Words for the Wingmen

Dear Elder Schenewark, Family,

It’s been about two months since I’ve written so I need to catch you up on everything you’ve missed on this season’s exciting series “The Adventures of the Schenewarks.” Ready?

Our Arizona trip was stellar. We had a lovely (long) drive down, but we cut it in half by stopping in for a visit with the Grandparents in Las Vegas. From there, I loved the drive down to AnneMarie’s Grandma just north of Phoenix. Lots of cacti, rolling desert hills—beautiful. We were grateful Nora had the chance to meet her great-grandma and her aunt Kathleen and lots of cousins. She did great overall in the car ride, too.

We enjoyed meeting up with my friend Matt Stone for a day where we grabbed some delicious, out-of-this-world bread pudding French toast at a local Gilbert supermarket-turned-restaurant, then we headed to watch the Brewers take on the A’s in a Spring training game. The weather was perfect and we found a shady slope in right field to take in the game with all the snowbirds from Wisconsin. We tried their famed “Bratcho,” a nacho dish made with kettle chips in place of the corn chips and topped with, among the normal toppings, cut bratwurst. You couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try it, but it’s not on my list of return eats, we’ll just say that.

 What is on my list is going to back to the Mesa temple, where we headed next, and also the local Mexican food joint named Carolinas where we headed after for some fresh tortillas, etc. that were outta this world! We were so graciously hosted by AnneMarie’s aunt and uncle Dean and Rachel who have the sweetest family and we’re so much fun to see as well. Also, we were joined by AnneMarie’s cousin Charis, which was fun.

Coming on the heels of our Arizona trip was a trip to Las Vegas for a week. My work let us out for a couple of days because tax season made it pointless to come into work. Mom and Dad Pace were out of town in Australia so we had the whole place to ourselves and it was one of the most relaxing trips in recent memory. We spent lots of time in the pool and the hot tub, trekked downtown to check out the Coke World’s tasting tour of international sodas and the Bellagio’s fountains, and hit up some of our favorite eats like Raising Cane’s fried chicken. We also made a detour on the way down to Snow Canyon in St. George which was beautiful and Nora went on her first hike to see where pioneers had inscribed their names on the underside of a cliff.

 Going back to the sodas, if you’re ever in L.V. and want a guaranteed family friendly can’t-miss hit with the kids activity, this is it. For $10 you get 16 different cups of soda (not different kinds of Coke) and you can also get them as ice cream floats. Most were pretty good. The “Beverly” from Italy was not. Pineapple Fanta from Greece was my favorite (although real ginger ale from South Korea was pretty good as well) and AnneMarie loved the melon Fanta from Thailand and the Pine Nut (Pineapple) from South Africa—also the mint drink from Djibouti. The drinks rotate in and out from time to time.

Next, we went BACK to Vegas. This time to receive Emmalyn back from her mission to Australia. It was a sweet homecoming and we’re very excited to have her up here for school at the end of June.

 We’re moving! Back to student housing we go, at the end of this month. We originally we’re going to move to save little as our landlord was going to raise our a rent $100 (justly), but even after he offered to keep it the same for us we feel good about the decision as it will put us much closer to school, let us sell a car, allow us to experience a student ward one more time, and put us a block away from Matt, Joanna, and Emerson. Today we drove by our new place got excited, though we’ll definitely be sad to leave our home here in Lakeview behind with its litany of friends, our ward, the park down the hill.

Some less notable, but still notable notes:

-        I’ve taken up the sport of Frisbee golf, or frolfing, as we occasionally term it affectionately. On lunch breaks myself with a coworker or two take to a course an exit down and besides being a ton of fun, I’d like to think I’m getting pretty decent! I finally parred the course a couple of days ago.

-        In other golf news, I’ve gotten to go play a round or two with Hunter which was a blast and also went to the driving range with my friend Ben recently. Seems the more I play, however, the worse I’m starting to shank them, and my brothers also didn’t send me my driver so I’m left to just my irons now that Hunter’s out of town. C’mon bros!

-        I bought a bike in preparation for the Fall. Can’t wait to ride it to the law school and get back some of that fitness that’s been tough to come by with a desk job. Looking to get AnneMarie one as well before school starts because there’s a trail that goes right by our new apartment.

-        And, the Law school held an admitted students day earlier last month and it was a blast. I can’t wait to get started in August.

AnneMarie asked me to throw in that Nora is tooo cute, which is true. She’s scooting now, loves to eat watermelon, pineapple, and strawberries (in this little holder where she can suck the juices out). Also, she got sick this week so she had her first visit to the doctor and literally (I know all parents say this, but…) had the whole office in love with her. She was talking with the doctors, smiling at the nurses and trying to befriend all the other sick kids who walked in.

We love you all,



Tanner & AnneMarie & Nora, the Boss