Our Trip to Arizona!

In December our family had an amazing opportunity to stay at a friend's place in Arizona for a few weeks. We couldn't have been more excited!

It was our first flight with the kids and didn't know how things would go. We arrived at the airport in Bellingham with plenty of time to get through security, and killed a couple of hours in the airport. Then the excitement (and nervousness) mounted as we were taxied around in the airplane. Finally it was our plane's turn to take off and we were amping up... then halfway down the runway the pilot jammed on the brakes! A light had come on his dashboard that needed to be checked out. So we sat in the airplane for 45 minutes while the problem was fixed. An hour later, we were successfully in the air on our way to Arizona! The flight itself was normal and the kids did absolutely fantastic.

Melissa & I taking some silly selfies on the airplane...

Brody & Daddy in their seats, and their selfies ;)

We arrived around 12 am in Mesa, Arizona (we were originally supposed to arrive at 10:15 pm). The day prior we had phoned ahead to the airport's taxi company (only one taxi company has the contract to pick-up at this airport) to arrange a taxi with a child seat for Brody to drive us to our house. We were assured that there were plenty of taxis at the airport that could accommodate us - no problem at all! Not sure what that meant, because once we got there, no taxi was able to "accommodate" us. We waited, phoned... waited, airport manager phoned... waited, police phoned... for around 50 minutes in the cold & empty desert parking lot before a taxi arrived (from another city) with a child seat! The taxi driver was quite the character to say the least! He had to stop 2 times to change the battery on his home-assembled cellphone which he was using as his GPS. He wasn't from the area, and didn't have a clue where we were going. After an interesting journey, we made it to our home around 1:30 am! We were certainly ready for bed at this point :)

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The next morning we woke to the most beautiful blue skies!!! 

We had so much to explore. Our backyard had its own putting green...

The geckos would come out in the morning to sun themselves on the brick walls. They would quickly hide under the metal art when you came too close...

"Stumpy" whom lost his tail to the house owner's grandchildren!

We all enjoyed playing a little golf!

The front of the house...

Neighborhood street shot...

A beautiful kitchen,

and eating area.

The kids each had their own rooms with TVs! Each morning they would watch cartoons in Melissa's bed. They loved watching different TV shows than at home.

Brody with his new Arizona toy "Chase" from his favorite show: Paw Patrol.

The house we stayed in was in a gated community called Johnson Ranch. There are over 4000 houses, 3 pools, a golf course, restaurant, catch & release fishing pond, playgrounds and more. Most people had golf carts which they used to get around!

 

The golf course...

A cactus skeleton...

A dressed up cactus ;)

A playground with an outdoor pool behind it...

The kids couldn't get enough of swimming. The locals thought we were crazy for swimming in their winter weather of 23ºC! (they were bundled in sweaters)

At night we enjoyed family time, here playing Uno...

or hanging out in the backyard hot tub!

 

More pics to come!