A Sedona Sister Trip

I was blessed to be able to spend the weekend with my little sister Heather. She lives in Scottsdale and is super busy with work and school. I am so proud of her, working hard to get her bachelor's from Arizona State. She only has two classes left and then she will be done! Hooray for Heather! However, with all of this stuff she is doing, it is hard for her to get away. So she asked me if I would come to her and spend the weekend. Uh...heck yeah!

I got there on Thursday, July 10. She picked me up at the airport and then we headed to dinner at Barrios, a neat, semi-fancy Mexican place in Phoenix. 

Then on Friday we hit the road and headed up to Prescott. We did lots of window shopping and made her commune with nature and took her on a short hike just out of the city. We also went to see Maleficent at the movie theater. I haven't been to a movie in eons, so it was nice to do something different.

On Saturday we drove the back way to Sedona. The road was really windy and by the time we got to Jerome we were both ready to get the heck out of the car and get some fresh air. Jerome is a town slapped to the side of mountain. It reminds me a lot of Virginia City.

Sedona is breath-taking. We originally tried to go to Slide Rock, but the park was closed because of the wild fire in the area, which had caused the water to get contaminated with E. Coli. Therefore, we went to the Holy Cross Chapel east of town. It is a historic landmark and has amazing views of the different buttes in the area.

After that we attempted a hike, but it was hot, hot, hot. We only walked about a 1/2 mile and then retreated to our hotel. The Orchards was right in the thick of all the shops and restaurants. We did some more shopping and then relaxed at the hotel. But as evening came, it was time to get out and do something again.

I talked her into another hike. This one was a lot longer, to Devil's Bridge. It was a four mile excursion to a free standing rock bridge. We started at about 6 pm. And as we were getting near the bridge, the rain came.

It really started to pour. Heather was not too happy about that, but I was reveling in the moisture...and this double rainbow!!

We were able to find shelter in a rock depression. Heather was a lot happier once the rain was pounding her. Another sister couple stayed under the shelter with them. That was neat to be able to meet someone new.  Finally, the rain stopped and we reached our destination at Devil's Bridge. On the way back it started to get dark quickly. I started to get concerned and really tried to pick up the pace to get back to the main road/trail. Heather didn't like the rain and I do not like to get lost. And getting lost in a wilderness was especially unappealing to me. We probably ran about a mile to get back to the main thoroughfare.

After our evening hike, we ate at another Mexican restaurant. We were kind of chilly because we were wet and the rain had really cooled down the entire city. It was nice and very unexpected.  Then Heather splurged on a whole lot of fudge. Curse you, Heather!!!

We drove back to her place on Sunday. On the way, we stopped at Montezuma's Castle National Monument. It was a pleasant surprise. Plus, I could get us in free with my National Park Pass.

We had a lazy Sunday afternoon, eating Chinese food, watching the World Cup, and way too many episodes of the Real Housewives. It was nice to spend time with Heather and make some memories together. I look forward to many more trips together. Maybe next time, our other sisters can join us. It would be even more fun.

Cake Pop Surprise

We got a cool surprise in the mail this week...fancy cake pops. Auntie Heather surprised us,as a belated birthday present for Raef, Zach, and Eli.  The kids loved them. They came in all these fun zoo animal shapes.

Open it Mommy!

Hmmm...yummy!

I heart cake pops.

When a Two Year-Old Decides

We went to St. George on Friday. It was a quick trip. Heather is here and she wanted to see the condo and the Grandma's.  We accomplished all those things.  The funny part of this was on the journey to St. George.  When we were five blocks from our destination I heard an urgent call from the back of the car.

"Go potty Mommy!" 

Eli's face was strained and he looked like he might burst.  I reassured him that we were almost there and stepped on it.  I didn't want an accident when I was so close to the end!

I pulled into the driveway and Eli started screaming. I unbuckled his seatbelt and he only got more irate.  I decided to ignore him and pulled both of the babies out of the car and put them in the condo. Then I went back out and Eli was still sitting in his seat and he was not happy.

"Eli, let's go potty! Come on."

