Remember how I mentioned the neighborhood kids were playing together every day and summer plans kept being canceled? When I asked my children what they would really miss one of the things I thought I could make happen and social isolate at the same time: swimming. Using the money from our canceled 3 day Bahamas cruise, we rented an Airbnb in Arizona for two weeks. Even though the children are still distance learning we decided to go now before the weather was hot enough to melt us the minute we stepped outside. We drove straight through — I’m pretty sure the longest my children have ever gone in a car in one day — complete with our dog Piper. Having a pool in your backyard with a huge fence is pretty amazing! Our family used that swimming pool every single day and loved the different flora and fauna and NEWS flash! Piper is a really good dog when she’s not around Maisie (who is staying with my parents while we are away)! It would be a shocker if the dog trainer hadn’t told us they would both be good dogs if we separated them. My parents reported Maisie behaved really well too. And the children loved having a dog along on a trip. I think the dog would be fine with the children’s suggestion that we should buy the house.
Things we enjoyed while being there other than the pool and dog:
1.) Saguaros and other cacti
2.) Flower blossoms (some trees in the neighborhood literally blanketed the ground with them)
3.) Fruit trees in the yard
4.) A well stocked home, including a Ninja blender even better than ours to make nice cold drinks
5.) Seeing birds we weren’t used to and watching how interested Piper was in chasing them
6.) The Breakfast Kitchen Bar's churro waffles and having an In & Out Burger close by
7.) The pool noodles we bought at Costco and snorkeling gear we bought in Key Largo
8.) An appreciation for how good the water and internet service is in our home town -- something to go home to is actually quite satisfying
9.) Time together to play more games. We have had a lot more time available to us with everything being canceled but our vacation home was so much easier to take care of than our own home. So, we had time to try out games we've never played before such as one my friend Maryann recommended. One night we traded places in the family and pretended to be other people. The two males traded and Michelle and Kate did a fantastic job representing each other and Natalie and I traded as well. It was pretty hilarious to see just how well we know each other -- and how exhausting it could be to pretend you are someone you are not.
I have to give a huge shout out to my family for being so wonderful on Mother's Day. I woke up with blurry vision and soon had the worst migraine of my life. Hubby went to Walgreens for me to buy Excedrine which helped a ton but I was mostly just in bed all day with my eyes closed or full on asleep. The children were kind enough to be understanding that Mom was down for the count and Hubby did allll the things to take care of the 5 of us and the dog and even helped me make gluten free/dairy free cake as a special Mother's Day dessert. Thank goodness all I needed was some medicine the next day to get going. And God bless my spouse for going above and beyond.
I wanted to include a little something about Danny's elementary school graduation. It was the very best ceremony we could have had given the situation. The principal and D's teacher both made me cry. Then there was a video message that included every teacher Danny has had at BMES since kindergarten. It brought tears to my eyes just to tell my mom about it after the fact. There was so much love shared over that Zoom meeting. I am truly grateful to be so close to wonderful schools. I know it isn't how my son wanted to end his elementary school days but I am grateful to all those who put time into trying to make the day special for their students. We celebrated with a copycat Sonic slush that day that was way too strong for me but the boy enjoyed. At that moment, that was all that mattered to me.
Most days consisted of meals, distance learning, pool time, screen time, and family game time. Often all four children would be working on their homework or playing prodigy on all the devices they could use which left me to exercise out of having nothing else to do. lol. I'm very glad that was the case because our last day in Arizona we woke up before dawn to hike Camelback Mountain. I have never climbed so many rocks in one morning in my life and it was so much fun. You could tell most of the hikers there did this regularly and I could see why. Even though I was out of shape (thank goodness for the swimming and exercise room the last two weeks) and improperly dressed (I ordered some athletic pants with a cell phone pocket as Hubby drove us back to the house) the experience was incredible. One man we met turns 85 the same day Danny turns 11 next month and has been hiking Camelback for 28 years. He and his friends are going to hike Squaw Peak to celebrate his birthday. A woman who I had heard singing prettily on the way down as we headed up was coming up again as we came down. She does the hike twice in a row 3x/week and seemed to be the type of person that is incredibly beautiful inside and out. I was glad we hiked it the day before we left because then we didn't have to move much while we were in the car for 14 hours. The day after we got home I was still a little sore when climbing the stairs and wanted to go back to Camelback Mountain. I am sure there are hikes like that around here and I am determined to hike more this summer than we have in the past.
