We’ve just returned from a three-day weekend in Gold Canyon, AZ celebrating the marriage of one of the most lovable couples we’ve ever known – Ryan and Kelly Lampe.

Thursday

We arrived in PHX Thursday evening, met our friends Tom & Tori at the airport, and headed straight for a BBQ at Kelly’s parent’s vacation home in Gold Canyon, east of Mesa.  We were greeted by lots of beautiful faces and a cooler full of frigid beers.  It was clear that we were in for a very good weekend.

Friday

Friday morning the wedding party went for a round of golf, while the rest of the younger guests saddled-up poolside with a few cases of Coors Light.  Lea and I opted to start with a morning hike down Lost Goldmine Trail.  We walked the same trail back in February when we came to celebrate Lea’s Grandpa Arnie’s 80th birthday, and while much of it looked familiar, there was a striking difference now that the desert has come into its Spring bloom.  Nearly every cactus had a flower, and a landscape that was once brown was now covered in green and yellow.  This is our new favorite landscape.  I just can’t get over those clouds…

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the kiddos were well on their way to polishing off the first case (or two) of beer, and we decided to help in the cause.  Lots of fun being had here, of course, but we had to save some for the cocktail reception before the rehearsal.  Looking sharp, crew.

After the rehearsal, Lea, Nate and I went into Scottsdale to find some dinner.  We found a Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, owned by the same family that founded the original Grimladi’s under the Brooklyn Bridge in NY.  It’s the pizza that “made the bridge famous.”  Or so they say.  This restaurant wasn’t anything like the original, but we were lucky to find three seats at the bar and bellied-up for a bottle of Zin and a large pie.  Mmmm mmm.

On the way back, we picked-up some firewood for the fire pit at Nate and Matt’s room.  While we were getting the fire going, we were walking in and out of the room a lot, and everyone apparently did a good job of stepping over the same black spot on the patio.  Our friend Ben noticed that the spot wasn’t flat, so he kicked it over with his toe.  Then the spot crawled over his foot and he realized it was a tarantula!  So awesome!  I’d never seen one in real life before.  We weren’t exactly sure what to do with him, so we stuck him in an ice bucket (sans ice), fed him some beer and named him Caldwell.  Chris Caldwell.

Anyway, he was definitely a source of entertainment for the evening, but not as much as catching up with old friends, some of whom we hadn’t seen since college.  The highlight was probably Nate’s impression of his girlfriend, Jenn, scolding him for flapping his gums so much (Jenn wasn’t there).  So, so funny.

It’s too bad someone can’t get married every year to bring us together. If any of you guys are reading this, we’re serious about meeting for an annual trip.  Nashville 2011?

Saturday

Come Saturday morning, I was a little slow to meet the morning sun, but after a dozen calls from my “friends” calling just to breathe heavily into the phone, it was time to suit up and assume my position at the pool.  Lea went for a run, which made me feel guilty for not workin’ on my fitness, so I got to work curling some more of those 12-ounce cans.  (Ohh, it’s the deep burn. Oh, it’s so deep. Oh, I can barely lift my right arm ’cause I did so many. I don’t know if you heard me counting. I did over a thousand. – Ron Burgundy)

And yeah…we pretty much did that all day again, with the exception of the occasional Miami Vice (a perfect little poolside concoction – equal parts piña colada and strawberry daiquiri), until it was time to switch suits and head to the wedding.  Gorgeous group, no?

When we arrived at the wedding site, everyone’s jaw was on the floor.  Set at the Superstition Mountain Country Club, it suddenly made sense why Kelly chose to hold the ceremony at this location. Their backdrop was graced by Superstition Mountain, impressively reflecting the various hues of red cast by the setting sun. Can you believe this place?!

Atta kid!

The reception was held at the clubhouse and was also quite incredible.  The food was great, the wines were excellent, and they even had Hoegaarden on tap!  This is how you throw a party!

They even had a string quartet playing modern songs.  I took this while they were playing “Viva la Vida” by Coldplay.

The Lampe’s are big music fans so the soundtrack of the evening was awesome.  Plenty of good stuff to dance to once everyone had consumed enough liquid courage to tear up the dance floor.

You can’t see me…

The highlight of the night was possibly the speeches. They were all very honest and heart-felt.  But Mike and Nick, Ryan’s two older brothers, went up together and about split my side, they had everyone laughing so hard.  Their impressions of Ryan’s (a.k.a. Chunk’s) Lamp-anese were spot on, and everyone knew exactly what they meant when they said that Kelly was his new “Mommy.”  God bless ‘em.  Nick finished with a toast, “May your marriage be modern enough to change with the times, and old-fashioned enough to last forever.”  Well said.

Sunday

Our flight on Sunday didn’t depart until 6:30pm, so we had some time to kill.  We started by saying goodbye to the newlyweds and our other friends.  Man, I reeeeeally hate goodbyes.  I have to say that it put both Lea and me in a bit of a funk because we didn’t want the fun to end, so we had to find some fun activities to take our minds off of it.  We headed into downtown Phoenix to see what it was all about, and started with a little walking tour that led us to a guy playing guitar on the sidewalk in front of a restaurant patio.  Looks like we just found our fun.  After a few sips on the hair of the dog, and a beautiful serenade, we were starting to cheer up.  Here’s a little listen.

Blaine Long – Happy Man

 

 

This was another incredible weekend for the books.  We look forward to these trips because we know we’ll have fun, but we always come away saying, “Wow, that was better than I expected.”  Both the Klein and Lampe families were supremely gracious hosts, and I couldn’t be more proud of my old friend Ryan for marrying a woman who is as cool as she is beautiful.  We love you guys to the moon and back.

Have fun in Anguilla and Congratulations!