Family Vacay: Arizona

When some of our original summer vacation plans fell through (boo-hoo), we knew we needed a family vacation this year. Things fell into place (thanks Mom & Dad!) and we were able to plan a trip back to Arizona for 11 days! Ellie was born there, but we moved when she was just three months old. We hadn't been back since we moved two years ago. It was a much desired trip, and what an adventure we had!

So, does anyone remember hearing about the flight I took to Vegas with Ellie last November? You know, the worst flying experience of my life?? Well, luckily this trip was nothing like that. For one thing, we've since learned how to administer Dramamine to our little sweetheart who gets motion sick. For another thing, I wasn't nine months pregnant. And Steve was with us this time...and Ellie had her own seat on the plane. Altogether, those changes allowed for a pleasant experience! I may just fly with babies and toddlers again someday...

 Ellie loving her new headphones and the Children's Songbook on the iPod. Stress-free airport experience.

 Babies in jammies for a night time flight

Happy Hunter, even in the middle of the night. We were waiting for Steve and Ellie to return with the rental car.

After spending the night in the valley, we headed up north to Snowflake. Steve's sister Shauna and her family live there. We got to spend a whole week with their family!

 Here's where Ellie spent most of her time :)

 Cousin Spencer and Hunter, riding in the back of the truck...We were following cousins Kadyn and Kaylee in their triathlon and cheering them on at different places along their route.

 Ellie loves her daddy - it's not hard to see why.

 They finished! Kadyn got 1st place in his age group and Kaylee got 2nd in hers!!

McKay in his duathlon

 These two had so much fun together!

On Labor Day, we hiked a place our cousins call Pottery Hill. We basically searched for bits of pottery along the wash - we ended up with a pretty impressive haul! After the hike we had a picnic and went swimming. What a great way to spend the day.

Kaylee carried Hunter pretty much the entire time. Clearly he had a blast with her :)

Ellie was excited to see the very hungry caterpillar :)

One afternoon, Shauna took some pictures of our family at the Snowflake Temple

 This is likely the kind of picture that will end up in our Christmas cards this year. It's the easiest kind of shot to take!

 Picnic lunch with cousins on our last day there

For the weekend, we headed back down to the valley and stayed with our friends, the Moody family. Somehow we only ended up pulling out our camera on our trip to visit the Mesa Temple, so we missed out on documenting the time we spent visiting with friends and eating out and visiting some more.

Funny story. We have a picture of the Mesa Temple displayed in our vanity. So each day, when I set Ellie up on the counter to do her hair and brush her teeth, she looks at it. She now loves to say, "Mama and Dada were married in the Mesa...Arizona...Temple!" with pauses between each word. So we were excited to take her back to visit the actual temple! She was in heaven. She just kept repeating that we were married there and that we were at the Mesa Arizona Temple. It was pretty adorable.

 I'm telling ya - always happy, this one! Even walking around the temple in the rain.

Oh how we love and miss Arizona - our friends, our life there, and the special moments we hold dear from when we lived there. We will definitely plan another trip back to visit!