Jr's Birthday Weekend

Birthday boy on top of the world.

Friday night around 8:00 p.m. we waited for my sister in law and her three kids, once she got here and we had a quick stop to gas up the van we headed towards Phoenix to pick up my grandson "Ducky". We finally got in the freeway at around 8:30 p.m. and headed towards Tucson. We decided to go later because that way we wouldn't catch all the bumper to bumper Friday afternoon traffic. It was a smart move because in fact traffic had already died down. It should only takes us two hours to get to Tucson.

The kids were watching a movie in the back of the van, so they didn't even bug also no stops were made on the way over which for us is not normal as we always stop anywhere and everywhere. We got to Marana and all of a sudden traffic comes to a halt, there was an accident about a mile ahead and this being a two lane highway had to be closed while they cleaned it up. So our projected two hour trip all of a sudden turned into a three hour trip since we were stuck for almost an hour.

We finally got there at around 11:00 p.m. Immediately the kids got busy playing and making all kinds of noise, me I just got hungry so I asked Jr. to go with me to find some tacos. We had to go a few miles from his house and finally found a taco truck, we ordered tacos for everyone but when we got back to their house and opened them up we found out they ripped us off. The tacos were pretty tasty but made of only one small tortilla and you can barely see the meat, they were basically a bite and a half size tacos. Needless to say we all complained.

Jr. had called "mi chica" and asked for us to go visit them because it was his birthday, he asked if she would make "pozole" form him which my daughter loves to eat, so Saturday morning we all had a great tasting bowl of "pozole".

I had told them that the next time we visit I wanted to go see the San Xavier Mission, everyone thought that would be nice so after we ate we loaded the cars and off we went. One of my daughter's best friends, her husband, and two kids also wanted to go visit the mission so they asked her if she would mind if they joined us, of course she said no and so they too got there on Friday night, luckily they were ahead of us for about half an hour, enough for them not to get caught in the accident.



When we got to the mission the Indians were charging for parking, I thought that was weird but soon learned that they were having a pow wow. I have heard that the Indian's pow wows are really a sight to see but at $8:00 a person we decided to pass it up. We parked the cars and headed for the mission.














You don't have to be a Catholic to visit or and appreciate the beauty of this old church. Just knowing some of it's history and knowing it is so old give it a certain charm. My camera captured 171 images through the whole weekend but I think it's safe to say that over a hundred were taken at the mission.



















Right next to the mission there is a small hill, to get to the top you have to climb it's rocky wall, the kids even the little ones had a ball going up, they didn't think it was dangerous or hard they just climbed and got to the top before I could say "wait for me".

























The view from the top was breath taking and the photo ops were, endless. From little caves to rocky tops we had the kids posing all over for pictures, but as always all this exercise and excitement got us hungry so we went down and headed for the food stands. The ever popular Indian bread was what we ordered. I had to have the one with honey and cinnamon, but they also order the one with beans and cheese.





We spent a good three hours at the mission, but it was time to head back to the house, part of Jr's birthday celebration was for my sister in law to make "enchiladas" for us. I have to tell you, my sister in laws enchiladas are the best. I was so tired from our outing that I joined the kids in taking a nap. The girls took this opportunity to go out and hit the stores for some shopping.

The plan was to come back to Phoenix Saturday night but "mi chica" whom is the designated driver was too tired and so the decision was for us to spend the night there and we would leave Sunday morning. So everyone except "mi chica" and I decided to play some board games, all I could hear was the screaming as they were having fun.


Thanks to Jr and Michelle for having us, we had a great weekend.

Sunday morning after a nice hot shower I loaded the van we put the kids in, we said goodbye to Jr, Michelle, Diego, and Allayna and we headed back for Phoenix. I had told "mi chica" on Friday night that her van was vibrating sign of a tire getting bad. So before we left I kindda looked a them and saw nothing bad that was visible. We got on the freeway and I advised her not to drive too fast. She didn't really heard me so we pushed on. Half ways to Phoenix we stopped at a McDonalds to have breakfast.

Back on the freeway again, she was barely starting to gain speed when noise comes
from the rear left side of the van, she made it to the shoulder and my sister in law gets off and tells us, yeap we have a flat. Well, not really a flat she said but definitely not good. We were exactly 1/4 of a mile from a truck stop so I told "mi chica" to stay on the shoulder and drive to the truck stop, she said it was a lot
safer to work there than on the shoulder where 18 wheelers going 75 miles per hour.

As we parked at the truck stop I said, you know what, God works in mysterious ways. If we would have left last night this would have happened anyway and it would have been so much inconvenient not to mention dangerous. There was a reason why when we decided to stay the night no one fought it.

We called our daughter to let her know we were on the way and she said her and her husband were going to the mall in Tempe. So we told her we would wait for them at the 40th street and Broadway exit. They got there about five minutes after we did. So they took "Ducky" changed his clothes in the van, transferred the baby car seat and took him with them. We continued our trip to the house. Nothing compares the feeling to coming to your own house, no matter how much fun the outing was. A few minutes later my sister in law and kids were picked up and we just relaxed for the rest of our Sunday.