sunshiny faces

As Ben's class gathers each morning, they sing a sweet welcome song about their sunshiny faces.  We took advantage of the long President's Day break to take meet Papa Ken and Boomer in Arizona so we could ALL have sunshiny faces. :)  Papa rented a great 3 bedroom house in Scottsdale for 10 days and we joined him for 7 of them.  The weather was amazing in the 70's and 80's all week and with the pool at a toasty 84 degrees and the nearby hot tub, our afternoons were bliss.  We did some fun activities in the mornings and ate amazing food.  Sickness befell both Ben and I at different points, but other than that the trip was delightful and relaxing.

Our first stop upon landing, of course!

Ben checking out his home away from home.  I think he approved.

Even Boomer had no trouble settling in.

You can watch a video of Ben's favorite way to be in the water, here.  His bobbing about in the ten feet of water is hard to get used to, especially when he keeps it up for five minutes before making his way back to the side, but he is totally calm and collected.  He loved it when Ryan found goggles and they could hang out underneath together.

Ben got a fever the second day so I made him stay out of the pool and hot tub.  As he felt better I let him hang out by the pool, but only to put his feet in.  Here's how that went....

We went to the fountain park and had pizza, lakeside. 

The Scottsdale train park was amazing with a train to ride, a HUGE playground, model trains for days and a real passenger train to tour......

As I didn't recall ever having been to the "train park," I asked my dad how he knew about it.  Apparently he and my Uncle Kevin were supposed to take all the kids there at Christmas one year and took one look and took us to a "grill" for burgers instead. ;)

We spent one morning visiting Grandma, Grandpa and my Aunt Mary and dressing things up a bit for Spring.....

 

Kierland Commons had lovely couches in the sun so we could take turns shopping. 

 Unsurprisingly, Papa Ken did all the shopping.

I got to enjoy a couple runs in the nice weather but one day forced everyone on a decent walk to a nearby park.  I was reminded how blessed we are to live in a "walkable" community with sidewalks everywhere but Ryan found this "alley" that made the journey home more enjoyable and we got to peak over walls at everyone's expansive yards and pools.

The last supper at El Blanco

This was upon first boarding the plane and sitting next to his Canadian friend, Madden.  Two four-year-olds booked in the exit row created an interesting kerfuffle.  

Unfortunately we sat for about 45 mins after pulling away from the gate before finally deplaning.  They told us it would be awhile and then called us back to the plane in a mad rush after fixing the problem.  It turned out the problem wasn't fixed and back off the plane we went.  Weather around the country was wreaking havoc on our fellow passengers who had by then missed connections and were likely going to be stranded for days.

After a rest.....

Ben got a little business done.

Thankfully the end of the terminal was quiet and wide open and some sweet 10 and 12 year old boys took Ben in and played football with him and ran around like crazy monkeys.  

When we FINALLY got back on the now "really fixed" plane many hours later, we pulled away from the gate only to be told Denver was not allowing any planes to land because of weather.   The pilot asked the FAA for an exception and we were finally able to take off.  It was then we discovered our plane had no food for purchase so we ate dinner upon landing in Denver at nearly 9 pm.  Ryan didn't even have a coat and it was 17 degrees as we drug our bags through the snow to dig out the car.  The trusty Accord plowed through the snow to get us home and we woke up to ..........

By this time Ryan was already back at the airport to depart for Florida for the week.  If swim trunks were appropriate work attire, he probably should've just spent those few hours at the airport. :)

The cold and snow made it VERY hard to be home but we got to spend the day with Tante ringing in her 27th year, and shoveling-a lot!

Thanks Papa Ken, for an amazing week of fun in the delightful desert sun!!