We had a big weekend. My parents, along with Sandi & Di came out to visit. They stayed at the Residence Inn not too far from our house. We did a lot of eating. Of course. And a lot of shopping. Of course. But it was a really good visit. Here's a picture of us all at Chino Bandino's in Phoenix. Di is taking the picture. Dan and Steven decided to have lunch on their own at a sports bar so they could watch the football games. 
On Friday night, while the family was enjoying pizza at Patsy Grimaldi's in Scottsdale (see pic to the left of Alyssa & Joshua outside the restaurant in front of the fountain) Dan and I were being treated to a sumptuous dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House. Luckily, I had found a sparkly, long-sleeved brown shirt at Nordstrom earlier in the day, along with a pumpkin-colored tank which went perfectly with my favorite jeans and the 2-inch wedge sandals Donni gave me for my birthday. I somehow found time for makeup and my hair was surprisingly under control. We met Sharon & Scott at the restaurant. The meal was spectacular. I had the perfect caesar salad and a ribeye seared at 1800 degrees until perfectly medium well, served sizzling hot on a 500 degree plate, topped with butter. Yumm...we shared garlic mashed potatoes, and asparagus with hollandaise sauce. And then, we had to top it all off with white chocolate banana cream pie, topped with caramelized banana slices. We drank coffee and talked for hours. Fortunately we had a gift card which paid for 1/2 of the meal. Meeting Scott for the first time was a real treat. Dan and I really enjoyed meeting him and it seemed as if we had known each other for a long time. The conversation never had awkward pauses and I don't think we ever talked about the weather or the local sports teams (standard filler topics). We look forward to many more good times together.
