I recently posted about the highlights (or low lights, rather) of our first day of traveling, but I promise the rest of the trip gets so much better!! And to be honest, other than my sickly ending to the day our actual travel day was way better than we anticipated. B did a great job at the airports and in the air. It was a little cramped on our plane from DSM to Detroit but we made it work. B would not nap in the air but thankfully we had brought his good stroller and he was able to get a nap in it during our layover. (It looks like he's thinking in that picture- I wonder if he's trying to figure out what the heck is going on!) From Detroit to Phoenix, there were extra seats on the plane (I didn't know that even happened anymore!) and we were able to get three seats together so we had some room to stretch out. B had quite the set up and despite the long flight, did a great job.
Our first full day in town, we all met up with my friend Christa and her little guy, Andrew at the Phoenix zoo. Andrew is just a couple months older than Beckett and I was SO excited for them to meet and I'm always excited to get to see Christa! It'd been a couple years since our last visit. Extra bonus: Christa has a zoo membership and free zoo passes so we all got in free too! Zoo highlights: The squirrel monkeys that you could get up close and personal with. They were awesome!
After nap time we headed to the mall (because it had an H&M) and grabbed a couple things. Aunt Mal spoiled B-meister and got him some sweet kicks. (They actually stay on his feet SO good and as cute as his Toms are, these are his new full-time shoes! Kid is stylin') His fave part of the day? The puppy store at the mall. He went absolutely crazy, squealing at all the puppies and wanting them to play fetch with him. He ran back and forth no less than a hundred times. He loved it!
Later we checked out Rustler's Rooste for dinner and got to see where Aunt Mal Mal and Shawn will get married. The place has an amazing view and even better cotton candy. Oh and a slide! And a longhorn. And live music and dancing. And a guy that goes around making special balloons for you. And etc, etc. We cant wait to go back!
The next day we visited the Railroad park in Scottsdale where B got to ride a train and a carousal and had a blast at the park. He's so over the Iowa snow and ready to play outside!!
For lunch we ate In N Out (likely the highlight of the trip for R). I ordered mine protein style expecting to be disappointed but it was so good! I know I previously said I had never eaten a hamburger at a restaurant between junior high and pregnancy but that is a lie- I had eaten In N Out burgers during that time. They are totally worth it and that's saying a lot from someone like me who never orders burgers out!
I cant remember what we did this afternoon. I think B might have taken a four hour nap? (Okay I might have had a little nap too?) And I'm also pretty sure we soaked up some sun poolside. It was great to just relax for a bit!
That night we headed up to the mountains. B didn't notice how awesome the mountains were but he did start tugging his ears and digging in them on the way up. Had I been thinking ahead I would have had him drink from his sippy and eat some snacks (worked great on the plane!) but I didn't. We'll know better next time! I always say Iowa would be the perfect place to live and raise a family if it just had an ocean and a mountain (and shorter winters!). We LOVE the mountains! (You can check out more of the pictures we took up there over on the {cb}h blog.)
The NCAA tournament started Thursday so you know what R was doing all morning. I quickly filled out my bracket (maybe taking 30 seconds?) and hoped for the best. I spent the rest of the morning poolside soaking up the sun. I know we should have put our suits on and got in the big pool with B but we didn't. Instead, Aunt Mal set him up with his own little paradise and he LOVED it! He drug his little blue chair around everywhere he went and spent as much time with his girls (the dogs) as he could. They quickly became good buddies!
It was super sad to have to leave so I must have just put the camera away and sulked. I did find my traditional vacation Christmas ornament at the airport reminding me that Christmas '13 is just around the corner and spring break '14 will follow suit. ;) In the meantime, we will just settle for some warmer temps. Come on Iowa! Let's move on to spring now. :)
