Our trip to AZ

We took a road trip to Mesa, AZ to visit Will's parents...and to ditch the kids for a few days. It was a really great trip!! It started and ended a little rough (I'll get to that), but other than that it was really fun.

In order to take less days off, Will decided to work a little bit on the way there and on the way back. For work he has to do quite a bit of (fairly close) travel, and it worked perfectly to just add it into our route. At least, we thought so. ;) We also had the grand idea to spend more time in Vail to catch the pretty trees and take a few family pictures. It was sort of our only chance so we tried to make do. We were planning on leaving Friday morning, but Will's meeting at work went extra long and we didn't get out till almost noon.

We didn't exactly do "family pictures" it was more like
"okay quick everybody smile okay good we're done let's go!"

I knew my kids tend to get carsick at times, but I wasn't really expecting how bad it was...and only 15 minutes into our drive!!!! I have never been more grateful to be prepared - I brought a box full of baby wipes, disinfecting wipes, paper towels and grocery bags. I mean, don't get me wrong, it wasn't HORRIBLE, but let's just say I was truly questioning whether it was carsickness or a stomach bug (it was definitely carsickness). Oddly enough, we stopped at a gas station to change everybody and clean up the car seats, and we ran into someone from our ward at church, who just happened to be at the same gas station two hours away from where we all lived. I may have sobbed to her a little bit about how awful this was, and how I didn't know if I could do it, and she was a wonderful moral support and helped me feel much better. Turned out she deals with car sick kids a lot too. Thank goodness for not being alone! We gave the kids some Dramamine and kept on trucking. It seemed to work, because they weren't sick again.

Anyway, now that you all have the loveliness in your head, moving on.

Five years!

We got to Will's parents' at like...2am. We just drove straight through because the kids went to sleep, and we honestly just wanted to get there as fast as possible and get them out of the car. It was a long drive but not too bad, after we got the kids tummies settled down. We stayed there for a couple of
days and then Will and I took off to Lake Havasu. It was our 5-year anniversary, so we wanted to do something special. We stayed at my parents' condo that they rent out sometimes. We slept in, took a lot of naps (I forgot how nice it is to just lie down and nap when you feel like it!), went swimming, explored the waterfront shops, rented a wave runner, and

Pretty blue Lake Havasu...
from the car window

basically just enjoyed some time without our dear, sweet children. It was wonderful. Wednesday was our anniversary, and we went to a restaurant called Shugrue's. It was AMAZING. Granted, Will and I do not splurge on going out to eat very often. In fact, I think in our entire marriage this was our most expensive meal. They put us in this little wing all by ourselves, 3 sides were windows and out of one side you could see the London Bridge, and the other two sides the sunset. It was raining, (yes, in the desert) and sometime during our meal, a rainbow appeared out by the bridge. To really understand the significance of all those things, you have to know us pretty well, but let's just say those little details made it super special to us. It was perfect!

Rare snuggles with Ben

After our little getaway we headed back to Mesa, and stayed for a few more days. We all had a great time hanging out with Grammy and Papa! Kaylee got to do lots of little arts and crafts activities, which I know she loved, and Grammy does not skimp on giving the grand kids chocolate milk. Yup, my kids were in heaven! We went mini-golfing too, which was really fun. The kids...struggled...but they had fun, so all is well. One of us (actually three of us) accidentally hit our ball into the stream, and when Ben saw that he decided it looked like fun and threw his own ball in. What a goof!

For the way home we cut the trip in half and stopped at a hotel. I can't decide if I prefer that or not, because it actually seemed to take longer that way. Less miserable, yes, but longer. And still miserable. Hmm...

Luckily the kids did okay on the way back except for one episode - I gave them Dramamine right when we were leaving, but I don't think it quite had time to kick in. Too many mountains! So again we had to stop and change and clean up and....ugh..........so glad it's over.

We stopped in Telluride for Will's work. While he was working the kids and I went and took a little walk along the creek there, and enjoyed the beautiful fall colors. It really was gorgeous. Our entire trip was full of the most beautiful autumn mountains you can imagine!! I wanted so badly to take pictures but I accidentally left my camera on and the battery died. Oops. I got a few with my phone but nothing spectacular - just to document our adventures.

I'm glad Will's work was in Telluride. The pictures don't even remotely capture how pretty it was!