Last Fair of the Season

Last weekend was the last three days of the Arizona State Fair and the weekend before Daddy's field exercise. Since they would miss the day off for Veteran's Day while in the field, they were given Friday the 6th off to make up for it. So we decided to go up to Phoenix that day, hit the fair, stay overnight at a hotel (one of Drew's favorite activities), and do some Christmas shopping on Saturday.

Bill had to clean out some Army gear from his car before we left and Drew took a liking to Bill's binoculars.

After a short shopping and lunch break in Tucson as well as a nap by Drew in the car (thank the Lord for small miracles), we arrived at the fair around two in the afternoon. We headed for the animal barns first. Here's Drew feeding some goats. He thought it was quite hilarious how eager some of the goats were, including these two that kept jumping all over Daddy.

This is Drew petting a baby chick that was hatched just that morning.

And Drew with a larger bird. He kept talking about how he saw a turkey just like the ones they drew at school with their hands.

After seeing (and smelling) enough livestock to last us until next fair season, we headed for some rides. At the mini bumper cars, it was no surprise that Drew chose the blue #4 car. His favorite color and his age? What other choice could there have been?

Drew looking very focused driving his bumper car. It's serious business you know.

Here's Drew and Dad on the Skyride that took us from one end of the fair to the other.

Mom & Drew on the Skyride with some of the very healthy (insert sarcasm) treats to eat in the background.

On our walk back to the other end of the fair we stopped to get a little snack near the kids' play area. Drew jumped from the hay bales to the big blocks for a good 30 minutes. Who knew it could be so much fun?

Drew had gone down the regular Super Slide by himself as one of his first rides, but when we saw the "super big" slide he and Daddy took a ride down that as well.

I'm not much for rides, but the Merry Go Round I always enjoy. So here's us on the carousel.

Drew & Dad on the Dizzy Dragons

Drew on the mini swings

A very excited Drew waving to Mom & Dad

When we had seen the very tall "Freefall" ride earlier in the day Drew had asked if he could go on it. We explained that it was only for big people, but near the end of the night when we saw the mini freefall ride, Drew put on his brave face and asked again if he could go on it. I was afraid he wouldn't like it, but there was no telling this boy no. Here he is strapped in and ready to go...

And here he is screaming "DADDY, IT'S SCARY! DADDY STOP IT!"

After he got off he softened a little saying that it was only a little bit scary but also a little bit fun. I suspect he won't be too anxious for a repeat ride on one of those for a while.

On our walk to the car we saw that the Ham Bone Express show was due to start in a few minutes, and really, what fair experience is complete without greasy food, mullets, and racing pigs? So we watched a couple of races and then said goodbye to the fair for this year.

Here's Drew waiting at a crosswalk on Dad's shoulders. Shockingly he managed to stay awake and be quite a little gentleman when we decided to have dinner down the road from our hotel at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. It was a delicious meal and a great way to end our day.

Weekend in Phoenix (yes, we're crazy)

So Phoenix is probably not everyone's first choice for a summer weekend getaway, considering their temperatures are routinely over 110. Although we have warm summers in Sierra Vista as well, with the mountains and higher overall elevation, it's rare for us to top 100 and there's usually a nice breeze. We just don't have the same oppressive heat that's featured in Tucson and Phoenix. So, you might think we were crazy to head to Phoenix for the weekend in the middle of July, but it was Elizabeth's last weekend with us and we wanted to do something special for her. So, we booked a suite at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort that features a huge River Ranch outdoor water complex (http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/PHXSPPR-Pointe-Hilton-Squaw-Peak-Resort-Arizona/index.do).

We arrived Friday late afternoon, slathered on the sunscreen, and hit the pools right away. I didn't get too many pictures of us in the water since 1) it's way too hot to be outside taking pictures and NOT be in the water, 2) our camera isn't waterproof, and 3) I didn't want to miss out on all the fun.

Here's a few I did manage from Saturday morning before I jumped in line for the slide too. Drew was just tall enough to be able to ride the water slide by himself. They didn't allow tandem sliders so we worked out a system where one adult would go down before him to be the catcher and the other adult or Liz would stay with Drew at the top to get him on. We probably went down the slide at least 20 times during the weekend.

Here's Bill, Liz, and Drew headed up the steps for the first slide Saturday morning


Bill getting ready to splash


Here comes Drew!

Lizzie's turn

Here's Drew turning the corner

Lizzie laying down to work up speed. We tried to convince Drew to lay back but he opted to sit for all of his slides.

Here's the 3 of them on the lazy river

Daddy twirling Drew in the tube

Semi-aerial shot of the view

View of the 3 of them in the lazy river from one of the bridges

A pic of Mommy & Drew...so we have some evidence I was on this trip too!

Drew sporting his brand new life jacket

Drew catching a ride on Dad's back

Drew practicing his backfloat

Swimming on his own with the life jacket

And although we didn't get video of it, we can say that we were witness to Drew swimming on his own (sans life jacket) for a few seconds at a time. He was jumping in from the side of the pool and, after a half dozen jumps or so, Bill started waiting just a few seconds to grab him and Drew started using his arms and legs to keep his head above water. It wasn't swimming per se, more like treading water, but it was Drew all by himself in the water! Very exciting. He's in another round of swim lessons right now and seems to be getting better and better by the day.

Saturday night we went to Scottsdale to have dinner at P.F. Chang's--yum yum. Here's a couple pics outside the restaurant.

