Arizona 2018

Sally had a wonderful birthday yesterday, thank you to all of you who took time out of your day to make her feel extra special!

I made it back in time to post for her birthday, hope you were able to check out her interview and slideshow.

I was gone for a while again because, you guys are not going to believe this, we got food poisoning.

All 6 of us.

Hours apart.

As if we needed to add 6 more pukes to our already 6 puke sessions this season.

We survived.

I wouldn't recommend it.

Okay, back to catching up.

ARIZONA!!!

My Mom (with the encouragement of George, thank you George!!) treated my sister, sister in-law and I to a long weekend in Arizona.

10 years ago, my sister, mom and I went to Las Vegas. 8 Years ago my mom, Sally, Jenny, Lucy, William and I went to Florida.

We've been saying for some time we'd like to do that again. Well, 5 more babies later, it took until now, for one to not be pregnant or nursing to be able to get away.

It was much needed and so very generous.  Thank you Mom (and George!)

When we were picking the date, we were all a little hesitant because we knew the potential of it being those wonderful first days of early spring where you can finally bust out of MN Hibernation, that we hated to be gone for.

MMMMhmmmm, you know where this is going...

The plan was to meet at my mom's condo early Thursday, April 12th morning.  My mom apologized for both she and George taking up the car spots in the underground parking with the potential snow coming.  "Oh, no worries, it'll probably amount to nothing like the last one, and if we get 3 inches, it'll melt before we get home on Sunday" -Said I...famous last words.

What was supposed to be a long weekend turned in to a stranded extended stay because of the Historic MN April 2018 Snow Storm...

We were flying Sun Country.  Our Sunday flight got cancelled with no rebooking or help from Sun Country (apparently they are a seasonal airline and that was the last flight of their season). So, there we sat.

How did we get home?  Emily and I went to the airport and ran from Airline counter to Airline counter comparing prices (yep, had to fork over your own money to get home, even though we had already purchased a ticket...)and travel schedule (think red-eyes with 3 layovers...)

We were supposed to get home Sunday at 2pm, but instead got home on Wednesday at 1am...

To add more fun, Reid was flying out Monday afternoon for a work trip.  Thankfully Grandpa saved the day and was able to drive down (IN THE BLIZZARD, how much more perfectly timed of the purchase of your new truck?!) and come to our rescue.

What a terrible feeling of role reversal for Reid and I.  He then became the one needing to prep and make sure all was in place to hand over the parenting baton...laundry, lunches, groceries, dinners, homework... Meanwhile he's crazy busy at work, just had 4 days of solo parenting.

All ended well with lots of trusting in the Lord. And taught this Mama a lot of how capable everyone is without her...I've trained them well ;)

My heart could have used a little more prepping.  Remember, I was just in Florida with the Bigs and Reid and missed Mason.  I had to say Bye to Mason, AGAIN.  I prepped my heart for 3 days to be away from the kiddos and Reid and ended up being away from the Kiddos for 6 days (that's a long time for a Mama of Littles) and Reid for 8!!

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger...and now we can add that to the memory books...

Here are the pictures of the beautiful resort and Reid kicking butt at Solo Parenting

Sun rising as we're about to take off

We got our coffees and we're ready for some sun

 I remember saying, well that went off without a hitch.  Our flight was early, luggage was the first to come down and no problem finding an uber...it was our foreshadowing for our coming home...

We were poolside by 945am Arizona time.  It was true desert weather.  Hot hot hot, but no humidity, in fact, the due point was NEGATIVE one day.  So much lotion!! and then it was nice and cool, even chilly, in the evenings.  Here's the link to our amazing resort

 What a guy, took off 2 days, to take on my role as a stay at home parent

 Getting dropped off at our room

 Cheers!

 Hot tubbin

 Dinner before Swimming

 Emma's swimming lessons--Dude crushes Daddy duty when I'm not around.  Bigs had already showered before they went to swimming lessons because it's a school night.  Reid did say "Mommy's going to wonder why we can't do all of this when she's home too..."