I decided to extract him and I really had to. He went rigid and so I put him down. He proceeded to climb back into his seat.  What the heck was going on?  I asked Heather if she could understand him and she was just as stumped as I was. Finally, he put together a cohesive sentence.

"Eli potty on road!  Potty on road!"

What the heck?  Oh, then it finally dawned on me. He wanted to potty on the road.  When we drive to St. George and they have to go potty there is absolutely nowhere to stop. So, we just pull over somewhere and get the business done.  He wanted me to drive him out to a deserted road so that he could pee properly.  I offered to let him pee on the tree in front of our condo but he wouldn't have it.

I luckily had a lollipop and I bribed him that way.

You never know with that kid.

Lost in New York

New York City!

Heather and I spent 5 days in NYC. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn at Times Square. I even took a picture of it. If you look at those tall buildings in the background, ours is the red part of the building. We were on the 29th floor, on the backside, looking out on 39th street.


But I am jumping ahead a bit.

Several months ago Heather thought we should go on a trip. I suggested NYC and she loved the idea, so we just decided to do it and made it happen.

Mommy needed a vacation from this...

The plane ride went flawlessly. I even sat next to some interesting people. Here is Paul Taylor, the smooth jazz saxophone player. You can hear his stuff on any department store elevator.

Then as I was waiting for my plane in Baltimore, I ran into this kid.

Yep, from Suzuki Camp in SLC. His name is Tyler and he is from South Dakota. He thought I was completely nuts when I asked him to take a picture with me. I actually think he was terrified.

Then Joseph sat next to me on the way to NYC. He was a riot and we talked the whole time. He was surprising his girlfriend who is moving to LA. They have been together for 5 years.

Joseph, just propose to her already. Get a ring on QVC or something. GEEZ!!!

The guy next to him is Daniel Lewis and he is a Stake President in Albuquerque and an excellent hotel selector. That's right...he stayed at the Fairfield also. I shared a cab with him, and Joseph tagged along. Since President Lewis? Mr. Lewis? Dan? was going for business he paid for the ride. Wow! Things were working out great for me. He probably thought I was stalking him because we caught the same elevator going down and then I followed him and talked to him incessantly for the next 10 blocks before I got distracted by red velvet cake and said goodbye.

Heather's flight was a Memphis nightmare on Delta, so she switched to Continental and flew into Newark instead. Her luggage stubbornly refused to go to Newark and meandered aimlessly to Laguardia.

We did the whole tourist bus thing the next day and here are some of the sights.


Heather didn't have any change of clothing, so we did some shopping...which would constitute a perfect vacation for my sister. My perfect vacation is not having anyone call me Mom for a couple of days. It worked out perfectly for both of us.


We then met our cousin Lindsay for some shopping in the afternoon. **Look Lindsay!...your wildest dreams have come true and you are now on MY BLOG.

I learned a few things about Lindsay with this visit. 1. Her inner beast has emerged, so watch-out. You don't mess with a gal from Brooklyn. 2. Garrett is stroller trained. His hand has an exact spot where it goes in traffic, so it is pretty much there all the time...and 3. She does not like sushi.

Plus, you can always buy any 3 year-old's affection with chocolate milk and cookies.


In the evening we did a bus tour, and befriended Lukas. He is from Germany visiting with his much older parents. He sat with us and we talked the whole tour and then he came with us to dinner. While at dinner, the luggage delivery guy called and was about to leave the hotel because Fairfield Inn would not charge her bag to the room. I threatened the delivery guy with a large tip to not leave, but meet me on the nearest corner. I retrieved the bag and finally got rid of that stinky smell in my room made Heather very happy. Heather now had a change of clothing, plus four bottles of shampoo, four bottles of conditioner, 8 pairs of shoes, 2 bars of soap, 3 bottles of perfume, blow dryer, clothes, clothes, clothes, and some clothes, along with her bathroom sink.

We went to a piano bar after dinner and it was pretty tame. I requested "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and the guy did a gorgeous rendition of it. No one had ever requested it there before. I thought that was cool. Plus I couldn't think of anything else... besides "Eensy, Weensy Spider", which was probably a little too cutting age for this crowd.

