Scottsdale

We had a great time this weekend hanging out with Katie and Tebben in Scottsdale, despite the fact that our hotel tried to rip us off.  But we got the better of them, and a regional manager ended up getting us two free nights, so that worked out pretty well.  But more importantly, Dez got to meet his Aunt and Uncle!  He was a very happy 

baby this weekend, and smiled and gabbed a lot.  

There was a ton to do in Scottsdale, and didn't even end up going anywhere else, we just stayed pretty much within 20 minutes of our hotel at all times.  On friday night we had the best pizza that I've had since we were last in Illinois.  It was chicago style stuffed crust, with spinach, broccoli and garlic, and it was incredible.  It completely put all california pizza to shame.  And our waitress was super friendly and helpful as well.  If your ever in Scottsdale, or the Phoenix area, you have to go to Oregano's.  We liked it so much we went there for lunch on Monday as well.

There was a really cool wine and art festival just a block from our hotel, so we walked around and looked at all the stuff, some of which was really nice, but didn't buy anything, although we all saw something we wanted.  Tebben and I did end up buying Bamboo shirts, because we both love bamboo, and they had a whole store of just bamboo clothes.  

Both of our families packed a ton of stuff for the hotel, so we were able to have dinner in our rooms both nights, and we brought our Wii, and we all played that, which Ella really liked.  The thing that Katie and Shelley were most looking forward to was going to the diaper store in Scottsdale.   They had all sorts of cloth diapers and other baby stuff, so we each ended up getting tons of stuff.  Our big buys were a fabric wrap for Desi, which is 6 yards of fabric that you tie around yourself and it makes a super comfy holder for the baby, way better than a snuggli or baby bjorn.  We also got reusable snack bags for Ella, and bought enough cloth diaper for Dez to get us set for the rest of his diapering life, hopefully.

It's kind of funny, and a little sad too, that we're having to spend so much money to live like it was maybe 60 years ago.  Some people are shocked that we're doing cloth diapers, because they think it's really hard and messy, but they are so easy, and so cheap in the long run.  A woman I work with spends $45 every two weeks on diapers, which over two years is $2,340 and a ton of waste in a landfill, whereas we spent maybe $400 on our cloth diapers and wipes, and we're set, except for water, electricity and soap for washing, but that's not going to cost $1,900.  We're also stocked up on rubbermaid so we use less ziploc bags, we all have reusable bottles and coffee cups, we're going to get cloth napkins, and I'm totally into handkerchiefs now, for me and Ella.  And we're doing a lot better about cooking at home.  For a little while after Des was born we ate out a lot, but we're in a good schedule now, and have been good about shopping and cooking.  So if only we had lived in the 40's we've fit right in.  Stupid technology.  I do realize that I'm writing this on a super advanced computer on the internet.  I'm not quite ready to carbon copy a newsletter and mail it to everybody.