Visitors – The Rottman Family Adventures

Visit from Nana and Pops

May 13, 2015 by Beth Leave a Comment

Nana and Pops came to see us in March. It is always so nice to have them here! Pops met Nina for the first time, and Nana saw how much she had changed in just a few months. It was so great to see them and their help was greatly appreciated! Pops seems to have endless energy when it comes to playing with his grandchildren. Clara loved it!

We took them to several of our regular places– the Children’s Museum, the zoo, brunch at Liberty Market– but also some new things like a spring training game at Salt River Fields and Wildlife World Zoo!

Please come back again soon! We love you two!

Nana and Pops in Tempe

January 28, 2014 by Beth Leave a Comment

My parents visited us in October. I know, we are way behind on the blog. Jeff recently gave it a face lift, and hopefully we will now be up and running. It was so fun to have a visit from family! We enjoyed showing them around and visiting some of our favorite spots (mainly food related). We ate at food trucks, our favorite middle eastern grocery/restaurant, a new vegan place I’ve been wanting to try, and of course, tacos. We went to the zoo and the children’s museum. Clara had a blast with them. She loved to bring them book after book and just to have constant playmates. We love you Nana and Pops!

Mary and Beau in Tempe

April 21, 2013 by Beth Leave a Comment

Mary and Beau were our first official visitors in our new home and came all the way from Maryland. Just for that reason, right guys? It was so good to see them- as always! We only wish that they lived closer. It feels so natural to just hang out on a Saturday. Too bad we can’t do that more often!

Love you friends! We look forward to seeing you again soon!!

While we were gone…

May 3, 2012 by Jeff Leave a Comment

So a lot has been happening in the Rottman household over the last few months. In no way do I use this as an excuse for my blogging delinquency, however, I’ll do my best to catch you up…

Mississippi Christmas

We’re Expecting!!!

We announced to our families by giving our Moms custom-made bibs. It was a great time (both times)!!

Winter San Carlos Trip

MLS in Tucson

Announcement Party: It’s a Girl!!!!!

We had a great announcement party with friends and family. We filled the cupcakes with pink icing and had the big reveal right after this picture. (Ryan didn’t want to wait)

The Maranto’s Visit

The destruction of my fingers

I dropped a railroad tie on my right hand and almost severed the tips of my index and middle fingers. I required a fair amount of stitches, but they seem to be healing nicely. Maybe I’ll put up some more pictures soon for those with strong stomachs.

Our Barcelona and Lisbon Trip

Busy Season

May 8, 2010 by Jeff 2 Comments

So as the semester is wrapping up, the days have been pretty busy for Beth and me. I have been to two conferences in the past three weeks and Beth had a week where she had 5 presentations to give in 4 days. Needless to say we’re looking forward to summer and at least a couple days of vacation before getting back to work.

We have been very lucky to have a few more visitors though. This includes Butch and Sherry Snyder, two of Beth’s family’s friends from back in Meridian (now in Tuscaloosa). It was great to get to see them as they are good friends of the Marantos and I believe that I have only met Sherry once and never Butch. We were able to have lunch with them at Beyond Bread (which is always nice) and spend a little time catching up. Maybe we’ll get to see them next time we’re back in Mississippi.

After this a good friend of mine from Mississippi State, Adam Farmer, came into town. Sadly, he was in town for his uncle’s funeral, but it was still nice to get to hang out with him. We realized that we hadn’t hung out essentially since our wedding. I’m also looking forward to seeing him again at a wedding we’re going to next weekend. Hopefully next time he comes out we could do some hiking.

Finally, as the semester classes ended on Wednesday (also coinciding with Cinco de Mayo), we have enjoyed a few nights of hanging out with friends and Beth has been able to take a day off (something she has not gotten nearly enough of with her crazy program). Last night we went over to Luke and Marianne’s house for a party for Karissa. She finished her MBA program not long ago and I know we are all looking forward to her being able to do things again. So last night we had a nice baked potato bar and taco salad dinner and then played a game of Tripoly. For those of you not familiar with Tripoly, it is a game my family has played as we grew up and one that I particularly loved. Since being in Arizona I have made a couple of Tripoly boards including the one you will see in the following photos. A quick overview of the rules are here, but note that we use variations 1 and 2, because otherwise the game is just too easy. Maybe sometime I can post all our rules. And don’t worry about it being complicated… it seems that Caleb is getting the hang of it really quickly.

Beth also wanted me to put this picture up that she caught of me (with an extremely awkward expression) while explaining the game. Also note that Ben seems to be pretty angry about the entire situation.

