3rd Week of Arizona Trip

Once we got back to my parent's house, I learned that my dad had a list of things he wanted to do with the kids while we were there. So on Monday (after dropping Tyler off at the airport to go back to Detroit) we got crack-a-lackin on that list and took the boys to Bounce U!

Monday afternoon my bestest friend Rebekka brought her daughter Grace over to my parent's house to play. She lives in Washington now but was visiting her parents in AZ too. It was so good to see her and to see her cute little girl who Steven refers to as "the little one." She also brought over her brother Parley (who has down syndrome) and who is now 18! Goodness! How'd he get so old!?

Tuesday we went to the "Minions" movie with all the kids (another check on Poppy's list). It was Lucy's first movie and she did great- sat through the whole thing! The movie itself was nothing spectacular but the kids enjoyed it. Later that afternoon I took the boys to a splash pad in Gilbert. There were no other kids there- just 2 random teenage girls who sat on one sprayer- so the boys pretty much had run of the place. They had a blast- I thought I was going to melt into the bench, so hot!

Wednesday morning my mom and I went and did initiatories at the Mesa Temple. It was so nice to be back in my first and favorite temple. 

Then we picked up the girls and took them to Einstein Bagels on a date. Only it was a pretty lame date for Lucy because apparently she is the only person in the world who will not eat Nutella on a bagel! She threw a royal fit so we thought why not go and buy her a dress. I mean a girl who is acting like a spoiled brat should be rewarded right!? I know, it was a dumb idea but we were planning on doing it and we must stick with our plans. After fighting about Penny being in a stroller and not her and fighting that she had to go buy the dress before wearing it and fighting about just anything...we bought the dress! And she loved it!

Thursday morning we went to the Eastmark Splash Pad with Mecca & Oliver. My kids were a bit whiny at times but fun times were still had:

Later that day we got some Frozen Yogurt and once again a certain little lady thew a tantrum, all because the frozen yogurt flavor was not up to her par. Don't let the smile in this picture fool you, she was indeed the tantrum thrower:

Thursday night I went with Rebekka and her bother Parley and her sister Fiona to see "Jurassic World" for the second time. It wasn't that I was dying to see it again, it was mostly just about spending more time with my buddy. During the movie, anytime a bad word was said Parley would mutter, "Don't say *insert bad word* Don't say it!" After the movie, we sat in the car and had a good long chat. Their car was parked next to the suburban I was borrowing and at one point it looked like someone was trying to break into the suburban. I about got out and stopped them  myself until it was pointed out that this person was just parked on the other side of the suburban and taking a smoke. I could've taken them!

Friday morning Steven and I went on a date to a food van, My Waffle Crush! It was outside of a Costco so we got to go enjoy its tastiness in their food court. Steven got one topped with Nutella (because he is a normal kid who likes Nutella) and ice cream:

I had one with some sort of special syrup, strawberries and whip cream. The waffles we got were delicious but almost TOO delicious! I felt like I had a sugar overdose when I was done eating mine! Definitely more of a dessert than a meal!

Around lunch time I met Tyler's siblings and kids at a pool. I left Lucy behind because of all the trouble she had been giving me lately. The rest of my kids had good time. Ben even got brave and started monkey crawling around the pool. The boys definitely love spending time with their cousins:

And because we just love to swim, we met Mike, Mecca and Oliver at a different pool that night. And it was there that Ben officially liked water again and was even braving the deep end (with Poppy or Mike holding him of course). When the fun was done, I had to document that we did indeed play there:

And as though my day wasn't exhausting enough I went and hung out with Rebekka once more. We got dinner at Chili's because she was craving it majorly but then she felt too nauseous to eat it (darn pregnancy problems). Afterwards we hung out at her parent's house. It was fun to revisit a place I spent so much time at as a teenager. Here's our super unattractive selfie I took:

Saturday we had plans to go visit the Phoenix Children's Museum with my family but Mecca decided to have her baby instead. Thankfully this delivery went much better for her and she got a super cute little girl named Lillian Mae out of it ;)