Roadrunner

We are still in Casa Grande but today we moved to a different RV park where we'll be until Wednesday when we head to Scottsdale for Gracie's next dog show. This park is attached to an 18 hole golf course where we get to golf for 1/2 price most of the day, and FREE after 4:00. As my step-dad is fond of saying, "Free is good." So we took advantage and played nine holes this evening. Tom had a pretty good round and mine wasn't awful, so we were happy. While waiting for our tee time, we saw this roadrunner perched on a fence near the pro-shop.

Dash and Gracie picture

While we went to the horse show, our friends Jeff and Karen were nice enough to take care of Dash and Gracie for us so we didn't have to worry about how much time we spent away from home. They have a huge yard where the dogs like to run. And both the dogs just love Jeff and Karen so they had a great time without us. Karen took this adorable picture while the dogs were there and I love it so much, I wanted to share it with everyone.

Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show

We have a friend from the dog show world who is also involved with horses and horse shows. She came down from Oregon to Arizona this week to help a friend who was showing a horse at the big Arabian Horse show they have in Scottsdale each year. We went to the show yesterday to visit with Arlene and also to see the amazingly beautiful horses. This was our first horse show. There are a lot of similarities to dog shows, but it's all on a much bigger - and even more expensive - scale.

Phoenix Dog Shows

We just finished four days of dog shows at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix. The above video is of Gracie during her "individual exam". On three of the four days, Gracie took Reserve Winners - which is basically like Miss America Runner Up. Nice to know she was in the running, but it didn't get us any addtional points toward her championship.

But as always, we enjoyed ourselves anyway. We saw many of our dog show buddies and some friends had a party at their house on Saturday evening for the Norwich exhibitors. Tom's daughter Shannon came out to the show with a friend of hers for a few hours one day. It was Shannon's first time at a dog show and it was fun showing her around.

Now we are back in Casa Grande, AZ for the next couple of weeks where we'll hang out until our next dog show in Scottsdale at the end of the month.

Golf and Super Bowl

We attended the FBR golf tournament in Scottsdale this past Thursday and Saturday. Thursday was the first qualifying round with over 120 golfers out on the course. We followed the group with Zach Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Justin Leonard for a little while on Thursday. Then we sort of skipped around trying to get a look at some of the other big name golfers. We saw Anthony Kim, Kenny Perry, Stewart Cink, David Toms, J.B. Holmes, Luke Donald, Rocco Mediate and several others, but still didn't manage to see everyone we'd have liked to. It was a darn good thing we got to watch Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim that first day because neither one of them qualified for the final two rounds on Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, we again followed Zach Johnson's group - which included Scott Piercy and Lucas Glover - for the first 7 holes, then we made our way to the 18th green and watched all the golfers finish up. Scott Piercy had a great start to his day, getting 4 birdies on his first 7 holes. He got a few more birdies after we stopped watching and was in the lead for a little while, but then he seemed to fall apart the last few holes with 3 bogeys. We watched Kenny Perry make an impossibly long putt to get a birdie on the 18th hole to take the lead on Saturday which was kind of fun because it was Kenny Perry who ultimately won the tournament on Sunday.

Sunday of course was Super Bowl Sunday. Tom's daughter Shannon came with us to our friends Jeff and Karen's house to watch the game. We had a great time snacking on all the food and cheering on the Arizona Cardinals.

On Wednesday we'll be moving to the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix for a dog show this weekend. The entry is big enough for "majors" all four days. So it is possible Gracie could be a champion by Sunday. She just needs to win the points 2 of the four days. But bigger entries means more competion, so keep your fingers crossed for us.