Look at that bag. Perfect delivery. No doubt about it.

The art museum was awesome. We thought so, as did the 645,398 other people who were there as well.

We absolutely took in a Broadway show, thanks to the generosity of Heather's boss. Wasn't that so nice of him? If you happen to be in Arizona, get your eye needs taken care of at Nationwide Vision. **There, that now pays for my ticket to the show, seeing as how I have a million readers to my blog, especially in the greater Phoenix area.** Wicked was fantastic and I am glad I had the opportunity of experiencing it.

They need to have sing-along Broadway shows.

Just a thought.

We got out a lot later than we thought: 10:45. Then it took a while to walk back to our hotel. We also were starving, so we grabbed some burgers at the Shake Shack and took it back to our room. Isn't Heather's purse simply fabulous? It was an awesome shopping find in the village. It only cost $80.

I found a purse also...from Goodwill...IN MANHATTAN! $8.

This is Heather in her Ghetto chic ensemble, riding the subway. The pendant on her necklace says...wait for it.... "Heather"

There are some fun signs in Manhattan, Upper East side. I especially liked the guy walking in front of us putting menu flyers on fences, next to that red sign. Cracked me up. I think he was doing it just out of spite.


Manhattan is full of wild life. Look really, really, really closely in the trees.

Look Mom! I'm in Harlem.


The Brooklyn bridge. Holy cow it was hot, except when we were over the water.

Then we tried to make our way to Central Park but it wasn't easy. Did you know the train schedule is totally different on the weekend? Plus, there is a tendency to have parades on the weekends as well. We were standing because it was crowded and at 34th street, 80 Dominicans shoved into the cabin...just breathe farm girl, breathe. Then at Rockefeller Center, 100 more Dominicans were going to somehow get into our cabin. Bail! Bail! Bail! I would liken it to the parlor games where you try to stuff 20 large marshmallows into your mouth. That is what it was like at 34th street. Then you had to put 30 more in at Rockefeller center. After our brush with sardine-like death, we started walking up the stairs and the upper floors were vibrating. It was intense. I guess those Dominicans really know how to throw a party. Yikes.


The Yankees played the Red Sox on Monday and Heather and I went to the game.

Holy crap, it was hot!


Heather was texting work stuff on her phone a lot while I watched the game. Then we started talking about it and she got a bit animated about what was going on, etc. Then this guy sitting in front of us joined into the conversation, because he was trying to see if Heather was talking about her boyfriend. I looked at him and starting laughing. Oh my heck! He was hitting on her. Then I looked at Heather and she was shutting him down and didn't even know she was doing it, because she had no clue that he was hitting on her. I told her, "Heather, HE IS HITTING ON YOU!"

"Huh?"

"Really, he is hitting on you."

Look, I took a picture of him. He is the guy in the bottom corner with the sign and the spoon. Pretty cute, huh? Probably looking for a trophy wife. ;)

Really, Heather needs to learn how to flirt. She is terrible. Anyone out there...please help my sister. And if you are a guy and you are interested in her, just tell her real slow..."I... think ...you ...are... pretty. Can we go....out?"

So, I don't know what the deal is, but luckily he lives in Queens and she lives in Arizona. I think she will be okay. He is a little old for her, don't you think?

I suggested we leave a little early. I didn't want to have to stand on the train all the way back to Chinatown. Heather was confused. She had no idea that it was the 8th inning. She had no idea that the Red Sox were winning. I asked her if she ever really came to the game. Hello? Cody would kill you, sistah! By the way, the Red Sox won, 2-1. Ha ha!!

Dinner in Little Italy. Yum!


On our last day, our legs were so tired from walking, we just went to a movie, ate lunch and caught an early cab to the airport.

It was a lot of fun and we made some wonderful memories together. Thanks Heather. You are the best.

