We naturally woke up around 5/515am since it felt like 7am MN time. I had researched a few trails ahead of time, and the one we had decided on was under construction...wah wah.
We lucked out and made a last minute decision and it turned out to be awesome.
For those visiting AZ we hiked the North Mountain, trail 44 and park at the Quechan area...
Because we had to reshuffle plans, we made it to the middle of the mountain to watch the sunrise, we were hustling. Thanks to Reid for carrying Emma for a handful of that portion so we could make it in time. It was worth the hustle
I'm definitely a sunrise chaser over a sunset chaser. I love both, but there's something extra miraculous about the sunrise. I think I converted a few...natural, no pose pics to follow
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and then we continued to hike a bit more. Then Reid and Sally kept trucking along and slowly Emma and Elizabeth and I would decide to go too. Elizabeth, Emma and I got 3/4 up the mountain, Reid and Sally made it to the top. It was so awesome!
Probably for the better that the girls had never hiked before so they didn't know what to expect or what to compare it to. It was a bit challenging near the top, but the girls were rockstars!
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Faith can move mountains ;)
Can you spot Reid and Sally at the tip top?
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Early bird catches the worm...we were back in time for pool opening at 8am!
Loves to snuggle up in the shade, I'll take it...as long as I can stay in the sun :)
Two peas in the pool
about to head down the waterslide...Emma will have to wait until she can swim without her wings, almost snuck her through ;)
Chillaxin'
Happy Hour!
Cheering for the girls down the waterslide
Phoenix is the 5th largest City in the US. It doesn't seem like that because it's so spread out, but we did feel it during the rush hour traffic. We knew we were in for a bit of a drive and a later night so we encouraged the girls to nap in the car on the way to dinner at Rustler's Rooste
Long story short, traffic was crazy town, and Reid found out why...when we were 3 miles from our destination traffic was moving about 1 car a minute...a mile down the road there was a bit of road rage with some weapons involved...luckily we didn't see or hear anything. However, while waiting in a long line of cars we did provide some help to an emergency situation with a choking baby. They were on the phone with 911 and couldn't give them the specifics on their location. Reid had his GPS up and was able to zoom in to give them specifics. A few minutes later we saw the ambulance arrive in the rear-view mirror. Perhaps all part of God's plan???
A crazy big Cactus along the way. We had a contest of who could spot the Cactus with the most "arms" I think this was the winner by mom!
They dropped me off at the door to get our name on the list for a table. Apparently the parking lot was really big and they got shuttled up to the door :)
Their van
The setting of the restaurant is up pretty high so we got to catch the sunset while waiting for our table
a pretty cool place...we stumbled upon an area that I think they have for weddings and events
Lots of entertainment throughout Rustler's while we were waiting for our table
The Bull that greets you at the Entrance
You can even slide down to your table! [VIDEO]
Our table was worth the wait, beautiful view!
Reid and I went all out with our meal! yum!
To our surprise you get cotton candy at the end of every meal!
Yum Yum Yum
The drive home was much quicker and then we all crashed and slept hard from a great day of being tourists!
We decided to take the girls on another Spring Break Trip. We had done some brainstorming when we were in Destin last year about possible locations for a future trip.
Reid worked crazy hard during peek season for work and in the midst declared, YEP! We're going on Spring Break, let's get it booked :)
We decided on Arizona.
1. The girls have never seen the Mountains before
2. At this age all they need is warm weather and a pool
3. Pretty easy to fly there
4. Relatively reasonable price-wise
Mason did not make the cut, for one more year. Emma was 3 when she went on her first trip. Mason is a great little boy, but 2 is a hard age to change up schedules and go with the flow. Nana and Grandpa graciously accepted our ask if they would hang with our little man.
We surprised the girls with the news during Christmas break. We didn't want it to be a Christmas present, as we didn't want it to become expected each year. They made it easier to surprise because not once did they ask if we'd go on another trip. Love that! We also debated not telling them and surprising them the morning of. But, we decided against that, because we feel part of the excitement of a trip is the planning and anticipation. Sally talked about in the future that she agreed it's fun to be excited and count down, but we could always keep the location a surprise :)
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It was definitely harder this year to leave Mason behind as I knew he would have fun with parts of it, and he kind of understood that we were all leaving. I also love me some pictures and hate that he's not included. Oh well, one more year :)
A similar timeframe as last year, we flew out on a Sunday morning and came home on a Thursday evening. Glad this year it wasn't Holy Week when we were traveling.
Last year the security line was crazy long so we wanted to be sure we were to the airport a full two hours before our flight. We breezed through checking our bags in and security and had time to hang out. Thank you Gramps for waking up early to drop us off at the airport!
Poor Sally had a bit of PTSD from the last time she flew....coming home from Destin with the stomach flu. When we walked in the doors to the airport she declared, "Mom, I don't feel so good, I might throw up." Thankfully it passed and was a mix of needing some breakfast, nerves and excitement. I prayed too many prayers to hopefully not have any sickness during the trip. (Thankfully God waited until after to have Mason's Febrile Seizure :))
Miss Emma testing out the carseat bag while we were packing
I may be looking a bit tan...I took my sister's trick and got a spray tan so that I wasn't so MN skinned when wearing my suit or summer clothes. Mixed reviews on it...
Ready to rock!
