It is GRAND

Four Poplins, four days, four cities/sites explored… road trip! Last week my mother and father in-law arrived as our third and final round of visitors for the month. Looking back on the week I can’t believe we fit everything into four short days.

The guys spent a morning golfing, they also accomplished some home improvement items from our list, and we went on an adventure around northern AZ. Our first stop was Flagstaff, a beautiful city on Route 66 where we wandered the town and stayed the night. Next was a short drive to the south rim of the Grand Canyon, and holy cow, it was GRAND! We only spent a few hours and were definitely not dressed right or in the right shoes, regardless it was amazing. Next time I plan on packing better and hiking down a little further, but for this impromptu trip it was perfect to see the views, take tons of pictures and enjoy the day at one of the world’s wonders. We also drove into Sedona, which was by far the most gorgeous place we have been in AZ. We forgot we were in the desert state and started to feel like we were in Tahoe for the evening. It was awesome to finish our mini road trip surrounded by greenery and lots of fresh air.

On our last night all together JD and I took his parents to one of our favorite date night spots in Scottsdale, Studio Movie Grill. It is so much fun to have a full on restaurant and movie theater in one, with yummy food and extra big comfy leather recliners. I’m so happy JD had a few days off work and we were able to hang out, relax, travel and explore all together. I probably took a hundred pictures during the trip (I think I have a problem), so I posted a bunch below.

August has been so great with all of our house guests and happenings! I am already excited and looking forward to September’s adventures though… camping camping camping!! Until next time everyone…

 

     xoxo

              Rachele

 

As of lately...

As of lately the most popular things with the Poplins have included friends, family, visits and house guests… which we absolutely love! Now that we live so much farther away we jump at any chance we get to spend time with our favorite people.

A few weeks ago I hopped in the car on a secret mission to surprise my family and Grandma for her 86^th birthday. My family was definitely surprised and my Grandma was so happy, I loved celebrating with her. While I was in town I also met up with my best girls and had a great time catching up with them at dinner. Thank you to everyone who helped me pull off my surprise visit and thank you to my super supportive husband who made it happen for me!

Not too long after I got back to AZ my brother came out for a week and was finally able to see our house and spend time with me and JD. We had a great time showing him around and visiting family he hadn’t seen in years.

Over lapping my brother’s stay by a day was our next round of ‘roomies’, our cousins and extremely adorable godson. We had 4 days of road trips, drive-in movies, shopping, golfing and playing with Callen. Callen even copied JD and did his nightly work outs with him, so sweet.

So in a nut shell that has been our last 3 weeks, along with the fact that JD has been working really hard and had a ton of long shifts and crazy hours. We said bye to all of our house guests two days ago and with in a day we will be welcoming more, my awesome in-laws! JD will have a few days off, his parents will be here on Sunday, and the new adventure begins! We are planning on checking out an area of AZ we’ve never been and I am already excited to share what we find!

 

     xoxo

              Rachele

 

The Birthday Boy & Baseball

A happy birthday blog post for my hubby, (better late than never right?) The week before last was my main man’s birthday, the big 2-8! JD had to work on his b-day so I planned a fun day together on his next day off.

 My guy works extremely hard and I wanted to make sure he had a day that was relaxing, fun and very “JD”, and if you know JD you know that baseball is numero uno on his list! So, I got tickets to the AZ Diamonbacks game, along with ‘all you can eat seats’. I can’t lie, we were excited, we looove us some ballpark food!

 JD got off work later in the evening so I took him to In N Out for dinner (which is a 30 minute drive and 2 towns over for us). After working there for a few years he gets withdrawals not having an INO around the corner, so he was a happy guy. At INO I surprised him with the tickets to the game for the next day and we headed home to relax the rest of the night. Back at the house I gave him his ‘sweet’ birthday card made from his favorite candies… it was a lot of fun to make, you can find lots of ideas for it on Pinterest (of course!).

The game was great and the stadium was pretty awesome. I’m happy we did something to celebrate my handsome hubby, I really love that man!! Happy birthday JD! Enjoy the pics everyone!

 

  xoxo,

            Rachele