Easter Earthquake

April 4, 2010 by Jeff 1 Comment

After enjoying a nice game of Bananagrams last night with Claire and Mark, we woke up to a beautiful Easter morning. I have really been looking forward to Easter this year, mostly due to one of the last books we read in our reading group by N.T. Wright. Although he has some odd theological views overall, this book focused on our views of the resurrection and heaven. It also was very challenging about how we should celebrate Easter more than any other Christian holiday. It should be met with great exuberance and joy. This has really spurred me to dwell on the grandiose nature of the Resurrection. It really is a beautiful and truly life-giving time. After a great service we had some friends over for lunch. Beth made a great spread of turkey, green beans, steamed broccoli, pasta, and some mixed fruit. Ben and Lis brought a freshly picked salad, David brought some flowers from his yard (see below) and Karissa brought an awesome angel food/berries/whipped cream dessert.

The oddest part of the day came about 3:30ish. While we were all sitting around the couches, I noticed that the hanging light we have over our dining room table was swinging. I asked whether anyone had bumped it, but it seemed that no one had gotten up in the past 20 minutes or so. After some jokes about our house being haunted, we just wrote it off as odd. Then, on our way out to Bret and Val’s for bible study, Micheal Eiting called and told me that there was an earthquake in Baja California, Mexico at 3:40 and that it had registered all the way in Tucson. Although hard to believe, I took him at his word until I was able to get home and check it out. Apparently there was a magnitude 7.2 earthquake followed by two 5 point aftershocks. Beth then remembered that our friends are down in Rocky Point, Mexico for the weekend and that they probably got a really good shaking there. We look forward to hearing some stories from them when they return. It was an exciting evening and we can now say we survived our first earthquake.

Hiking Picacho

April 3, 2010 by Jeff 3 Comments

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted and I have a lot to catch up on, but I’ll work my way back to that. For now we’ll just live in the present…

Mark and Claire came to visit us for Easter and after an early night last night we decided to go hike Picacho Peak just north of Tucson. It’s a pretty sad situation, as with the Arizona budget cuts, it and many other state parks are going to close on June 3rd.

Picacho peak is an outstanding short hike. It is only 2 miles (~1400 vertical feet) to the summit. The first half of the hike is just straight uphill, but after the saddle the hike gets really good. There are many spots that feature some technical climbing (as shown later) and there are awesome views from this true Arizona “sky island.”

Beth and I have both done this hike previously. This is most likely what gave us the confidence to bring Walcott with us. He really enjoyed the hike and got a nice ride on my pack on the difficult parts.

With all this work, Walcott joined what I expect is a VERY exclusive club of dogs that have made it to the summit. We got many comments along the way, as well as many pictures and “Hey look at that guy carrying the dog”.

Beth and Walcott at the Summit

We also got back in time to catch Butler winning their Final Four game. I’m looking forward to a nice night of recovering and watching the other Final Four game of Duke and West Virginia (I know we’ll have at least one big Duke fan in the house).

IKEA and Jackfruit

August 3, 2009 by Jeff 3 Comments

Beth’s Mom came to visit this weekend and it was pretty packed, which is why I’m just now writing about it. It’s always really great to have family come visit and get to see a little of what our life is like out here in Arizona. Beth and I really enjoy it (especially when free breakfast is in the deal).

After she arrived on Thursday, we had dinner and then when to BTO (which is quickly becoming a staple in our life). Beth, her mom and Mary Frances all went to the Grant Stone Market, which is an oriental market near our house and got all sorts of interesting foods, including the jackfruit pictured below. I had never heard of one before, but the fruit is actually very good, although it requires a decent bit of work to extract. It tasted like a mix of peach and mango.

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On Friday, she and Beth hung out and I joined them at her hotel’s pool after work. We then quickly got ready and went to Lis’ birthday party at the Saxton’s. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad she got a chance to meet so many of the people that we are with regularly. I don’t know when exactly the picture below was taken but there must have been something funny going on, because I could only find 1 out of 8 that didn’t have someone with a weird facial expression or closed eyes due to laughter.

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Saturday morning we went to Phoenix to pick up a washer and dryer we found on Craigslist. We also took a detour to IKEA to allow Beth’s mom and Mary Frances to get a taste of the craziness that is IKEA. I’m convinced you could essentially build your house from IKEA. Anyway, after a few hours perusing the showroom, studying layouts of kitchens, and eating Sweedish meatballs, I think we were all ready for a quick nap. However, Beth and Mary must have just gotten too comfortable in the bedroom section and crashed out on this nice round bed (that Beth keeps bugging me to get for the new house).

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We capped off the weekend with a Sunday afternoon trip to the Trout’s house for some lunch, swimming and ping pong. I really enjoyed playing Beth’s mom at ping pong (she’s a pro) , but I think that Walcott takes the cake with his swimming pool antics.

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It really was a great weekend and I know Beth and I are sad to see life get back to “normal”. Hopefully we’ll be able to spend some time with our family again soon.