Arizona trip - part 3

We made it to Heber after a 3 hour drive.  My mom had mentioned something about my aunt and uncle's new house and said it was pretty big.  Big enough to play nine-square inside.  Then the kids started to refer to it as a mansion.  I told them to bring their expectations lower in case we showed up and it wasn't as big as they thought it would be.  I told them to imagine it being a one bedroom house with no bathroom.  Ha ha.  But when we arrived, I think it was better than they were thinking it was going to be when they were imagining a mansion.  It was really impressive.  

There was a wrap around porch that was really nice.  We spent quite a bit of time relaxing on that porch.

There was a fun loft area above where the industrial sized kitchen was.  (There was a hotel ice machine in there!  That was probably my favorite part! Endless ice!)  There was a pool table where we played a lot of this new game we learned from my uncle.  There was an air hockey table, a basketball game and a tv and bean bag chair.  So fun.

Grandpa found a nice comfy spot on the couch and settled in.  Zzzzz

Emery discovered this cool fort that was on their property.  It was probably built by one of my cousins kids.  

Off in the corner there was this arcade game that had tons of games on it.  The kids had a blast with it.

Uncle Isaac joined in the fun.  

And set up the hammock for us all to enjoy.

The kids spent a lot of time out here on these swings.  I liked to lay on them while they were still or else I would start feeling sick really fast.

Finley loved this swing and always wanted us to push her higher!!

Here is grandma teaching the kids about how Ponderosa Pine trees smell like vanilla.  It's true, they do.

We found this large beetle on a walk to the nearby park.

Finley was sometimes a good "hiker".  She would cry for us to hold her a lot.  

The park was mostly empty.  We played tag, and did obstacle courses and just hung out.  

Isaac had to leave after only one night.  Boo.

Pretty wild Daisy flowers along the path.

Goofy picture.

My uncle made this cool train that he can attach to his ATV and give the kids rides.  They loved it mostly.  Riley was pretty worried about a tiny spider she found in hers.  I don't think she really enjoyed the ride, but the next time she rode up front in the ATV with us and she loved it.

We forced the kids to lay down and watch a movie because they were so tired.  We watched Nanny McFee.  

The second night, Scott drove up with a couple of Christi's kids and stayed the night.  We made s'mores and stayed up way too late.  

We enjoyed breakfast the next morning followed by 9 sqaure and then we headed back to Utah.  

We also went on another train ride.

Sadly, our time in AZ had to come to an end.  The kids wanted to stay another day, but we dragged them away and headed back home to Utah.  Not before we took a few group pictures though!
 

Thank you so much to my Aunt Becky and Uncle Doug for sharing their amazing place with us.  It was so fun.  We were commenting when we got home that we think this was the best vacation we've ever had.  The kids were all so well behaved and traveled so well in the car.  We were so impressed and just had an amazing time.  Thanks to my parents for making it so fun.  

Since we left AZ a day earlier than planned, we were going to miss out on the fun movie night we had planned at grandma's house.  She sent us home with the movie she had bought and we watched it the next night as a family.  Trolls World Tour with lots of treats.  We all really enjoyed it!

Arizona - Part 2

One of the days, we went out and colored chalk on grandma and grandpa's driveway.  The sprinkler was turned on to keep us all cool, and then it was a game to draw in the water and not let the drawing get washed away.  All the kids were soaked by the end.  

When it's really hot, you might as well get soaked while coloring to keep you cool when the occasional breeze comes by.  

Zac started drawing people or monsters out of only one shape.  This was his triangle guy.  

Grandma and grandpa watched from the shade of the garage.  

After lunch we headed over to Scott and Christi's house to swim with them.  We stopped at the dollar store to pick up some goggles for the kids.  

Finley fell asleep really quickly in the car.

The girls tried on their goggles to make sure they fit on the way to the pool.

The pool was really nice and empty.  There were just a few people there, so we mostly had it to ourselves.  The very shallow baby pool was pretty much like a hot tub.  Not super refreshing, but the bigger pool was a bit cooler.  

Emery hanging out in the tube.

There was also an actual hot tub there.  The kids would jump in and get hot and then go jump in the regular pool to make it feel colder.  I couldn't get all the way into the hot tub.  It was really hot!

When we were done swimming, we headed back to Scott's house and hung around a while.  The kids played some video games.  Scott grilled burgers and hot dogs to perfection and we all enjoyed a delicious dinner poolside.  

Finley really loved her cousin Cade.  He tolerated her.  ha ha!!

The next day, my mom had a huge surprise up her sleeve.  Rob took the kids to the store to help the kids buy food for our mystery dinner that night and when they got back...

This was in the backyard!  We had it up all day and it was such a blast!  Not many injuries either...except that there was either a rock or a sprinkler head underneath that people kept landing on.  

Finley had a nice little set up in the shade.  She never actually went down the slide.  It was too tall and scary for her.  

She hung out a lot in the shade.  

