Fun in Phoenix

Oh my goodness were we ready to be out of town for a couple of days. To celebrate our vacation Jackson had the world's strangest breakfast: a hotdog.

A hotdog for breakfast!

Our flights went well and before we knew it we were in Phoenix. We grabbed our rental car and headed to our hotel. We made our way to the pool in no time.

Happy Jackson!

We spent a lot of time on this slide

Great view

 

The view from the "adult pool" was not ugly either

  

I loved this cactus.

This was probably the laziest trip we have ever had. We pretty much went to the pool and went to get food. Those were our two activities. We made it to the gym and did some shopping but for the most part we were bums! 

Jackson at The Keg- yum!



THIS VIEW!!!!!!!

 

Butterfield's Pancake House- YUM!





The swim up bar was lovely

What did I tell you? Food and pool. That was our routine from Thursday until Saturday afternoon. When the sky turned gray we headed for our car to move to our new hotel.

Storm rolling in...

Trees falling!



Trees were down all over

WHOA!

It turns out we lived through a monsoon! Who knew? It just felt like a pop-up thunderstorm to a couple of hoosiers. Anyway, we made it to our downtown hotel in the "monsoon" and settled in to ride out the storm. The good people of Arizona just cannot deal with a little rain. There were more wrecks on the roadways than there is when we have feet of snow on the ground in Indiana!

Since the rain shortened our Saturday we made sure that Sunday was a good day of fun. We got up early (easy to do when you're three hours ahead of their time zone normally) and went out for a hike in Tempe.

The view from an errant climb

I always tell people that I am bad a directions. This is going to be updated to "Jackson is bad at directions" because he got us lost on our hike and had us climb a peak that wasn't on our trail.

My iPhone let me down on this one

This photo does not even remotely show was a steep climb this was that we did for no reason. ARG!

Even with rain this place is dry

Jackson in a hole?

"Never stop exploring"

I love the desert.

Pano from the top of our hike

The view of downtown

More mountains in the distance

What is a hike without silly selfies?!

After being lazy bums for a couple of days it felt great to hike. I love that in middle of the city you can do such great hiking. We love it down here. I also wanted to burn all of my energy before sitting in four hours of tax seminars on a Sunday during football season.

Sadly our fun had to come to an end when Jackson caught his delayed flight home (not getting to bed until 3 a.m. Indiana time and still made it for a 9 a.m. appointment- what a trooper!). I'm in Phoenix until Wednesday night at a tax conference so the fun has ended for me, too! HA! ;)

 

 

 

 

 

Lately...

We've had a lot going on and nothing going on at the same time which is odd. I'm just doing a dump of all the photos on my iPhone so that I don't miss anything.

First, a little bragging. Jackson has lost his touch at checkers.

I beat Jackson in checkers. AGAIN.

We finally, finally, finally sold our house! We moved out on September 13th and closed on September 26th. We moved a little early because we had work commitments tying us up. We're house-sitting for Susan while she does some global and national travel.

MacKenzie waiting on her Mommy to come home!

MacKenzie made the adjustment quickly. It feels a little funny not to own my home anymore after NINE years, but I'm more relieved. Thank you to my Mom for going to closing for us as we were in Arizona vacationing when the buyer's lender finally got things around. I've decided that I want to forget this horrid process and will not be memorializing it on my blog.

MacKenzie got to visit with Uncle Aaron!

My brother Aaron has a new "friend" who lives in our area so we all went to dinner near Geist. It was fun to hang out with him; we unfortunately rare do that.

 

We also got to have dinner with Ms. Josslyn Bates who is just getting so big! We introduced the Bates family to egg nachos. It was a success.

Baby Josslyn is sitting up already!

Bates and Jackson hard at work "cooking" dinner

Other than some dinners with friends and family here and there we've just been working and getting ready for our trip to Hawaii in the near future. Hooray!

MacKenzie settling in with Grammy

"Soccer" with the Pfield Fam

We had our monthly dinner with the Porterfield family. Those kiddos are just getting so big!!

Heidi and Jocelin sharing a moment

Jackson made a basil shrimp and rice dish. It was amazing. We had fresh basil from my friend Amber's garden that inspired the dinner. Jackson could own a restaurant serving just that shrimp dish!


Jackson playing soccer with Jax, Jocelin and Gunner!

Jackson is not kicking Jocelin. I promise. He was kicking the ball, but the way her hair falls in this photo looks like she's been hit. I love the lower photo showing Gunner watching and the ball passing by the goalkeeper, Jax.

Sharing a little dessert... :)

Heidi, of course, made an awesome chocolate dessert that we all enjoyed. Thanks for having us, Porterfield family. We look forward to seeing you again soon!

Labor Day weekend...

We had a pretty quiet time recently. After we got home from Vegas I came down with a bug that has been going around Muncie and felt less than human for a good couple of days. Thankfully that passed and we were able to get on the Porterfield family's schedule. A few times, actually!

We went over for dinner on Thursday evening. Jackson made kabobs and potato salad. Heidi made PIZOOKIES! (I love that girl for a number of reasons. Her dessert making skills certainly make that list!) We had not seen the little ones for what felt like years so we were pretty excited to see them.

Feelin' a little shy...

This doll LOVES her t.v. shows

Jossi is the sweetest little face to see after a long day at work. She greeted me at the door with her arms open for a hug and a "Hiiiiiiiii Jenn!!!" I scooped her up and gladly accepted my hug. :)

Heidi got her summer wish and had a new patio added to their place. It is an awesome addition and we enjoyed getting to have dessert out there.

Dessert time on the new patio!

She's got a little something on her chin

Action shot of pizookie enjoyment

Jax and Jackson played "soccer" in the yard for about an hour that evening. Needless to say Jackson slept like a baby that evening.

S'mores!

We were back over the next evening for s'mores on the patio. The kids were at their grandparent's house so it was just us adults. Once we got the fire going it was pretty awesome. I told you that I love that new patio.

School?! Already?!

We weren't there, of course, but I did get to cutest photo of Jax's first day of Pre-K. I love how happy he looks and that Jocelin wouldn't get out of the photo and insisted on holding his lunch. What sweet kiddos. We hear he had a great day!

Tea as sweet as Jocelin? Never :)

I had the day off work on Wednesday for a doctor's appointment so I got to have lunch with Heidi and Jocelin at McAlister's. It was lovely!

In other news, MacKenzie has looked especially adorable recently so I'll include a few shots of her. You're welcome.

Comfy

ADORABLE