Adventures in Arizona: The Baker's Visit - Fun with Family

I'm very sad to say that all of our scheduled house guests have come and gone. But having back-to-back visitors was definitely fun while it lasted! And maybe a little exhausting...but that doesn't mean I didn't love every minute of it.

Ginni, Lilli, Emerson and the nanny that will be watching the girls when Ginni goes back to work, Carly, flew out here on Tuesday, August 21st and Mark and I finally got to meet Emerson in person. I loved every minute of snuggling that baby girl. I'm just sad that she'll most likely be 6+ months old before I see her again.

Sweet Mary Emerson

Unlike Angie, Dad, Ryley and Harper bringing the extreme heat with them, Ginni and the girls brought us rain. We had crazy storms the first two nights they were here and pretty decent temperatures (high 90s). Unfortunately it didn't last their whole trip but it was nice while it lasted.

They were going to go to the Zoo on Wednesday morning when it opened at 7am since they would still be on east coast time but everyone didn't get moving quick enough and they decided not to go because it got a little too late in the morning and Emerson couldn't wear any sunscreen. This was probably for the best even though the weather that Wednesday was beautiful.

SeaLife Aquarium

Even though they didn't make it to the Zoo, we did get down to the Sea Life Aquarium in Tempe (south of Phoenix). Lilli definitely enjoyed seeing all the fishes. She even got to touch a starfish! But I think her favorite part was climbing in the play area at the end of the aquarium.

If you'll notice the blue ink around Lilli's eye, she needed a hand stamp too and proceeded to rub her eye with that hand

FISH!

Touching a starfish

She liked where she could put her hands in the water

Looking down on all the fish

And then looking up at all the fish

Pointing out all the Nemos and Dories

"I climbing!"

What a happy giggle

Rolling on the mats

Sedona

While they were here we had hopes of going to the Grand Canyon since Ginni had never been but we decided it probably wouldn't be fun to try to tackle 7+ hours in the car in one day with an almost 2 year old and a 2 month old. In hindsight, this was a great decision after making the 1 1/2 hour drive to Sedona. Ginni still wanted to see something unique to Arizona that she had never seen so as you can tell, we decided to go to Sedona. The 1 1/2 hour drive there ended up taking 2 hours after we stopped for gas and stopped to feed Emerson. We got there about lunch time and found a Mexican restaurant with patio seating for lunch. After walking in a few shops, Lilli was ready for a nap so we got back in the car and drove to several hiking areas I had been before for Ginni and Carly to see more of the Red Rocks. Unfortunately, most of what we saw was from the car but Ginni and I already decided next time her, Baker, Lilli and Emerson get to come out, we're going to plan a weekend trip to the Grand Canyon, which will probably include a stop in Sedona and staying overnight in Flagstaff, similar to what we did with Dennis and Ashley in April...just to make it easier on us and the girls.

View of Sedona from the airport

Emerson was there too, but just asleep so we left her in the carseat

Playing in the misters at the restaurant

Anthem Park & the Train
Saturday morning we got up and drove to a neighborhood about 10 miles north of us called Anthem. They have a big park there with a train that you can pay to ride. Since Lilli loves trains we decided to go play and ride the train.

Riding the train!

Emerson's first train ride

Carly, Emerson, Ginni & Lilli on the train

Apparently the train wasn't too exciting for Emerson

Just a few seconds after this, Lilli pushed Emerson out of the way. Apparently she didn't want her near.

Sunset Boat Ride

We decided to take a sunset cruise on Lake Pleasant with Ginni and Lilli on Sunday night, leaving Emerson and Carly at the house. Last summer, we went out on Lake Norman with Ginni, Baker and Lilli quite a bit while Baker was living down there for a summer internship. Lilli was pretty young but we think on some level she must have remembered the boat because she was quite excited once she got on the boat. That was until Uncle Mark drove over a wake a little too fast - she wasn't sure what to think about it then and wanted to site a bit closer to Ginni. We drove to a spot to drop the anchor and then hung out until the sun set at 7pm. Mark and I went swimming and Lilli enjoyed some pizza and peaches for dinner on the boat. And then Lilli accidentally went swimming too but not on purpose...

Uncle Mark had climbed back on the back of the boat and Lilli decided she was going to go back there with him. I don't know if Ginni and I recommended it or what but she decided she wanted to push him in the water. Then as he was climbing back up the ladder onto the boat, Lilli decided to not let him back on the boat and proceeded to push him back down every time he climbed up. Ginni was sitting in the boat watching and laughing and I had climbed on the back of the boat too to take pictures since Lilli was having such a blast pushing Uncle Mark. Next thing we knew, she had pushed him back in and lost her balance and rolled in after him. Lucky for Lilli, her life jacket did exactly what it was supposed to and rolled her over on her back. Unlucky for her, Ginni and I were a little slow to respond. We thought Mark would notice her in the water but he was still under water and I had to put my camera down to react. But then Mark surfaced and handed her off to me and then off to Ginni and she was just fine. She wanted her pacifier and her loveys but overall she was just fine, just a little startled.

Lilli on the boat in August 2012

Lilli on the boat in May 2011

After Uncle Mark went too fast over a wake

Driving the boat (while anchored)

Looking for Uncle Mark and Bentley on shore

About to push Uncle Mark in the water

HAHAHA, I pushed him in

Right before her spill into the lake

Cuddling with mommy after falling into the lake

It was kind of funny. Sorry for laughing Lilli

Loveys make everything better

Bentley enjoying the sunset

Playtime in the Pool

We did a lot of playing in the pool while they were here too. Unfortunately for Emerson, she was too little to go swimming but we were sure to include her when it wasn't too hot outside and let her lounge on the covered patio under the fan.

Splashing Uncle Mark

Throwing the dive sticks

Blowing bubbles

Emerson lounging in he shade

Too sweet

Floating all by herself

Trying desperately to hang out with Bentley

Look at that evil eyebrow!

Empty beer cans with rocks make the best musical instrument

Celebrating 2 Years of Marriage...at the Mayo Clinic

We celebrated our 2 year anniversary on Tuesday, August 28th. Unfortunately, it started out with a day at the Mayo Clinic but that didn't hold us down! My neutrophils were a little low again but not too low to keep me from getting my treatment. The nurse did ask me to change my injections to Saturday/Monday to get them closer to my treatment day in hopes that they were higher next Tuesday. After my morning appointments, we met Ginni and the girls at Chick-Fil-A for lunch and then Ginni came to my treatment with me. Unfortunately this week we had the worst space in the treatment area yet because we were closed off from the windows. Plus, we were across from an older gentleman who was having trouble with his oxygen tank and didn't want to use the one at Mayo so he kept my nurse pretty busy, making the treatment take about an hour longer than necessary. Oh well, nothing you can do about it.

After my treatment, we headed down to the 5th Avenue shops in Scottsdale to go to a Christmas shop for Ginni to get a Phoenix ornament for her trip. I also found a centennial ornament for us since this year Arizona celebrated it's 100th birthday of being a state.

That night we got take out from Cheesecake Factory complete with dessert for each of us...YUMMY! And then we opened a bottle of pink sparkling wine to toast our anniversary.

Happy Anniversary Sparkling Wine (compliments of Chris Mitchell at TFM from last fall) in the same champagne flutes we used on our wedding day and our 1 year anniversary. We also shared with Ginni and Carly.

And Emerson is 2 Months Old!

Emerson was also 2 months old on August 28th and so we had to take pictures with her 2 month sticker. She was not cooperating at first but we got a few good ones.