Last Day in Phoenix!

Well I started the day at urgent care because my rash from the hotel in Sedona had spread all over my back and down my legs and was painful. The doctor assured me it was not bed bugs and not shingles since it crossed the mid line. He was baffled as to what was causing it so he gave me a 12 day course of steroid and is treating me prophylactically with Cipro just in case I picked up pseudomonas in the hot tub when we went swimming on Sunday. Then we all went to lunch with Libby at Red Robin. Riley loved that place! He ate onion rings, french fries, and mushrooms but wanted nothing to do with the burgers! Then Casey took us for a drive around Phoenix to see where the D-Backs play baseball, where the Cardinals play football, where the Suns play basketball, and where the Coyotes play hockey. Riley napped thru the tour and Mommy did too but I woke up to see all of these places! After riding around Phoenix, the White Tank mountains and some other mountains we went back to the Randels' house to hang out until dinner.

Jeremy and Casey with 3 of the 4 dogs...Kira, Hunter, and Chloe. The only name Riley said all week other than "Gah-net" was Chloe!

For dinner we went to Arriba Mexican Grill. Their t-shirts said "Don't Drink the Water...Drink Margaritas!" It was awesome food. Riley's cheese was larger than a dinner plate and he ate over half of it! I enjoyed Carne Azada and Jeremy had enchiladas.

I feel blessed to have met up with Casey in college. It has been close to 5 years since we had seen each other and we just all picked up right where we left off! She and her family were so gracious to us showing us all around and taking time out of their normal routines for us!

Last night photos at Arriba's:

Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium

We spent most of Thursday at the zoo and aquarium. Libby, Casey's Mom, works part-time at the aquarium. We started out at the petting zoo. Riley made himself at home quickly. He wasn't afraid at all he just walked right into the middle of the animals and would pet them and talk to them as they walked by. There were 7 and 8 year olds hugging the fence, haha! When we were waiting at the fence to go in as a new animal would walk up to Riley he'd say "hey!" and let them lick his fingers. He likes to call all animals "Gah-net" after our dog, Garnet.

After the petting zoo we went to see some turtles. You could touch their shell but we had to stay on top of Riley to be sure he didn't try to "pet" their heads:

Riley loved all of the exhibits but we just have a thing for turtles since Riley is our little Turtle!

By far Riley's favorite party of the day was seeing the giraffes and Jeremy fed one!! We also got to pet the giraffe. It's fur was much rougher than I had expected it would be because it looks so smooth.

Riley checking out the monkeys

Riley was worn out so we checked out the baby animals while he took a quick nap. We got to see a baby lion eat his lunch, a baby kangaroo being bottle fed, a baby porcupine pee all over the place, an ocelot getting bottle fed, and a baby warthog.

Of course Riley woke up for lunch...we got to eat in front of a large tank at the aquarium!

Jeremy and Riley petting the stingrays!

Jeremy feeding a stingray that almost flipped out of the tank!

Jeremy feeding another stingray some shrimp!

I wasn't sure if I would be able to pet the stingrays but I did and it was amazing! I was so glad that we all did it! They are much softer than I had imagined that they would be. When they feed they suck from the middle of their body. And when they sting they don't actually sting but they scratch you. However it hurts so badly that you think you were stung.

Riley standing up to look at the turtle standing up on the other side of the window!

Riley loved the aquarium as much if not more than the zoo. He would run around pointing at tank after tank and talking to the fish! He touched every animal that you could touch including the starfish and sea urchin...which also involved him splashing a bunch of water out of their tanks too, haha!

This one penguin would follow Riley and I as we'd walk along its tank!

We even took Riley on the water logs! On the ride we got to see some monkeys and birds that we wouldn't have seen otherwise. Riley really liked the birds but didn't seem to care one way or another about the logs. He didn't show any emotions...no laughing or crying!

I'm holding on to Riley for dear life!

We were pretty wet but dried off fast in the Arizona dry air!

