Flying with little kids is never fun, and our flight to Arizona left late at night. I'm cheap and never want to spend extra money on luggage or a carry on so this is how I roll - double stroller, three overstuffed backpacks, a purse, and two toddler sized backpacks. It's not too bad except when I have to go to the bathroom in the airport and have to get all of this stuff plus two kids into a bathroom stall. Also, getting all of this stuff onto the airplane without the stroller's help while coaching two kids on where to walk makes me sweat really bad. But we survived!
We landed at 2 am Iowa time and luckily Jack and David fell asleep before that. It is miraculous that I got two sleeping kids and five backpacks and a purse off of the plane all by myself :)
Jack and David loooooove "Nana's house". We spent most of the week just swimming in the pool, eating good food, and hanging out at my parent's house.
"Fishing" with Papa
We swam just about every day. David was crazy and learned how to do flips off of the diving board and finally figured out how to swim by himself the very last day! (Though he still stresses me out when I take him swimming! haha!)
Rides on the lawn mower:
I'm glad my mom saved a lot of our old toys (even though my dad isn't ;)
Other things we did in AZ:
- Last Chance (Nordstrom on major clearance) trip! This time I was hoping to score new Nike shoes for Jack and David but no luck. David, however, found some Stride Rite Star Wars light up shoes that were three sizes too big and HIDEOUS but it was love at first sight for him! He insisted on getting them and he wore them everyday (sock-less and stinky since I didn't pack socks) for the rest of the week. He sure loves what he calls his "starburst" shoes :) He says that they make him go fast :) Here is a selfie he took of them in the car :)
- Introduced Snap Chat filters to my parents. Their face swap was disturbing.
- Ice cream and diet coke runs
- Bobas, of course
- A drive out to the Phoenix temple
- The Secret Life of Pets (and our first experience with reclining chairs at the movie theaters!)
- Open water swimming with Chelsie at Saguaro Lake (these two guys started their workout the same time as us, took a picture with us, and then Chelsie found it later posted on some AZ Triathlon facebook group! haha)
- Dinner with my roommate from freshman year at Utah State! I love Elizabeth and could talk to her for forever!!!
89 - Breakfast and splash pad at Downtown Gilbert.
- Cafe Rio and gelato with Krissy, Katie, and Chelsie! Our friend from high school, Ben, ran into us at the gelato shop and ended up staying and talking to us for an hour or so. Totally random but fun!
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Jack's Arizona Highlight: Scorpion hunting and torching with my dad :) They went out 4 different nights and killed 62 scorpions total! (not including the babies on this mama's back!)
David's Arizona Highlights: flips off of the diving board, his new Star Wars shoes, and frequent visits upstairs to Isaac's room to see the "cweepy cwown" - Isaac's new addition to his huge Halloween decoration collection. (I somehow didn't get one picture with David and the Creepy Clown, just some ridiculous pictures of me with the Creepy Clown when I was trying to convince David that the Creepy Clown wasn't so creepy :)
It's always sad leaving Arizona :( Until next time!
I wouldn't say that the flight home was easy, but it was definitely the "least hard" of all of the flights I've taken alone with my kids :) We were all happy to see Spencer. We wish he could have come too!
