Thanksgiving in AZ

 Cade has been wanting to go down to Arizona for a holiday for some time now to reconnect with his extended family- his Dad's side. I wasn't really on board for a while because I didn't want to go down and spend a lot of money for one meal to see them :). But I change my attitude and we made it a fun trip! The best part was that Tara and Johnny came and so our kids got to play a lot with their cousins. It made it totally worth it. 

Before we left, we invited Grandma and Grandpa Bleak and Boose over for an early Thanksgiving dinner. It was super yummy! Grandma brought her bells and ukulele's to have music fun too. 

(Random- had to throw in the pic of us going to see Wicked in the theaters right before leaving! SOOOOO good!)

Emma sick...Blessing.

Day one we started driving around 7:00 am. A few hours later than originally planned. So when we arrived at The Great Wolf Lodge and checked into our rooms, we had approximately 20 minutes to swim :). But it made the kids super excited for the next day (Thanksgiving Day). The Great Wolf was super fun. It's just SO pricey so we only paid for one night but put our stuff in the van and got to play there the whole next day. The water park was so cool. They had giant tubes that could fit up to 5 people each and you go down these huge tube slides. The wave pool was a favorite too. Reese, Nora and Lucy wanted to do the ropes course and had a blast doing that twice. Emma got a giant red dragon stuffy with her money (plus $10 we gave them for a souvenir). Overall it was a lot of fun. I'm glad we went!

After the Great Wolf Lodge, we drove to our Airbnb. As we pulled in to the neighborhood, Emma says loudly, "Well this looks sus!" (suspicious) Yes, yes it did. Not the nicest looking neighborhood. Luckily the inside was clean and looked just fine (minus the patchwork wall paper that was extremely ghetto) but there wasn't really any seating for a group our size. It was not ideal, but we made it work. 

We got everything into the place and then decided to go on a walk at the park nearby. We had been walking maybe two minutes when Cade's phone rang and told us to turn around. The Young's had just pulled up to their hotel that was RIGHT by the park. The kids have SO much fun together. We love it!

Day three was spending some time with all of the extended family. Aunt Gale was kind enough to host in her home. All of the aunts and Uncles were there and some of the cousins. Our kids did great too. A whole lot better than I expected. After catching up with all the family, Aunt Gale told us of her favorite ice cream place to celebrate Reese's birthday that day! It ended up being a little sketch and dirty and weird so we ate it outside. Then the kids went swimming at the Young's Hotel and then we went ice skating for Reese's birthday activity!

On the Saturday, the older kids went to the Mesa temple with Grandma, Cade and Tara to do baptisms. We took the younger kids to the park. Then we all went to the movie theater to see Moana 2....not worth it IMO. 

After we decided to pack up one night early for two reasons. 1) The next day on Sunday is one of the busiest travel days of the year and traffic could be crazy and 2) The BYU game was going to be on from 8:15 until midnight and Cade would be on a high to be able to drive us mostly through the night. I was in the back though, stuck between Benson and Jane who would take turns waking up and/or crying. My earbuds wouldn't work with Cade's in the van so I was stuck to my own thoughts for HOURS and HOURS in the middle of the night. Made for a long night but Cade got us safely home which I am very grateful for!