Sweet Arizona

We are finally here in the great state of Arizona after an interesting start. I could barely hide my excitement to just get to AZ to meet my niece and see Adam and Jamie. I have never been out here to visit yet so as you can imagine I felt like a little girl all over again wanting to jump up and down and giggle till my stomach hurt. That excitement went a little downhill as we were on our way to the airport at 1:30 and my dad asked if we had Hayden’s birth certificate to prove that she was under 2 so she could sit on our lap. Umm….no…we didn’t…oops. At that point I thought, “oh great, I knew this was too good to be true. Now my family is going to all be together except for Nic, me, and the kids. As soon as we reached the airport, my dad and I ran in and asked some lady about it and she said we didn’t need one so we were safe. Yeah…she had NO idea what she was talking about. We headed down to the Allegiant line and waited. My dad finally just went around the line to ask, to which they answered, “She certainly does need a birth certificate.” Once again, my heart sunk to the bottom of my stomach. However, my wonderful hero of a husband said he could make it back to our house in Elkhart, grab the certificate, and be back by the time we had to take off (which was 3:30). It was already 2 by this point.

So...we waited in anticipation at the airport, chasing Hayden around and being the entertainment for anyone within 20 feet from us. I kept asking my mom if she thought Nic would make it and she just kept reassuring me that he would. I wasn’t worried about him getting to the house and back, I was worried he would get pulled over!!! If you know Nic, he can really drive when he needs to. I kept calling him and in a calm voice he would tell me it was ok and he would make it.

Well, not only did he grab the birth certificate, he grabbed all of our passports, birth certificates, and social security cards….what a man! He didn’t want to take any chances! Needless to say, he made it with time to spare and he even went thought the Taco Bell drive through. So now my excitement level is back up to where it was to begin with and now all I want to do is blink my eyes and be in AZ.

I was VERY nervous about the plane ride for 2 reasons. 1. I hate flying. 2. I have 2 kids. Just from being in the little waiting room I could tell people were looking at us thinking to themselves, “I hope I am not near that crazy family!” Well, we proved them wrong! Colton was himself and didn’t cry one time. Hayden was crazy as ever, but with the help of 5 other adults, we kept her busy and none of us had any meltdowns…SUCCESS! Sarah kept her busy by playing with the Photo Booth on her computer, Kristen made funny faces with her, Nic walked up and down the aisle with her, she climbed all over me, mom, and dad, and then she finally fell asleep in the arms of her grandma. The 3 ½ hour plane ride was finally over and I was just minutes away from meeting Rori!

When we reached Jamie, Adam, and Rori, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on my baby niece…but Kristen beat me to it…that little stinker. I didn’t think it was fair because she has been an aunt before but I haven’t! Hehe! But I finally got my arms around that baby and couldn’t take my eyes off her! She is just so beautiful and has so much hair! She was so awake! She has gorgeous blue eyes and the cutest little nose. After I ooed and ahhed over Rori, we decided that we needed to get the luggage and the rental van as soon as possible due to a melting little girl who was starving and tired!

As soon as we got everything, we loaded up the cars and went straight to dinner. Now, I don’t know if you know this but there is a little difference in the time here…3 hours!!!!! I know that doesn’t seem like a great amount but to a 1 ½ year old that is like major! It was 7 pm our time and 4 AZ time, so we needed food fast! Adam and Jamie took us to a steakhouse called KEG….it was an amazing restaurant. It was beautiful and had AWESOME food! Jamie and I shared the Top Sirloin…I must say I haven’t had anything that good in a long time. I probably could have eaten a whole one by myself but I was a good girl and didn’t act like a pig. My husband, on the other hand, talked about his dinner ALL night. He couldn’t get over how tasty it was…what a silly guy!

We then set off to our house for the week. As we drove, I couldn’t take my eyes off the beautiful scenery outside the window. Off in the distance you could see the sun setting down on the mountains. The red, orange, and blue painted sky reminded me of God’s creative work. Then we pulled up to the house…OH MY GOODNESS! Can you say incredible?? Instead of going to a hotel, my dad rented a house for all of us to stay in complete with a hot tub, pool with cool fountains, a fire pit, a movie library, HUGE TVs, and 4 bedrooms. It was reaching 10 pm our time and Hayden wasn’t about to give up and lay down…I tried everything. The air conditioning wasn’t working right upstairs and in the 100% weather outside you could imagine how uncomfortable it was. We tried fans on Hayden, going out to the movie library and laying on the reclining chairs, and then finally ended up on the couch in the family room around 2 am…awesome. Oh but don’t worry, she was up bright and early this morning. Because everyone else in the house was sleeping except the kids, my dad, and me we took Hayden outside to the pool. I am telling you, this girl would live in the pool if we let her! I love watching her eyebrows go up and her mouth turn into an “o” shape when she plays in the water.

Beautiful Sunset

Movie Library

Our room

Because of the lack of sleep on my part, my wonderful mother made a nice, hot bubble bath for me to relax in while my dad and Kristen took Hayden to the store. What a great start to the day! And it is only 7:30 here!