I am very late with blog posts about two great trips we took recently. Grab a cup of coffee and get comfy, this is going to be a long one…
In June, Alan’s company sent him to a training in Phoenix, AZ. He doesn’t love to travel, but I do, and with a stroke of genius (my mom might have inspired it) we decided that the kids and I would join him in Phoenix and we’d turn work into a vacation. He flew out ahead of us because we still had one day of school left, but we joined him on Wednesday. That gave him time to get settled and us time to finish school properly!
Eager kiddos on the shuttle bus from long term parking to the terminal.
Never a dull moment with this two!
We got there pretty early (because I hate to be late!) so we had plenty of time to watch all the goings-on at the airport.
Eve was super excited to be flying again!!
Lex and I were pretty exited too! :)
Our flight out of Manchester was delayed an hour, but Delta sent me a text that morning and everything went well. I was worried about our layover, but that was fine too. Plenty of time. In fact, we even had enough time to ride the train thing in the airport, just for fun. A train in an airport. Craziness! :)
Waiting for the airport train in Detroit.
We got off the train when we saw this cool fountain, conveniently located right next to a Starbucks. :) The kids played, I caffeinated, life is good.
Pretty
On the train, heading back to our gate.
We got back to our gate just as the skies turned greenish black and the thunder rolled in! Needless to say, there was a delay as we waited for the storm to pass. I was very grateful we hadn’t boarded yet! The storm rumbled and lightning flashed, we played Uno and got a snack, then the storm passed and we boarded. The delay was just long enough to be exciting, but not so long that it was annoying.
Playing Uno
Glad we brought the cards!
Once we took to the skies it was beautiful, as usual!
Blue skies! I love the horizontal striped look.
I love airplane pictures!
Looking out the window made me realize that I don’t know my geography very well. We should have looked at a map before we left.
I was telling the kids that AZ is desert and very flat, but then these appeared!
Urban sprawl, as seen from the air.
On the flight into Phoenix Lex had to sit one seat ahead of me and Eve. I was a little nervous at first (always am), but he ended up between a nice young guy and a 8yr old girl traveling on her own. Lex and the girl shared crayons and books, the guy was patient with Lex’s many trips to the bathroom, and all went well.
Looks kids, a cactus! Eve touched it, of course, and ended up with tiny spikes in her finger. She was sad. This was also about 8pm in Phoenix (11pm our time) after a long day of travel!
It was very late when we finally got to the hotel in Phoenix. Very late. But everyone did a great job of keeping it together. Thanks to the 3hr time difference the next morning started very early! The kids were awake shortly after 3am! Ugh. We snuggled in bed for a bit, but we were all up well before we should have been.
I love these two! Cuddling before breakfast.
Apparently this is how it’s done in the warm states.
They were ready for the pool when it opened at 7am!
When Alan was ready for work we all walked to his office together. It was a short walk down the street. His training was in the tallest building in the area so it had a great view. The place was swanky, with comfy furniture, free food, TV and video games, and an upside down Christmas tree decorated for the 4th of July.
A view from the office Alan spent the week at.
We got free food from Alan’s office then settled by the fountain out front for morning snack. Not to be confused with the fountain out back. They are fountain happy in AZ!
After we left Alan to work, the kids and I headed to a local mall that had an indoor aquarium. We met Amy and Andrew there. It was cool, but we went through quickly. The kids were given a scavenger hunt activity at the beginning so they powered through the whole museum trying to find the answers, leaving little time for me to read signs.
Sea stars. We got to touch them too. They are hardish, but kind of rubbery.
The aquarium had several of these pop-up bubbles. They are cool to stand in, but hard to take pictures of. I love Eve’s face in this one. :)
I think this is a white lobster, with red claws.
After the aquarium we were all feeling hungry so we went down the hall to the Rainforest Cafe. We sat near the monkeys. The kids loved it.
Lunch with the monkeys
After lunch we had frozen yogurt, because why not, then headed back to the hotel for rest. Only one of us took a nap, the other two jumped on the bed like wild hooligans.
When Alan got back from work we headed to Amy and Ian’s house for dinner and more swimming. It’s good to start and end each day in the pool. That’s how you know you’re really on vacation! :)
Eve, chillin’ in Amy’s pool.
I tried to get a picture of both of them on their “ponies” but it didn’t happen. I got lots of this instead. :)
Happy boy in the water.
Andrew was pretty happy about that ice cream for dessert!
This is a terrible picture, but I’m going to post it anyway. Going around the table is Eve, Amy, baby Andrew, daddy Ian, Jarrett (also a friend from SU), and Alan. Lex was there somewhere too. We had a great evening.
Someone was very tired from this long day! She feel asleep pretty quickly after we got in the car.
Well, I made it through two days and this post is already long. I take a lot of pictures. Have you noticed? I have to go get the kiddos from camp now, so I’m going to write more in another post. Stay tuned.