Rob has been traveling quite a bit for work lately. When he told me he had another business trip (to Scottsdale) coming up, I was a little bummed because he would be gone again! He then suggested we all tag along and join him on the trip. At first I wasn't sure because it sounded like a lot of work to travel with a two and a half year old and a two month old. (We've never flown with Leah either). After further discussion we decided to go for it! Arizona or bust!! Oh boy - what have we gotten ourselves into?
Holy packing! Who knew we needed to bring so much STUFF for a 5 day trip! Stroller, car seat, diapers, bottles, formula, clothes, bath stuff, swim suits and the list goes on! We decided to bring Mason's carseat since that is where he sleeps, but for Leah we opted to rent one from the car rental place to make it easier. We had enough 'stuff' as it was. Also, as much as I wanted to bring our big camera, we just didn't have the room. My iPhone was going to have to suffice to capture our memories.
We had an 8:30 am flight on Wednesday so we needed to leave the house at 6:00 am. Have you ever tried getting out of the house before sunrise with 2 kids? Chaos, but we did it! I was SO nervous about our flight and how Leah and Mason would do (since it was a three and a half hour flight). We checked the stroller and carseat at the gate and boarded the plane. I'm sure the people around us were not thrilled when we sat down! I know I used to dread sitting by kids/babies on flights. I am so happy to say both kids were amazing! No meltdowns and no crying...at all! Leah entertained herself with the iPad and coloring books and MJ was a mellow little dude! He ate and slept. We did have an incident that he completely leaked through his diaper (like completely soaked). Not sure where all that pee came from! Luckily I had a change of clothes for him! I had to change him on the changing table in the tiny little airplane bathroom. The flight attendants were cute and gave Leah and Mason their first set of 'wings' and a certificate acknowledging their first flight (and all of the flight attendants signed it).
Mason got his wings!
Leah keeping herself occupied
Leah and Mason's Certificate
Me and Rob on the flight
Once we landed, we were ready to get off the plane! At the Phoenix airport you have to take a shuttle to the car rental facility. What a pain in the butt! We had to drag all of our luggage, the stroller/carseat, our carry-ons and the kids on a bus that took us on a two mile ride. Did I mention it was 100 degrees outside? At this point Mason decided to have his first meltdown. The kid was hot and hungry and wanted to let everyone know. Enterprise (the car rental place) was short on cars and they didn't have the initial car we had reserved. They upgraded us to a fully loaded Lincoln MKX. I could get used to driving that! After getting situated with the car, we were on our way.
Our Ride!
Hot...Hot...Hot
This was a business trip for Rob so he needed to go into the office right away. Boo! (His work has an office in Scottsdale). We dropped him off and came to the hotel around noon (even though check-in wasn't until 4:00 pm) and our room wasn't ready. They said to come back in an hour or so. I was on my own with the two kids so we went to Target. I picked up some stuff for our room (snacks, water, juice boxes, etc.). By the time we finished up at Target and drove back to the hotel, our room was ready. I spent some time unpacking and getting situated. Our room was poolside which was great! We hung out for awhile and grabbed dinner at the resort. I didn't feel like venturing out by myself with 2 kids. Leah seemed to be excited that we were in Arizona. She said 'HI' to every single person we saw...hotel staff, business men, tourists, valet guys...everyone. It was kind of cute though because it seemed to brighten everyone's day. She did this throughout our entire trip. Rob ended up working until 8:00 pm on that first day. The whole time change (2 hours behind) really screwed us up! Mason was sleeping by 6:45 pm. Mason slept great the entire trip! He slept between 9 and 10 hours every night, but due to the time change, he was up at 4:45 am. He did take a bottle and go back to bed.
Rob had to work a full day on Thursday but he was able to meet us for lunch. When he got done for the day, we took the kids to the pool. They loved it and had so much fun.
Rob received a ton of recommendations for places to eat so for dinner that night we went to Blanco Tacos and Tequila. It was ah-may-zing!!! So good! Even though we were finished with dinner by 8:00 pm, everyone was ready for bed (with the time change). Rob had to work Friday too, but luckily he was wrapped up by 1:00 pm. He was done! So now we could enjoy the rest of the trip as a family! We again took the kids to the pool and swam around. We went and had dinner around 6:00 at another Mexican restaurant called TeePee (that was a recommendation). It was pretty good - not as good as our meal the night before.
Saturday was our first day that we had the entire day to ourselves and could do whatever we wanted! If we had planned better, we would have gotten tickets to the Cubs/Diamondbacks game (but we didn't know the Cubs were in town). We decided to go to a Ghost Town! It was about a 30 minute drive but it was SO fun! I didn't think I'd like it, but I did. There were lots of horses and cowboys! There were little shops, a jail, a church and lots of other things. Here are some pictures! They also had an old saloon where we had lunch.
After lunch we took a drive through the mountains and both kids fell asleep. The scenery in Arizona is amazing, but I don't think I could handle the heat!
Mason having fun in the mountains
After taking in all of the views, we headed back towards Scottsdale and stopped at the 'Old Town' area where they had lots of shops, restaurants and bars. I love that everywhere has happy hour. I wish we had it in Illinois! We stopped at another Mexican restaurant and had half price margaritas and guacamole. It was such a cute area.
After we left we needed to check-in to the next hotel. We decided to change resorts just to switch it up a little bit. The next hotel was really nice and we had a poolside room again. After chilling out for awhile we went to grab dinner. No Mexican! We went to a place called the Yard House. The food there was great too! Rob was happy - they had over 130 beers on tap. We had a very long day and called it a night! Leah was falling asleep at the dinner table.
Sunday was our last day in Arizona (and we were ready to come home). Five days away from home is a long time when you are traveling with two small children. Leah must have told us at least 10 times a day that she wanted to go home. Our flight wasn't until 5:00 pm so we had some time to kill. We drove through downtown Phoenix and then stopped for lunch. We got to the airport in plenty of time. We stopped and had a drink before going to our gate. Once we were at the gate, we happened to run into one of my childhood friends! He lives in Arizona and works for Southwest. I haven't seen him in about 15 years (but we are Facebook friends). It was nice to take a few minutes and catch up! The flight home was pretty uneventful. Thank god!!! Mason was an angel and slept almost the entire time. Leah again kept herself occupied but got a little crabby towards the end because she was so tired. Traveling with my two little monsters was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was envisioning the worst case scenario, but we were pleasantly surprised (but I am not ready to run out and do it again anytime soon)! It was nice to get in a quick little getaway with my family before I go back to work in one week from today.....sniff, sniff, sniff!!
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