AZ Trippin'

We're back!

It seems like forever since I last wrote a blog post, and while it really has only been a few weeks, the time has flown by with all the craziness going on around here.

Let's start with the trip. We headed off to Arizona about a week ago Thursday for five days of family and fun. This time our destination was Phoenix, where we stayed with Michaela's Aunt Gedy and her son Josh. All of Michaela's Dad's family was in town for the big event, her Grandmother June's 85th birthday party...which turned into a quasi-family reunion of sorts. Most of the pictures on this post will be from the Arizona trip, even though I'm planning to discuss some of our other picadillos over the last week.

The flight to Phoenix is short (about 1:45 hrs), and Landon did pretty well. I have to admit that my stress level rises every time we take him into an airport because their are so many people moving in every direction that it would take a blink of an eye for Landon to disappear. And let me tell you, at one point while Michaela was in the restroom, I was watching him, our carry-on, and her purse when Landon thought it'd be fun to play hide and seek without my consent. I could see him the entire time, but it only took one second for him to dart down the terminal at which point I had snagged the bags and was taking off after him like the McCallister family at the beginning of Home Alone. Let's just say when I finally caught the bugger he was giggling hysterically for 2.5 seconds until he realized I wasn't wearing my happy face. I'm thinking I should have told him that there are dragons around the airport...I bet that would have kept him locked by my side...oh well, maybe next time.

He did pretty well on the plane...we elected to give him his pacifier for takeoffs and landings to help with the inner ear pressure, and we looked through tons of sticker books (his new favorite).

Another great part about this trip was that we didn't have to tote a car seat around, as Skip's family has so many little kids that they had a spare for us to use the entire trip. When we got to Aunt Gedy's house Landon was in complete awe of her toy room, which was full of toys that her 4 grandchildren have accumulated (along with quite a few really cool "old school" toys from when Michaela and her cousins were kids). We all really loved staying with Aunt Gedy and Landon especially didn't want to leave when it was time to go. While we were there we there we got in a ton of swimming at Michaela's Grandma's house (as you can see in the pictures), and a great deal of family time.

On Friday night Skip and Gedy were nice enough to watch Landon and put him down for the night so that Michaela and I could go celebrate one of my best friend's 30th birthday with him. We met up with Dave and his girlfriend Danyelle at Dave's family's house and spent the next few hours catching up with old friends (some we hadn't seen since college). We had a really great time seeing everybody and it was especially nice to have an adult night out (which we hadn't done in a long time).

On Saturday we had headed over to Michaela's cousin Kristi's house for June's big party. There was a ton of family there, and with Kristi and Brian having 4 kids of their own, there were plenty of toys and things to do for Landon. It turned out that Landon was the youngest of his cousins by about a year, with his cousin James being 3 years old. They had a great time playing together, and it turns out that they are both "beefcake boys" in that they like to lead with their face and are real bruisers. At one point the two were bouncing around on the giant trampoline when the jumped into each other face first...I heard a "WHAM!" and then Landon was on the mat with a bloody nose and a few tears. It wasn't James' fault and I actually think it was a good lesson for him that there are other bruisers out there just like him and it hurts when somebody takes you down...sorry that this picture is a little blurry, but it turns out all the pics I took of these two playing were blurry, because they NEVER stood still!

During the course of the events on Saturday we managed to take a couple of family pictures. I must say that I was impressed we got everyone to look at the camera at the same time (and yes, Landon was the most difficult to get focused), but I think that they turned out pretty good. Unfortunately I don't have any to post here, but if you're on Facebook you can check them out. I believe I'm tagged in a couple that Kristi posted.

On Sunday we really just relaxed and took it easy. Michaela was getting sick, I was feeling a bit "off", and Landon was exhausted from the long weekend. There was a lot of football on for me that day, and it ended up being a really great day as I got to spend quite a bit of time with Skip watching the games while Landon and Michaela rested (don't even get me started on that Cowboys game!).

We had a really great trip and we want to say a huge "THANK YOU!!!" to all those that helped make it so. I actually have more great pics from our trip to post, so maybe we'll do a second one with just pics later on...

This last week that we have been back in town has been insane. We recently sold our house and we need to move by the end of the month (or maybe a week later, we'll see what happens there). Anyways, we have not really packed a thing, nor have we even found a place to live yet! We have had several leads on houses, but renting is alot different than buying (we haven't rented a house in like 8 years)....so the houses we like keep getting swooped out from under us at the last second, but we're learning quickly. We're planning to check out a bunch of places this weekend and hope to have one nailed down soon. Then it's just a matter of packing and moving in the next week or two...sounds reasonable, right? :) It's amazing how much crap you and clutter you collect when you have a kid and you stay in the same house for 5 straight years....let's just say we're planning several trips to the Goodwill today.

I've got to get packing. Sorry for the totally unorganized post. I'll leave you with one of Michaela's favorite things about AZ....the sunsets...Talk to you later!