothing on their menu amazed me. This place? I could live with coming here on a semi-frequent basis.
Our selfie at Z'Tejas
And our attempt at a group photo at home. Meeka did not want to participate and tried to leave midshot.
Today, we explored some thrift shops in Phoenix. We started with Eclectica Home, one I had passed several times on Bell Road but never visited. It was mostly furniture and home decor, with a lot of paintings/wall decor. We did, however, manage to find these fashionable hats.
Ready to saddle up or go on a safari...not sure which one
It was a short visit to this one. We traveled on toward downtown, and ended up at Qcumbers, a thrift shop with 7,500 square feet of space. That is a ton of space, particularly when it's crammed, floor to ceiling, with vintage items. (Literally. Lamps, chairs, shelves, flowerpots, bikes, etc. hang from the ceiling.) It is fun to explore because it's sectioned off with steps, doorways, and doors. You could have a lot of fun playing hide-and-seek or marco-polo there. The employees may not like it, but you'd have fun until you got kicked out.
Near the back of the store, I nearly yelled when I came upon this gemstone of a find. Anna and I have been joking that this store looks a lot like our grandma's house, and we were thinking we could find some of the same items here as she has. I stumbled upon a painted wooden sign that says, "SIT LONG, TALK MUCH." This is the exact same sign our grandma has hanging over the TV closet in the family room. I'm 99.9% positive. So of course we had to document this moment.
Same paint colors and everything.
What makes this picture epic is the fact that there is a cutout creepily hanging out between us. Taylor Lautner from Twilight? I'm pretty sure that's him. This is awesome because neither of us even noticed this cutout at the time. We were too excited about the sign. No, we did not buy the sign.
Juan found a couple great records there. Anna spotted two sand pictures on a wood post and pointed them out because they were teal. Duh. I kept returning to them. I liked the color, and I like the southwest/Indian feel to them. They are each of a decorated vase. So I decided to get them; they were only $3 each. Later, we found a bucket of teal tiles, clearly from some home renovation, marked for a dollar apiece. So for $8, I found a reasonable set of art pieces to hang in the guest bedroom.
The sand art reminds me of a craft I did as a child, which included a similar process of adhering sand to paper. Only this is wood.
Pretty details. I am impressed this was done in sand.
I can't wait to hang them up, although I will have to figure out a way to attach a picture claw to the teal tiles. This can wait until visitors are gone!
We ended the day with swimming, a filling dinner, and a raucous game of Pictionary. First in couples (Anna and Juan won), then in genders (Anna and I won, of course). The second game was definitely more entertaining, as Juan and John's "top notch" drawing and guessing skills ended in no arguing, fits of laughter, and yelling.
Holding up our favorite drawings from the game
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