Wishing We Were Still There...

This afternoon, we returned home from spending the weekend in Scottsdale, AZ. It was such a nice few days, and I so badly wish it could have lasted longer.

Pat's sister, Bridget, and her good friend, Kim, flew into Phoenix on Friday evening to visit us for a week, and instead of making them spend the entire week in boring ol' Thatcher, we headed that way to meet them, and spend a few days in the Phoenix area.

I just have to say... as of Friday morning, I was dreading the entire weekend. The packing, the driving, tired/cranky kids, tired/cranky parents, trying to get Landon and Zoe to sleep well in a hotel room... you get the picture. I have the best kids though, seriously. The drive was fine, because Zoe and Landon do such great jobs at entertaining eachother. And both kids ran almost perfectly on short naps, and late nights. Score!

Haha! Love this. Zoe making silly faces for Landon.

I had found an incredible price (thanks to the scorching hot summer weather) at this resort and was a little skeptical (due to the price), but as soon as we got there I was blown away! We spent a good amount of time in the pool

and it wasn't rare that there were only 1 or 2 other people in/next to the pool with us.

We also went to this cute little park that I had seen online, but didn't realize that it was just a block up the road from us. It's called McCormick Stillman Railroad Park, and we all had a great time. Well... not so sure if our visitors did. The summer heat doesn't bother me very much, but I felt a little bad for choosing an outdoor activity as soon as I saw how uncomfortable our visitors seemed! But they were troopers, and were practically running for the air-conditioned museum by the end. ;)

Zoe (like most kids) loves trains, so this was pretty exciting for her. The first place you head after arriving at the park is the 'train station' where you buy your tickets, then you use your tickets to ride the carousel or the little train. They also had 4 or 5 different playgrounds and picnic areas set up around the park, along with old train cars, a little ice cream parlor and a really fun model train museum.

We ended our stay in Scottsdale this morning and parted ways with Bridget and Kim. They headed up to see the Grand Canyon and Sedona, then will spend their last few days at our apartment. We are back to the grind bright and early tomorrow! But I'm already dreaming up our next visit to Scottsdale. Who's joining us!? :) Seriously!

Enjoying his first pickle.

"Happy Firework Day!"

As promised, I will update quickly about Pat's promotion. After being at this new job for about 3 weeks, he was approached by the top 2 chefs and told that there was a new chef position opening up and that they wanted him to have it. He still had to go through all the resume/application/interview nonsense, just to make it legit, but as of Thursday it was official! He started training for the new position on Friday, and will continue to, probably, for the next few weeks. This great opportunity couldn't have come at a better time. While it does change our fall semester plans a LOT, I am not complaining. One bit. We will both continue with school in the fall.

Pat took Zoe to the parade. I'm enjoying a few relaxing moments while Landon naps. He has been extra tired this past week. Overall, he is sleeping better at night (still waking up 2-4 times. But that is MUCH better) but no matter what I try, Zoe has been waking up bright and early and climbing into his crib, where he is still asleep, to play with him. Hopefully I will find someway to end this soon, so that he can sleep in and be more cheerful in the mornings.

We made our 4th of July shirts a few days ago.

I found this great idea for Landon's here.

And I had seen the idea for Zoe's and my shirt on Family Fun. I think. But ours were really fun (and easy) to make, so she was able to do her's by herself.

I wish I had taken more pictures of the process. We used pipe cleaners, twisted together in the middle then spread out to make the firework shape, dipped them in paint and on the shirt it went.

Hopefully we will get a nice picture of the 4 of us tonight in our red-white-and-blue shirts! :) Hope everyone has a fun and safe 4th of July! Wishing we could be spending it with family.