Monday, January 9, 2012

Arizona - The Getting There and Day 1!

After all the excitement of the dance recital and Libby's birthday party, the day before, we were back up and at it early Sunday to catch a plane to Arizona. Let's just say that Josh is a complete bear when he doesn't get the requisite hours of sleep but we got ourselves ready and out the door at the time I was shooting for. Upon arriving at the airport, Brad offered to drop the three of us at the front while he went and parked the car; this led to my biggest mistake, trying to take too much in along with the kids. I am guessing that it was between the curb and trying to get into the airport with a little bear who wanted to pull a suitcase that was way too heavy making him extremely frustrated and keeping on eye on Emma that I lost my phone. Of course I didn't notice the loss until we had checked our bags and were ready to head up to security. I retraced my steps, no phone, Brad went back out to the car, no phone. Needless to say, nobody was happy other than Emma at this point.

We are now maybe 45 minutes out from our flight and the security line is backed up to the escalator. My only hope was that there were many other people in line for our same flight so we would not all miss it. By the time we got through security after several melt downs by Josh, we made it to the gate 15 minutes before the flight and they were just starting to board so we still got to board with Group A. Overall, in spite of being tired, both kids did well on the flight. The worst part was when Josh accidentally stabbed himself in the eye with Emma's headband. Upon arrival in Arizona, I took Josh off to change his diaper and came back out to the great news that my phone had been found and would be waiting for me at Lost and Found when we returned. Thankfully from that point on, it was a fairly smooth trip.

After collecting our luggage, we headed to the car rental facility to get our lovely red Mitsubishi Galant. I won't be terribly saddened if I never have to drive one of those again. I think that Josh finally fell asleep about as soon as we left the car rental facility and to our surprise, Emma also slept part of the way out to Grandma and Cap's house as well. She woke up about the time we stopped to get Brad a quick burger. Emma was not going to miss out on some fries. By the time we got to my Mom's house, it was raining. I told the kids that they were witnessing a rare event. The ironic thing was that the first two days it was warmer in Arkansas than Arizona. We had a whole crew waiting for us at the new house where we had a little lunch before we took off for some naps.

That afternoon, Grandma and Cap had a few friends over for some appetizers and celebration. Emma and Josh were completely fascinated by the desert and wanted to spend as much time as possible outside checking everything out in spite of the cooler weather. Emma made sure to keep a good watch on her brother so he didn't touch the cacti. It was so great for the kids to finally be able to meet some of their family and friends of my Mom's who have heard so much about them. Other than the rain, it was a good first day in Arizona.

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