Livin' It Up At The Hotel... Arizona?

Hmmm, so that's not how the song goes, but that's how our vacation goes.
We chilled at the resort for a large portion of our time (obviously it was our "home base.")
There was so much to do right there which was so convenient.
Drew loved playing golf, so we did plenty of that.
I loved hanging out down by the creek.  It is just beautiful and at night it becomes magical with all of the twinkle lights (not to mention you could almost see Johnny Depp's (alleged) house from there.... that's always a plus)
Emma loved the pool and Daddy loved it all.
It was great to have a "fall back plan for the days that we want to do any running around or site seeing.

This "Labyrinth" was designed for relaxation... to walk your worries away.  Not for a 3 and 5 year old.... it was a maze to race through.

There was a brewery right on the grounds (In Tlaquepaque which is connected to the resort)  This was the sampling of their beers.  It's called the 7 Dwarfs.  Colin was up for the challenge

The walk to the pool was beautiful

Even the back parking lot had a beautiful view

My little family of mini golfers

ok, so she's not exactly Tiger Woods

Emma wondered why she couldn't swim with the big girls when we were down by the creek

But she enjoyed her own dancing anyways

Eating watermelon back in the room

Drew next to the coyote.  We have the matching picture from 2 years ago.  It's neat to see how much he's changed HERE

The shoeless wonder here.  Emma will always be Emma

Playing in some art

Nana and Papa walking the kids back after our dinner at Oak Creek Brewery

I'm Leavin' On A Jet Plane

.... Don't know when I'll be back again.

My kids made me stop singing this on the day that we left.  Even at 3 and 4 they aren't amused by my singing  :(
Our trip to Sedona went very well.  I was pretty proud of the kiddos and their traveling abilities.
Mary was sweet enough to drive us to the airport so we wouldn't have to leave our car there for 2 weeks and we made it to the airport in plenty of time so we picked up some lunch there.  Then we waiting at the gate for a short while.  The airport was packed and our flight was full so I was a bit nervous.  You never know how the kids are going to react.
We boarded our plane with no problem and got ready to fly.  Drew had Bashful Bunny and Emma had her blankie so we were set.
They both loved take-off, but I noticed that Emma got really still and serious (which is abnormal) so I asked her if she was okay and she said yes, but her tummy felt funny.  I slapped some motion sickness bands on her wrists (I had them from my pregnancy and though since I've got them, I'll pack them because you never know).  They made her happy because she loves any accessory whether it's attractive or not, but she still had heavy eyes and she was asleep within 5 minutes (which was probably for the best with how she looked).
I think I printed off the entire internet's worth of color-by-numbers, word puzzles and mazes so Drew was quite content all the way to Las Vegas.  Toward the end of the flight, Emma woke up in a great mood and the kids had a blast together.
Once we got to Las Vegas we realized we had scheduled this all wrong.  We should have stayed the night there instead of Phoenix.  Colin and I love Vegas.  So many fun memories there ;)
But alas, we only got to see it from the airport.  Emma was rested up from her nap on the flight and she was ready to run.  Thankfully we had almost the whole concourse to ourselves, so she could do just that... run!
We grabbed dinner (it was strange, because now we were 3 hours behind our time zone, so we were having dinner at 4:00)  and got on our next flight.
We were in Phoenix in no time and ready for our vacay!

Cuties!

Keepin' them busy was key

Silly girl

Even Bashful Bunny was safe

Summer In The Desert

Well, I guess I'll start with the landscape.
Our two week vacation in the desert couldn't have come at a better time.  It was so hot and humid here on the east coast and while you wouldn't exactly think of going to the desert in the middle of the summer as a great getaway, Sedona was a welcome respite.
We landed in Phoenix and walked outside of the airport around 10:45 pm and it was 106 degrees!!!
All I could think was, "what have I done!?!"
We stayed the night in Phoenix so I wasn't sure what Sedona was going to be like, but in 106 degrees I couldn't imagine it was going to be very pretty.
But the next morning we met up with Nana and Papa and drove to Sedona.  Once those red rocks came into view I knew it was going to be a great two weeks.
We got out of the car and it was 15 degrees cooler than when we got in in Phoenix!
It was beautiful, warm, and best of all... dry!!!
The kids were excited to get there and they enjoyed the view as much as we did.
I didn't bring my camera.  It was just too much with everything else we had to deal with and I figured I could live without it for two weeks.  That was a mistake.  I learned that I can't live without it for two weeks and especially in such a beautiful place.  But oh well, next time.
Here are some of the pictures that we do have from our phones.

The view when you are arriving to Sedona from Phoenix

The road into Sedona

Some ominous clouds cooled things down considerably

Charming little desert gallery

Ready, Set, Go!

One day, back in early spring, Daddy and Drew ran some races in the... well, I don't know what this area is for at the park.  But anyways, they used it to race in.
Drew had a blast and Daddy had fun too.  That little guy can run and Daddy wasn't expecting him to want to over and over and over again.  haha

Our little track star

And now the race with Daddy (ok so he got a bit of a head start, but he has shorter legs so it's only fair)

Ready, Set, Go!!!!  no head starts this time!