Next we took a boat ride and got to see some turtles, baby ducklings, gazelles, an albino kangaroo and much more!

Then we took a ride on the "choo choo"!

We saw several ostriches but Riley loved seeing the giraffes again!

Libby bought Riley this stuffed giraffe and as you can see he was WORN out from our fun day!

Later that evening Libby and Raub came over to babysit Riley and play with Lego's while Jeremy, Casey, and I went out for sushi at Nakama Sushi! It was excellent. We started out with an appetizer called Monkey-Brains, it was really stuffed mushrooms! We over-ordered though because we didn't realize the sushi rolls there are so much larger than here. One of my favorite rolls was a flaming sushi roll topped with lobster! And the ginger was white and spicier than what we get here. If I lived in Phoenix I'd spend alot of evenings at Nakama for sure!

Uh Oh...Bump in the Road.

Everything was going great until I got in the shower on Wednesday morning in Sedona. When I cut the shower on I noticed 3 tiny spiders and thought they must've been on the shower head so I drowned them in the water and started taking my shower. Then when I reached for my shampoo bottle I noticed a bunch of spiders....like over 20! So I yelled for Jeremy and he starts killing spiders and says what's that on your back? I had a HUGE rash all over the left side of my back. We packed up quickly and went to check out and got our room for free. The manager assured us she was 99% sure that there were no bed bugs.

We took the scenic route back home to Phoenix and took a ride through the mountains and through the towns of Jerome, Prescott, and Wickenburg.

When we got home we were worn out so we just ran to the grocery store for a few items and to get some Benadryl for me since I seemed to be having an allergic reaction of some sort. We ordered a pizza from this place called Papa Murphy's where they fix the pizza but you bake it at home. We had a 5 meat Chicago style pizza and it was really good!

Roadtrip Day 2: Grand Canyon to Sedona

On Tuesday morning we woke up to temps in the mid 30's and it started SNOWING at the Grand Canyon! Riley loved it! We just couldn't believe we had gone from the 90's in Phoenix on Monday morning to the mid 30's at the Grand Canyon on Tuesday morning! Even though it was cloudy it was so beautiful to see it snowing at the canyon. The pictures just can't capture the beauty of it!

On our way out of the park we saw wild elk on the side of the road!

Sedona was about a 2 hour drive away. Sedona is known as "Red Rock Country" and it was beautiful! We had a view of red rocks from our hotel rooms. Once we checked in at our hotel we headed out to see the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which is a chapel built into red rocks. The views from this elevation were beautiful.

Then we headed to Tlaquepaque for some shopping and an authentic Mexican dinner at El Rincon. We had their specialty...homemade machaca beef chimichangas and Riley enjoyed their cheese quesadilla! Then we did some shopping in downtown Sedona complete with dessert from a fudge shop. When we got to our rooms we had just missed sunset but it was beautiful nonetheless!

Grand Canyon

On Monday, Casey drove us out to the Grand Canyon. It was around a 4 hour drive but what a beautiful drive! We saw lots of desert and breathtaking mountains. We reached elevations up to 7,100 feet! Some mountains were still capped with snow that had not yet melted. For lunch we stopped at Wendy's in Tusayan, AZ right outside the Grand Canyon. Lets just say this Wendy's didn't have a dollar menu. They capitalized on their location with a combo costing $8 per person, haha!

We drove into the park and stopped at the visitor's center to take our first walk at the canyon and how beautiful it was. There are no words to describe one of God's greatest masterpieces. Here is our first view of the canyon from the South Rim:

Breathtaking. Tears to the eyes. All I could do was whisper a prayer of thanks to our Creator for allowing me to see one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World.

When Riley first saw the Grand Canyon he pointed and said, "Wo-ow!" I guess nothing describes it like the view thru an 18 month old child's eyes! He kept saying "Oooo...!"

We did quite a lot of walking then drove to check-in at the hotel located right ont he South Rim, El Tovar. This hotel was wonderful with its history and the staff was wonderful with suggestions and they had excellent service.