Elizabeth brought along her Flat Stanley and he met a friend at the airport :)
Checking out our plane. We're not loyal to one Airline and that helps us save a little bit when buying tickets. I often buy two one way tickets, sometimes with different airlines. We flew Southwest on the way out and American Airlines to return. Both went perfectly!
Seat Buddies
Seat Buddies
Ready for Takeoff!
at the Craigmile Crew you're not allowed to have gum until you're five. Emma was excited that I made an exception for her while she was flying, she's only 6 months away!
Love that we don't allow much screentime, so when we do use it, it works!
Back home, Mason was enjoying his two on one attention. He and Gramps helped shovel away all the snow!
Most hotel/resort websites make it seem a bit better than it is. With our resort, I felt the website didn't do it justice. We really loved where we stayed. I would highly recommend it!! Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs
[VIDEO] of us driving in to our resort and getting in to our room...this was after being there a few days
They were excited to see all of the Cacti and touch a few!
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You know how we love our TripAdvisor, Reid picked a great pizza place for our first meal out. It was delicious, Spinato's Pizza. We were ready for bed early, AZ is 2 hours behind MN time. Knowing we would like stay operating on MN time for one more day, we planned to Hike the next morning to catch the sunrise at 6:30am (Which felt like 8:30am MN time)
Mason helping to deliver a letter to be mailed
These pics are from multiple days, but thought I'd throw them all in at once. Swinging with Grandpa
Added another notch in our belt...one I'd be happy to do without.
Mason had a Febrile Seizure Saturday night. As you may or may not know, they are very common in children under that age of 5/6. It's usually caused my a quick spike in a fever and has no correlation to Epilepsy.
Mason had a viral cold a few weeks ago and his cough has lingered for a bit.
Saturday after dinner Mason felt a bit warm and registered a 100 degree fever. Reid gave him some motrin.
About 30-40 minutes later, Reid was doing bedtime songs and prayers and Mason stiffened up and started seizing in Reid's arms. Reid quickly called for me to come. I raced upstairs and saw Mason eyes wide open, but unresponsive.
I grabbed him out of Reid's arms, as it appeared he was choking and started swiping the back of his throat and hitting his back to get out whatever he may have been choking on. Shouted to Reid to call 911 and then Mason started turning blue.
I remembered his cough and thought that he possibly could have been choking on phlegm. I got out the blue nasal aspirator/bulb syringe and started suctioning phlegm out of his throat. He started breathing a little more normal and got his color back. THANK YOU JESUS
A few seconds? Minutes? later a handful of first responders, paramedics and EMTs arrived to help us out.
Mason's heart rate, oxygen level and blood pressure all checked out well. He started to come to a bit and respond to the new faces and activity.
Meanwhile, the sisters were instructed to go into Sally's room and say some prayers for Mason. They didn't see what was going on, but heard a few things. They watched out the window as they saw the Ambulance and first responders arrive. As well as all of the love and concern from our surrounding neighbors. I love our 'hood! Once things settled down, we had the girls come out so they could see Mason was OK and to see all of the awesome help and to not be afraid if they ever have to encounter these kind people again. A scary situation no doubt, but such valuable life lessons. This is real life!
I knew we were in for a trip to the ER, so I had Reid reach out to our sitter, Elizabeth, who just happened to be at our Neighbor's house. She came over with the extra kiddos so Reid and I could bring Mason to the ER. Thank you THANK YOU Elizabeth for rising above and coming to our help. I'm so SORRY Johnsons, for ruining your date night and stealing your sitter, we owe you!
We denied the ambulance ride since we both were able to go to the ER and it was only a few miles away.
Waiting to get sent back to a room...sending pictures to let people visually see he was doing ok
another non-shower day, in my pjs when the paramedics arrived...
"No wanna smile" He just got a haircut this day, so freaking adorable
We were advised to bring him in just his onesie so he didn't get too hot with the fever
Long story short Mason may have a touch of pneumonia which he's on amoxicillin in case he does have it and in case he has the bacterial kind. He also tested positive for Influenza B, which I was surprised about since he hasn't shown many of the typical symptoms.
Trying to stay awake to watch "Dunk it ball" March Madness...awaiting the chest X-Ray, the Strep test and the Influenza test
We arrived at the ER at 745pm and were back home by 10:30pm. I slept on the floor in Mason's room to keep an eye on him and to keep up with his doses of Motrin and Tylenol.
12 hours later he woke looking like this:
He's overall doing just fine, just a little extra grumpy as I'm sure he's achy.
So grateful for a happy ending, it can always be worse. Reid mentioned the next day, events like these cause you to reflect, am I living my life how I would like to? Are we raising our children how we had hoped? The answers were yes and yes, reaffirming that we wouldn't change a thing. Instilling a deep love of our Faith and the girls were able to concretely feel the peace and comfort you can receive from the Lord during a scary time. Proud parent moment hearing their side of the story and the prayers they each said!
Very appreciative for our little Village, the small army of people pouring out their love, prayers, willingness to help, providing food and genuine care and concern.
Thank you thank you thank you!
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24 hours after his seizure...he was being cra-cra. When he talks about baby, no, I am not pregnant, it's his little Baby John that he sleeps with :)
We had our follow up with our pediatrician today and he Checked out Great. Praise the Lord. Thankful and Grateful for continued healing and good health!!
We can't wait to have our Boogski Boogs back to his old self! Continued prayers the rest of our Crew continue to stay healthy!
