AZ Trip 2017 Part 1

The last time our family traveled to Arizona we only had four children, and Jacob was 9 months old! Although it is impossible to fit 5.5 years of visiting into two weeks, we sure gave it an impressive try! It is also impossible to fit two weeks of visiting and adventure into a blog post, but I will make a solid attempt!

This is one impressive traveling crew!

 

 

 

During our first two days in Arizona I was able to attend the Arizona homeschool conference with my sister Kameron and my Mom! This has been a dream of ours for several years.  It was a wonderful time of encouragement.

 

 Meanwhile, cousins, aunts, and uncles were all having fun getting reacquainted! The only one of our kiddos who had never been to AZ was Caleb since Isaac went with me two summers ago for my parent's anniversary celebration!

 

Uncle Nick, Aunt Katie, Mia and Wyatt graciously opened up their home to our entire crew. The increase in their electricity and water bill alone must have been amazing, let alone their pantry and fridge! We had a blast spending time with them and reconnecting!

Here is Nick and Gracie over seven years ago when she was only two months old!

Uncle Nick taught Nick and Caleb how to take apart a small engine! A dream come true for Ben!

We tried to have at least a small amount of one on one time with each of my siblings while we were in town. We had a morning swimming and lunch with Jake, Shelby and their girls Krosby, Jensen, and Campbell. We had an evening dinner and swim with Reagan, Adam, Tessa, Nate, Danny, and Henry along with my sister Gentry too! After a dinner with Raleigh, Shane, and Logan we had a chance to meet their horses Sunny and Pilgrim! The kids had so much fun meeting, helping care for, and riding too!

Aunt Raleigh has been waiting for years to share her horses with Luke!

One morning Grammy took the oldest three girls out for shopping and lunch. They had a blast together!

These three have so much fun together!

Here are the girls at 5 mo., 4 mo. and 2 months old!

Here are the girls at 2 years (Krosby at 1!)

One fun event we got to attend as a family was an Arizona Diamondbacks game! We took up three rows!

 

 

 

After the game, the kids all participated in a fundraiser that donates $1 to a local children's hospital for every kid that runs the bases after the game! Our group certainly helped with numbers!

It was an exhausting day!

One morning we took all the kids to a local trampoline place space to beat the scorching Arizona heat! So much fun!

This was a favorite spot for most of the boys. Jacob and George are only five months a part in age and were a pretty even match!

One night the six little girls had a slumber party at Jake and Shelby's house! Gracie adores her girl cousins, but especially wanted to bring home the youngest, Campbell!

How cute are these six?!

Yes, they were still awake doing each other's hair at 11 PM!

Uncle Jake even made chocolate chip pancakes the next morning!

I was able to connect with two of my dearest long time friends including my college roommate Sonya and her family while in Phoenix!

Family baseball!!

 Here are a few shots from the family pictures!

 

The second part of our trip, a road trip to Utah via the Grand Canyon will be in Part 2!