Once we were settled in our rooms we took another walk along the Grand Canyon Village past the other hotels, cabins, restaurants,and shops. Then we took the shuttle along the Hermit Historic Road stopping at many sites. This area is not accessible to cars. We ended up at Hopi Point for the sunset. The wind gusts were extremely cold (it was in the 50's at sunset) and Riley had windburn so Jeremy and I had to take the shuttle back about 5 minutes prior to the sun finally setting. But what we saw was still beautiful and amazing!

With sunset being at 7:23 and our having to make a trek back to the hotel, it was pretty late so Jeremy stayed with Riley while Casey and I got a reservation at the El Tovar Dining Room. We enjoyed our girls night and our waiter was even so kind as to deliver Jeremy his dinner to our room! Casey and I enjoyed smoked salmon crostinis and spinach salads with apples, bacon, gorgonzola and shallots. Needless to say we were only able to take a few bites of our main courses: grilled pork chops with smoked gouda and green chile cornbread dressing!

I can't think of a more perfect way to spend one day at the Grand Canyon! It is so amazing the way it changes colors according to where the sun is shining. It is one of the most peaceful, beautiful, spiritual places I've ever been.

Mother's Day 2010

Prior to leaving for our trip Jeremy and Riley gave me my Mother's Day Gift: a $100 giftcard for a spa/salon day at Heights of Converse! But needless to say the best gift of all was getting to spend the day with my 2 favorite men in beautiful Arizona! Unfortunately we were dragging and did not make it to church that morning. But for lunch we had a cookout at Casey's parents house including awesome ribeye steaks, twice baked potatoes, asparagus, mushrooms, and deviled eggs. Then Jeremy, Riley, and I went swimming in the Randels' pool. We were the first people to swim this season...the water was 78 degrees, chilly but refreshing! At first Riley didn't seem to know how he felt about the cold water but then he had fun and loved it.

Jeremy was pretty wimpy about it and did alot of complaining about swimming but finally jumped in!

Takeoff to Arizona

We decided for our family vacation this year that we would head out to visit our college friend, Casey in Phoenix, Arizona. Casey was my college roommate and best friend. Her parents live in Goodyear, AZ which is right outside of Phoenix so she has moved into an apartment out there.


Needless to say we were very nervous about flying with Riley at 18 months. He was SO excited when we got to the airport and he got to see the airplanes! He stood in the window shouting, "Ooooo....Ooooo" and beating on the window!

Our flight went really well. It was 4 1/2 hours long from Charlotte to Phoenix. We had a really nice girl in our row with us who was heading home from college for the summer. Riley fell asleep on takeoff and after about an hour Jeremy offered to take him to hold him for awhile. Big Mistake! It woke Riley up! We gave him a snack and played with his many toys we brought along...a wooden puzzle was the biggest hit, an Etch-A-Sketch, sticker book, crayons and coloring books, etc. He only cried out a couple of times and was easily distracted.


Landing in Phoenix was like stepping into a new world. It was hot in the 90 degree range but comfortable. It is amazing what a difference the humidity makes here in SC. At 90 degrees we'd be sweating here! There were blue skies and lots of dessert. It was flat in some areas then you would see mountains. And those mountains in the distance with the blue skies behind them were quite the scene! The cacti were blooming so that was pretty too but not too much fun for our allergies!


We grabbed a quick lunch then got settled in at Casey's apartment. She had bought whole milk for Riley along with kid food like goldfish, fruit, toast, etc. She had bought us all beach towels and some baby sunscreen as well as toys for Riley like a ball, a new book, and a float for the pool. And in our guest bedroom closet was a new t-shirt from Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium for Riley from Casey's Mom, Libby! After we were settled we went to visit the Randels' followed by a quiet night at home with some Chinese takeout.


And the best part was it was easy to adjust to the new time change (Pacific time is 3 hours behind us) because all we had to do was let Riley stay up late until he fell asleep on my arm sitting beside me!