arizona goings on

since we decided to spend almost my whole break here in arizona i've tried to have as normal a schedule as possible while still hanging around with the multitudes of family members who live here. liza and my mom hooked ben and me up with a one week pass to the YMCA so i have been going there every day in an attempt to counteract the extraordinary amount of eating that happens here.

the eating is really out of control - i attribute it to my parents' house main hangout area being the kitchen (with the bar counter and 3 stools) which is adjoining the big family room and tv watching area, game table and also the dining area and fireplace. it's pretty much the only room in the house where the family spends time. and guess what...that leads to eating, snacking, foraging, binging and all kind of other words for puttin' away the grub.

ben's grandma taught me how to play canasta over thanksgiving, and this trip ben taught my mom and liza - so we have had 2 nights in a row of after-dinner canasta mayhem. liza is a real game-player and my mom will do anything so it's been a lot of fun. they break out various crunchy snacks and we go to town.

but back to the YMCA - today was my third day of my membership week and second day of taking a group fitness class. yesterday i took "muscle conditioning" and though i was the second youngest person in the class, i was by no means the most in shape. these housewives and old ladies are intense! the one lady who seems to be a real regular (and looks like a total minnesotan with the permy frosted hair) is a bigger lady but she was using an 18 pound body bar and 10 pound dumbells. i have never even SEEN an 18 pound body bar!

today mo (my mom) joined me on a guest pass and we went to ZUMBA! (exclamation is part of the class name) - it's kind of a dance/aerobics hybrid with a latin flavor - it was a lot of fun and just about my level of choreography where i didn't get frustrated - with clippy music (the boots with the furrrrr) and an overall good time. the teacher was the youngest person in the class, and appeared to be 5 months preggers, but she was totally rockin it. the class was all women, i was probably the youngest student and there were ladies in their 70s in there shaking a leg. it was really cute. my mom said she almost peed in her pants from all of the jumping around.

in between all this excitement i have gotten together with friends and am seeting my friend from high school at 4pm today to meet his baby. mo and jeff have their 'Dancing with the Stars LIVE!' tonight so we'll probably be seeing ben's family again. we did not see them at all yesterday.

so that's about it for now. here are some pics from christmas of the entire gang at my parents' open house as well as the family photo we took. leah is in israel (she's fine - she called yesterday because a lot of the people on the trip with her got nervous calls from their parents).