Grandpa and grandma joined in on the fun too!

Zac and Gunner outlasted everyone on the slide.  We even pulled out the water weenies and had water fights.  Such a fun day.  

After the water fun, we had to get busy to make our mystery meal.  We each got 2 dollars and a quarter and got to buy whatever we wanted at the store for dinner.  We ended up with a good spread of food!  

There was Ramen, frozen burritos, bruschetta, tater tots, donuts, gatorade, corn on the cob, refried beans and pudding.  

Yum

Cade loved Sadie and she loved him.  

After the dinner, grandpa set up a mystery box for all the kids.  It was really fun.  The kids all enjoyed it a lot.  The air conditioning in our van was blasting hot air on us the whole time so that made it a little bit less enjoyable, but we still ended up making it to the end and got to enjoy the yummy treats!

This was the girls team.  Riley and the boys were on another team.  They beat us by a little bit, but only because we were being blasted with hot air and couldn't think straight!  :)

We had one last visit with grandma before we headed up to Heber for a couple days.  We were going to come back to Glendale one more night after that, but we changed plans last minute and decided to head straight back to Utah after Heber to save us a three hour car ride.  

 Riley fell asleep on the way to Heber and Zac was a nice brother and let her sleep on his shoulder.  

Arizona Trip- part 1

We had a vacation to AZ planned in July because my brother from Connecticut was going to fly out there with his family.  But thanks to Covid they would have had to quarantine for 14 days after they got back home, so they decided to postpone their trip for a while.  We decided to drive down anyway to visit my parents, my brother and his family, and my grandma.  We didn't go many places other than their homes, but it was so fun to be there!  It was probably one of my favorite vacations to their house ever.  The kids were a little older so the drive was not bad at all either.  

We have so much more room in the car now that we don't have to pack diapers, the pack and play and a million other things that traveling with a baby requires.  I kept feeling like we were forgetting something!  We strategically assigned seats for the way down and they worked out great!  No fighting.

Our first stop was in St. George.  We ate lunch at a park in the shade.

We had sandwiches and cheetos.  yum. 

AZ!  We made it!

The bathroom stops were a bit more stressful with putting masks on all the kids and then collecting them right after so they didn't get lost.  I only brought one mask per person!  But the kids did great and we washed and sanitized after each pit stop!

These lock things were a new toy for the kids to play with.  Riley loved them!

We finally made it to my parent's house right around dinner time.  Finley loved this little table and would bring all her toys there the whole time we were there.  She ate almost every meal at this table.  She loved it.

Grandma looks asleep in this picture, but I assure you she's not.  I must have taken the picture right when she blinked!  But I think she is explaining how the kids can earn "grandma money" while they are there to cash in for a movie night later on in the week.  Unfortunately we ended up cutting our trip short by one day, and the next day was when we were going to watch the movie and buy the treats.  But we ended up watching it at home after we got back and the kids still cashed in their money for treats that grandma sent with us.  But they had to earn the money by doing jobs or push up or squats, practicing the piano, writing a poem etc.  It was very fun.

Finley made quick friends with grandpa.  Here they are either coloring or reading this coloring book.

The kids loved helping with their chickens.  Here they are giving them some morning feed.  They took turns checking for eggs.  Eventually I think we want to get chickens, so this was good practice.

Sunday morning, we walked over to my grandma's house.  It's a short walk, but that AZ sun starts heating up really early.  I think we left around 8 or so.  It felt like the hottest part of our day here in Utah!

We couldn't keep up with the other kids so we held up the rear.

It was so great to see my grandma in her brand new house!  The kids loved Billie, but I don't know if Billie appreciated all the craziness.  She liked to hide under my grandma's chair.  

Here's my dad getting the computer all set up on the TV for their church meeting on Zoom.  It was a good lesson about pioneers.  I really enjoyed it.  

Later, my grandma came over and made some of her famous homemade ice cream.  It was so yummy.  Hopefully she taught Sadie her secrets so she can make some for us at home!  :)

Finley just loved all the attention she got!  Here she is snuggling with grandma!

And Riley lost her very first tooth on Sunday!  Right after she played a song for everyone.  Rob yanked it out.  Don't worry...the tooth fairy found her in AZ that night!

We hit up a park the next morning.  They seriously know how to provide shade there.  In Utah, I feel like they add tiny little canopies that don't help at all.  This whole park was in the shade.  And Finley spent most of the time sitting next to me looking for snacks.  I didn't bring any.  Mom fail!

Grandma joined the kids in a game of Shark under the bridge.  She's so fun.  I sat on the bench and watched.  :)

We went back to my grandma's house to visit for a bit.  The kids tortured...I mean played with Billie until she hid under her chair again.  Then Finley made herself comfy on her doggy bed.  

 I guess Emery and Riley joined on the bed too.  It was so great to go and visit with my grandma.  It had been too long since we had seen her!  

I'll post about the rest of the trip later!