I couldn't resist the chance to see my wonderful friend, Chelsea, before we left Pheonix, and ended up heading to Joe's Italian Ice (like the one we really liked in Anaheim -- now we've been to all 2 locations). Sometimes being able to talk to a friend that you haven't seen in person for years on a lovely day is truly a wonderful gift.
Thank you, Arizona, for being you and helping us have a wonderful time.
6.) The Breakfast Kitchen Bar's churro waffles and having an In & Out Burger close by
7.) The pool noodles we bought at Costco and snorkeling gear we bought in Key Largo
8.) An appreciation for how good the water and internet service is in our home town -- something to go home to is actually quite satisfying
9.) Time together to play more games. We have had a lot more time available to us with everything being canceled but our vacation home was so much easier to take care of than our own home. So, we had time to try out games we've never played before such as one my friend Maryann recommended. One night we traded places in the family and pretended to be other people. The two males traded and Michelle and Kate did a fantastic job representing each other and Natalie and I traded as well. It was pretty hilarious to see just how well we know each other -- and how exhausting it could be to pretend you are someone you are not.
I have to give a huge shout out to my family for being so wonderful on Mother's Day. I woke up with blurry vision and soon had the worst migraine of my life. Hubby went to Walgreens for me to buy Excedrine which helped a ton but I was mostly just in bed all day with my eyes closed or full on asleep. The children were kind enough to be understanding that Mom was down for the count and Hubby did allll the things to take care of the 5 of us and the dog and even helped me make gluten free/dairy free cake as a special Mother's Day dessert. Thank goodness all I needed was some medicine the next day to get going. And God bless my spouse for going above and beyond.
I wanted to include a little something about Danny's elementary school graduation. It was the very best ceremony we could have had given the situation. The principal and D's teacher both made me cry. Then there was a video message that included every teacher Danny has had at BMES since kindergarten. It brought tears to my eyes just to tell my mom about it after the fact. There was so much love shared over that Zoom meeting. I am truly grateful to be so close to wonderful schools. I know it isn't how my son wanted to end his elementary school days but I am grateful to all those who put time into trying to make the day special for their students. We celebrated with a copycat Sonic slush that day that was way too strong for me but the boy enjoyed. At that moment, that was all that mattered to me.
Most days consisted of meals, distance learning, pool time, screen time, and family game time. Often all four children would be working on their homework or playing prodigy on all the devices they could use which left me to exercise out of having nothing else to do. lol. I'm very glad that was the case because our last day in Arizona we woke up before dawn to hike Camelback Mountain. I have never climbed so many rocks in one morning in my life and it was so much fun. You could tell most of the hikers there did this regularly and I could see why. Even though I was out of shape (thank goodness for the swimming and exercise room the last two weeks) and improperly dressed (I ordered some athletic pants with a cell phone pocket as Hubby drove us back to the house) the experience was incredible. One man we met turns 85 the same day Danny turns 11 next month and has been hiking Camelback for 28 years. He and his friends are going to hike Squaw Peak to celebrate his birthday. A woman who I had heard singing prettily on the way down as we headed up was coming up again as we came down. She does the hike twice in a row 3x/week and seemed to be the type of person that is incredibly beautiful inside and out. I was glad we hiked it the day before we left because then we didn't have to move much while we were in the car for 14 hours. The day after we got home I was still a little sore when climbing the stairs and wanted to go back to Camelback Mountain. I am sure there are hikes like that around here and I am determined to hike more this summer than we have in the past.
I couldn't resist the chance to see my wonderful friend, Chelsea, before we left Pheonix, and ended up heading to Joe's Italian Ice (like the one we really liked in Anaheim -- now we've been to all 2 locations). Sometimes being able to talk to a friend that you haven't seen in person for years on a lovely day is truly a wonderful gift.
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