Arizona- Day 1,2 ,3, 4

Tuesday we flew out to Arizona. My friend Caroline was nice to take us to the airport in our Suburban- that is not a fun car to drive. I was a little worried our flight might be canceled because there was a Microsoft outage that had grounded flights the weekend before and delta was struggling to fix itself. Thankfully our flight wasn't canceled but we did have to wait in an enormous line to drop off luggage. But security at the Detroit airport is always nice to our big family. They sent us to a special line which was shorter and also didn't require us to take anything out of our bags. It helped things to be easier and quicker. Since we had waited so long to check in, we didn't have much time to wait before boarding. Our seats were assigned at the gate at the lady was really snippy with me when I asked about them. She informed the seats were already posted and she had already announced this. I tried to be really nice to her because she had seated us all together- we were in the last row of the plane- but that didn't seem to soften her attitude towards me. While I dealt with the seats, Tyler got us all food. We chowed down the food quickly and then got on the plane. 

The flight was not great. I gave Ruby Benadryl because I was desperate to help calm her busy self but it literally did nothing. She spent the first 3 hours being fussy, clamboring over everyone's laps (and getting tangled in their headphone cords), hitting the movie screens, toddling into the aisles and causing baby mayhem. The last hour, when I think our patience was all spent, she finally fell asleep. Below is a picture of the girls who were excited to be flying and a dirty Ruby handprint on Penny's shorts.

After the flight we were picked up by my brother and taken to my parent's house. We stayed and chatted with them for a bit and then we went to the Hatch home and had dinner with all of Tyler's family. This was the first time in years that we were all together and it was actually really nice. I even participated in the conversation. Unfortunately it was a long day for Ruby so I headed out early with her and Tyler stayed behind with the rest of the kids. We had ended up borrowing my mom's car and his dad's truck and having two cars instead of one turned out to be very handy with a fussy baby.

Wednesday we had talked about going to Bull Pen but I am so glad we decided against it. I know the kids would have loved to go but it would have been a lot to pack and get ready for a day long hike and play. Plus it is so hot. Instead we had a nice morning where we went to Goodwill with Poppy and the girls found lots of cool stuff- a Lilo and Stitch shirt and Corgi bubble blower for Penny, and some cute jammie shorts and a VW bug shirt for Lucy. Then Tyler, Ruby, me and my parents went out to Broken Yolk. There food is soooo good but Ruby had a hard time sitting still for the meal, she was busy. After lunch we went to a public pool/waterpark with Keshia's family, Melissa's family and Tyler's mom came with Jezerea's kid. It was seriously so hot and of course I did not sunscreen my back good enough and ended up with a super great sunburn. All of our kids seemed to have fun. The older 3 loved jumping from the high dive board. Penny loved swimming laps and Ruby loved the little baby slide. I failed to take pics but Tyler' mom sent me some- the quality never translates from her phone to mine.

That night we talked about going to a movie with Poppy but Grams had some high blood pressure and ended up going to urgent care. Thankfully she was ok and came home not too long afterwards. She sure knows how to worry us.

Thursday morning we made another trip to another thrift store. This trip was less successful but Penny insisted on getting a romper that was too big for her because she didn't want to come home empty handed. Sigh. These girls of mine can be so spoiled. For lunch Tyler, Ben, my dad and Mike went out to eat for a manly date. Us women folk stayed behind and had leftovers. That afternoon we met the whole Hatch clan at Elevate so the kids could jump. Tyler was late because he went to the wrong Elevate. He should have asked me. This seemed to be a good time for all, even the teens. They all had an elaborate game of tag they played. Bryson tried to teach Steven some cool jumping tricks. Ruby kind of tottered around climbing on things but not much jumping from her yet. I had a good chat with Keshia and was able to catch up with the goings on her life. Melissa also chimed in and I am not sure why her constant insertion of praying for people bothers me but it does. Once again, I didn't take pics but here are some from Tyler's mom. She did not take very flattering pics of me. 

After the jumping fun we went to Tara's house for a BBQ and swim party. Tara got all judgy with me because I wanted to sunscreen my kids so they wouldn't get family pics with a sunburn. She said the UV rays were low and they wouldn't get burned. I swear she has to argue everything. Apparently the next day when they went swimming she was over the top in making sure my kids wore sunscreen. They all came home with pink faces anyways so whatever. Other than the sunscreen argument it was an ok time. I didn't really chat with anyone but had some fun moments with my nieces and nephews. I especially enjoyed sitting on the trampoline when the monsoon wind was blowing. It wasn't too awful hot at that moment and Saylor was being really sweet with Ruby.

I didn't stay too later after eating but all the kids slept over at Tara's house. They played arcade games, watched movies, made squishies, swam...The girls only complaint was that Reese kept ignoring them and playing with Kyle instead. 

Friday morning was nice and quiet with just Miss Ruby and us. Tyler and I picked up some things at Walmart and I attempted to look for a dress for pictures that night because I had just found out that I was the only woman not wearing a dress. I made a half hearted effort because I really did not want to spend the money and ended up just sticking with my jeans and blouse and feeling really out of place- I guess that's not abnormal for me though. For lunch Grams and I went to Kneaders while Tyler picked up the kids. A bunch of women were having some sort of birthday bash at Kneaders and it was so ridiculously loud. Many women wearing crowns and many women looking very done up. Not the best outing. 

That afternoon we had an early dinner of pizza, got ready for pictures (I even did a new hairdo on Penny) and then drove out to the mountains. It was 106 degrees which was not a good temperature for picture taking. Everyone was pink faced (not just from sunburns) and sweaty. Ruby got especially fussy during the whole family picture- crying and grabbing at me. I doubt she got a good picture of us in the group pic but maybe in some of the ones of just our family. Everybody was a complainer, even Tyler's mom, which sort of irked me because we were doing these pictures for her. There were lots of bees and some big beetles but at least the background for pictures was gorgeous. Steven enjoyed taking pics as the sun set to send to his friends. I always figures when he sends pics of something, even if he acts crabby, deep down he must actually like it and be making some core memories.

After pics we went to Tyler's parents house. They had food for those who hadn't eaten and then some delicious pie and cheesecake. Penny and Lucy were still struggling with Reese not playing with them and Penny was particularly emotional so once again I left early, this time with all the girls. It was fine because I wasn't really chatting with anyone anyways.