Craziness Hits the Road

Rinar went to Boston last week so I decided to take a little road trip. By. My. Self. Oh yes, with my five little angels. Rinar helped me pack everything up on Sunday night and we hit the road at 10am Monday morning. I headed south to Laughlin, NV and we made a little stop at the Colorado river so that the kids could throw rocks in the river, and I could feed the babies. There was also a free boat ride to the casino on the other side of the river so we gave it a whirl. The kids enjoyed it.

Then I decided to drive through Oatman, Arizona which is a chintzy little tourist trap off of historic route 66. There are wild burros that roam the streets, terrorizing the tourists. Okay, they don't terrorize tourists unless you are the lone parent with little ones to look out for, then they charge right in. As I was unloading the kids, which takes me about 10 minutes to do, the white burro in the picture came up and gave Julia a kiss. I guess he decided she wasn't edible. Thank goodness. I can't say the same thing for Eli's shoe. He took a swipe at the shoe, but luckily I had a good grip on it.


We walked around a bit and took some pictures on this old tractor. Jubilation that we are out of the car!
Here is that nasty burro. I only say that because as we headed down to the end of the street, he thought he could pilfer something out of my pocket and promptly bit me on the hip. Grrrrr! They were going to do a gun fight and I didn't want to get stuck in town, so I hurriedly stuffed the kids in the car and tried frantically to get the three burros that were congregated in front of my trunk door to move. Annoying!! Luckily I was able to depart from Oatman with all kids, body parts, and shoes.


Route 66 is a treacherous, windy, slow road to take. I got stuck behind a guy pulling a trailer. Doesn't that always happen when you are taking a road trip?

But the views were spectacular. Take a look. Don't worry, I held up the camera but my eyes were firmly on the road Grandma. Plus we were going a whopping 15 mph.



As you can hear from my conversation with Zach, he is obsessed with the inner crust of the earth and lava and he really has no concept of how far down it is.

We arrived in Williams, Arizona about 4 pm and got some pizza and then headed to the hotel. I was hoping the kids could go swimming, but the pool was outdoors and closed. That might have to do with the fact that it snowed rather vigorously after we checked in.

Did I mention that I packed clothes for the hot part of Arizona, not the snow part. Zach only had flip-flops, Eli had no socks or pants that were clean, and Julia had adorable summer dresses to wear. I was a little anxious to take the kids to the Grand Canyon due to equipment issues, but I forged ahead.
We made it! No wind but it was 38 degrees outside. This is what we saw. These are all the pictures I took.


Okay, so 10 minutes later we were on the road again. But not before we got a picture in front of the official Grand Canyon sign.

Then it was about 1.5 hours to Flagstaff. It was very pretty. There were wildflowers everywhere I looked on this entire drive.



Do you know what movie that was in the background? I am testing your movie knowledge. I am not going to give it away. Leave a comment with your best guess.

This is when my sanity really went out the window. Okay, so we stopped in Flagstaff and played at a park for about an hour. The kids had a lot of fun and the weather was superb. Then it was on to Phoenix. Heather had class till about 10pm, so I decided to get her key at work and then go to my other sister's house in Maricopa. They say it is a suburb, but whatever. It was in the middle of friggin' nowhere. And my sister's house is on the other side of the city in friggin' nowhere. I limped to the "finish" line. The kids played with their cousins while Christi and her husband Thomas and I went to dinner. I had to go to Joe's Farm Grill, which was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. It is in Gilbert, which is practically next to Heather's place. Then I had to drive back to get my kids and then drive back to Tempe. I almost rotted in that car.

But dinner was great and it was fun to spend time with Christi and Thomas.

I vowed not to drive at all on Wednesday. So Heather took the day off and we walked to the park near downtown Tempe. It was great except for the fact that they were doing construction on the playground, so it was closed. We walked through downtown Tempe and got some yogurt and diapers. Then Heather stayed with the kids while they ran around the park, while I ran back to get the car.

Eli had fun but I think he was tired. Take a look at this documentation of an Eli temper tantrum. Enjoy!

He went home and slept for about 5 hours without moving. We hung out and the kids went swimming.

Don't worry, I made it back just fine. And except for the fact that Eli figured out how to unbuckle all parts of his car seat the last 100 miles of the trip, it was all fine. But I was never so happy to be home.