Elizabeth, Drew, & Bill

Family shot


We were all sad to see Elizabeth go back home a couple of days later, though Drew is for sure missing his train and board game playmate the most. We did get a bonus visitor out of it though. Bill's Uncle Mark, a retired United employee, flew standby out to pick her up and was able to spend one night at the house with us. Then the two of them took off the next day and were able to get on each of the flights they wanted (standby and first class no less!) to arrive back in Wilkes-Barre late Tuesday night.

Here's one last shot of Drew & Lizzy the morning she left.

Hope you had fun Lizzy--we miss you!

Pat's Run

When we were at the Marathon Expo for the Phoenix Marathon Bill ran in January, we saw a table set up with information about several different upcoming races. One of them caught our eye: The Pat Tillman Memorial Run. I'm sure most of you know Pat Tillman's story. He was a professional football player with the Arizona Cardinals (also an ASU grad) who after 9/11 gave up a 3.6 million dollar contract to continue playing in the NFL in favor of joining the Army. He served as an Army Ranger and was killed in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan in 2004. You can read more about him and the foundation set up in his memory here: http://www.pattillmanfoundation.org/pat_about.php. Bill and I felt like this was something we wanted to do, and because Pat Tillman wore #42 while he played at ASU, the race is only 4.2 miles, a distance even I can handle.

Friday afternoon Drew and I headed up to Tempe to pick up our race packets. Unfortunately Bill couldn't leave work early that day, so we had to drive two cars. In my rush to get out of the house, I completely forgot to bring any in-car or in-hotel entertainment for Drew. No books, no games, no nothing. Thank God I remembered Curious George. Anyway, despite having just woken up from a nap at school before I picked him up, Drew surprised me by sleeping at least half of the way to Tempe, something I was particularly grateful for. One can only sing the alphabet and count to random numbers so many times before going slightly insane.

Since we had no toys for the hotel room, I decided Drew and I would go to dinner at Red Robin (a place I like because of their healthier options anyway) where I knew he could at least get a balloon. This boy will play with a single balloon for an hour and be content. He batted it around, pulled it down by the string and let it back up, and giggled the whole way.


Daddy arrived shortly after what normal bedtime would be, which meant there was no chance of Drew going to bed at that time. Daddy's HERE!!! After that excitement died down we changed into pajamas and arranged Drew's "bed" on the chair & ottoman. He insisted on a towel as an additional blanket. Despite how cool Drew originally thought this was (we offered for him to sleep in the big bed from the beginning), after 45 minutes or so of moving around on the chair he finally said yes when we asked him to come get in the king bed with us. As a result, Bill and I each got various parts of Drew's body jabbed into us throughout the night, but Drew slept fine.



We woke up pretty early on Saturday since the race started at 7. Fortunately we were staying at a hotel only about a 10 minute walk away from the stadium, so we warmed up for the race by walking over to the stadium.

The sun rising behind the stadium.


There were supposed to be close to 20,000 runners participating in the race, and we were near the very back of the wave start since I had Drew in the jogging stroller and Bill decided to just wait with us, rather than in his appropriate time corral. We didn't start until close to 7:30, and shortly before that the first of the thousands of runners were already passing by us on the way to the finish line. 5 minute miles? Not so much for the Cherkauski.

Family shot before the race started. Believe me we didn't need those long-sleeves for very much longer.

Drew is surprisingly chipper for going to sleep after 10 and waking up before 6.

Normally during Bill's marathons I take pictures of him from various points along the course, but since Drew and I were participating in this race, you'll get pictures from the racer's perspective.

Waiting for the run to start.

View of Tempe Town Lake and the mountains in the background. Have I mentioned how much I love the Arizona weather?

Heading up one of the slight hills along the course.

Long view of the stadium and "A" Mountain.

Just before entering the stadium, a great visual reminder of the reason we were all there on Saturday. For Pat Tillman, for all the soldiers who've fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, and most especially, for the ones who didn't make it back. 4.2 miles is the least we can do.

Coming on to the ASU football field and seeing the finish line.

Unfortunately, our timing chips apparently did not read at the start line (since our chip times and clock times are identical), so our recorded times are off by almost half an hour. Our unofficial times from our watches were: Bill, about 36 minutes (about 9 minute miles; he finished in the top 2,700), while Drew and I finished in about an hour and 2 minutes (about 15 minute miles). Not too shabby if I do say so myself, especially considering I had to walk and was pushing Drew the whole way. I even passed a few slow joggers. Early on I thought I might be able to jog the race. A couple months ago I headed out with Drew and managed to jog relatively pain-free for about 20 minutes. I thought perhaps the shin splints that have plagued me since high school sports had gone away in my old age. I quickly discovered on my next attempted run that it must have been a fluke, so I settled for walking as fast as I could.

Bill was waiting for us as we crossed the finish line.

Reuniting with Dad after the finish line. Drew has now changed into his Pat Tillman's Kids' Run T-shirt.

Mommy & Drew on the field.

After finishing, we enjoyed the standard post-race food & drink giveaways. Bananas, apples, oranges, water, powerade. Drew was most happy with the free Blue Bell ice cream give away.

After the ice cream (and some rest and rehydration), it was time for the non-competitive kids' fun run (0.42 miles). According to the race announcer there were 2,500 children of all ages running.

Drew & Dad head for the start line.

Drew & Dad celebrate the short race! Bill reported that Drew ran the whole way and loved it. Perhaps the two boys will do a marathon together someday.

Drew knows the importance of rehydrating.

After cleaning up and checking out we went for lunch at P.F. Chang's, partially because we love it, but also because the Tempe Mill Avenue location, along with several other Mill Avenue businesses, were donating 4.2% of their business from race participants to the Pat Tillman Foundation.

Overall, we were glad to have been a small part of such a great tribute to one of our nation's finest.