 Mornings are my favorite! Went for a walk around the grounds with Emily.  The resort had a Starbucks on site, so it was fun to treat ourselves to fancy coffee

 I heart the mountains

 A beautiful little cove we found that we think they have weddings at

 Where we spent our days.  Far left, a cold, oasis, mineral pool, middle is the adult pool and right is the pool. Toward the back you can see the waterslide.  So much fun, so many giggles!

 Updating his License picture after a Chiro appointment

 Happy Hour

 I think this was when we got word that the snow in MN had started

 Hot Tubbin

 Roomies

 Cute little Cactus

 Fancy steak dinner night....that did not sit well with me...ooof, this winter and the pukes...

 Snow storm Movie night, testing out the new TV daddy mounted by himself in the basement!

 The Historic April Snow

 I think this is when I got word that our Flight for the next day was cancelled...

 So, off to Saturday afternoon Mass I went, with Grandma. Beautiful church.  Hard to see in the picture, but the windows behind the alter look out on to the Mountains.  As we were walking in to church we met a Lady from Wisconsin who had a daughter that lives in Wayzata.  Small world

 Catching the sunset and watching some prom goers take pictures.  It's weird imagining yourself growing up somewhere other than where you did...

 Handing off the Baton to Gramps!

 Oasis-Mineral Pool complete with the waterfall

 Picture perfect Cactus outside our room

 Appreciated the extra pictures Grandpa sent!

 Joey was our awesome play by play guy. Victoria took the cake, until it didn't stop snowing when they thought it would, so the next day, Maple Grove took the cake

 Emma's last Catechesis of the Good Shepherd class was Tuesday morning, and the parents get to come in and take a look at what they did throughout the year.  I was a so sad to miss it.  Thankfully Grandpa is the next best fill in to fully appreciate this program.

Please note what a great job the big sisters did at making sure Emma had an appropriate outfit on, with her hair done!

I cried when I received this picture.  I think we were finally prepping to pack up and head to the airport for our long trip home.

 Emma's awesome teachers Miss Mindy and Miss Justine

 Grandpa delivered my car keys to Emily's car at Grandma's condo.  My awesome brother was headed there after work to shovel our cars out so we wouldn't be stuck in the parking lot at 1am when we got home.  It takes a village.

Thankful for our awesome sitter with Mason so Grandpa was able to spend some extra time with Emma.  Special lunch, I think she whispered to Grandpa "Thank you for my date night"

 I cried when I got this picture too.  Thank you to my sitter, assuring me, Mason was doing just fine, on day 6 without his Mama

 Dessert!

 I love this picture of the kiddos waiting for the Bigs to get off the bus.  Mason, was obsessed with the snow

 The final tally

 I think this is maybe out of order, but a fun last night we went in to town for dinner and the BEST Gelato.

 One last lunch at the swim up bar

 The Resort was SO accommodating and let us extend our stay 2 more nights and matched our packaged price we had gotten when we originally booked.  Getting ready to catch our Uber to stay at a cheaper hotel closer to the airport.

Emily and I also encountered the NICEST people when we went in to town to the airport to figure out our return flight home.  An Uber driver gave us her personal number and a reduced price.  A lady at the ticket counter gave us her personal number to text if any other flights came up with availability earlier than our planned one home.  God's extra blessings along the way.  You just have to be open to seeing them

 Face timing with the fam

 This was my last few minutes before finally packing up to head home.  The cancelled flight, extended stay, wasn't as glorious as you might imagine.  I missed my babies and my husband and my home.  In the end it all worked out.  With lots of prayers...the morning of the day we were flying home was when Southwest was in the headlines for the engine blowing through a window and killing a passenger...we were flying home on Southwest...thankfully I packed my rosary.

 Reid didn't miss a beat.  He instructed Grandpa to make sure the sign was out when I got home...

 When I was repacking lunches I came across these adorable notes the girls wrote for each other...they totally ROSE to the occasion

 Complete with a joke on the back, just like Mommy and Daddy do

 "Why did the cookie got to the doctor?"

"It was feeling crummy"

and that's a wrap

Stay tuned for more catch up of Reid's birthday, Food Poisoning and Sally's Birthday, and the glorious ordinary in between it all.

Thank you again to my Mom (and George) for the wonderful trip. Reid, Grandpa, Joey and all of those that text and called and offered to help and step in, it really means so much!!!

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