Vacation Time!

I have been saying for about four years now “I need a vacation!”.  A REAL vacation.  A vacation that doesn’t involve lugging carseats, pack-and-plays, goldfish crackers, or packing/unpacking suitcases for four people.  A vacation that involves laying by the pool, sleeping in, reading books, drinking wine, and generally doing a whole lot of nothing.  This month, I got my wish!  Jeff and I took our first kid-free vacation since Ben was born and it was GLORIOUS!

We  had been planning to take our nerdy selves on a trip to Florida to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter but tickets to Florida were expensive and I hadn’t done enough planning to make everything happen.  I could see my kid-free vacation slipping away so we decided to go on the one vacation we knew that we could make happen.  Jeff’s Grandma Kay has a place in Fountain Hills, Arizona and the promise of free lodging,  nicer weather, a pool and a hottub was enough for us.  We knew weren’t the only ones who needed an escape from Minnesota so we recruited Katie, Chris, and Brad to come along with us.

I am going to recount the trip here mostly for myself so I can have it as part of my blog book, so I’m sorry if it gets a little long.  Skip all my ramblings and check out the pics if you want the Cliff’s Notes version!  If you’ve got some time to kill, read on…………………………

Our first day there, the weather was only okay but I marched myself out to the pool and sat there alone determined to get some sun through the clouds.  I ended up in the hot tub but it was still nice.  After that, we hit up a place called Crackerjacks so the boys could hit some golf balls and go a few round in the batting cages.   Katie joined in for the cages while I continued to play photographer (as most of you know, sports aren’t really my thing).  I was along for the ride and mainly for our next destination which was a late lunch at a nearby sushi restaurant called RA.  Katie and Chris had been there on previous trips and said they had an awesome happy hour and good sushi and they weren’t lying.  I’m pretty much a sushi wuss and only eat the rolls that have crab and shrimp stuffing, but I did finally sort-of master the art of using chopsticks so I’m proud of myself for that!  As he does nearly every time we are at a restaurant with chopsticks, Jeff honed his walrus skills.  He is so embarrassing but I think now its to the point where I would miss it if he didn’t do it.  What is wrong with me?!

Later that night, we headed to the airport to pick up Brad who had to fly in a day later.  We stopped for dinner at a yummy Mexican place on the way home and Jeff and I rocked our “team marriage” look for this pic.

People are always making fun of us for frequently dressing in the same color, but I swear to you we don’t do it on purpose.  In this case, I only had one warm pullover with me and it happened to be the same color as the shirt Jeff had been wearing all day.  The next day I walked out from getting dressed in my blue sundress only to see Jeff in his blue golf shirt.  Dang it.  Team Marriage it is then!

The next day was sunny and warm so  I took my white legs and my ziploc-covered Kindle down to the pool for a little sun.  The boys were going golfing that afternoon so Jeff joined me by the pool and cleaned up his golf clubs.  Katie and I relaxed while the boys were at golf but then headed to the club house to have a drink and appetizers and catch a few pics of the boys on the 18th hole.

We were now on the third day of the trip and while I had done my fair share of eating, drinking and laying around, I hadn’t done anything very Arizona-y or anything very active.  We had been thinking about going on a hike, but I must not have had it in mind when I packed because I hadn’t bothered to bring tennis shoes.  Katie must have been on the same wavelength, so we both headed to Target to get some cheap shoes good enough for a hike. 

We selected the “moderate” trail at a nearby park called Fort McDowell and spent a few hours amongst the cacti.  Jeff was determined to see a rattlesnake but the closest he got was the one in the cage at the visitors center.  I was plenty happy seeing nothing but a few weird bugs and some tiny lizards.  When not trying to scare up a rattlesnake, Jeff spent his time hunting for a walking stick.  He finally did find one as you can see in the pic.

Since Brad had missed the trip to RA sushi a few days earlier, we headed back that night for more sushi and followed it up with some mini-golf.

I got a little lax taking pictures for the last few days of the trip.  We had a day at the pool, hit up a sports bar to watch the Masters and just enjoyed our last few days of no obligations.  Here are some random pics taken throughout the vacation while we were hanging out at home.  We played a lot of card games, had a lot of drinks and of course had a lot of fun!

I have to say a huge thank you to Jeff’s great Uncle Tom & Great Aunt Geri.  It ended up that Jeff’s grandma’s kitchen was going to be in the middle of a remodeling project during our trip and Tom and Geri allowed us to stay at their condo instead.  Thanks for making our AZ vacation possible!  And another thanks to Jill & Mike for leaving us a great list of places to eat and things to do!

You may be wondering what our kids were doing while we were off playing in Arizona.  They were back at our house having a BLAST with my parents and my sister Ali.  Every time we called to talk to them during the trip they barely wanted to say hi and seemed like they didn’t miss us in the slightest!  They got to go to Chuck E Cheese, The Children’s Museum and went to a hotel for a night for some swimming and water sliding.  When they weren’t out running around with the kids, my parent’s did so many nice things for us at the house like rake our entire yard, tons of laundry (I am always behind), and a few little fix-it projects that we hadn’t gotten around to.  THANK YOU mom, dad and Ali for everything!!!!