Arizona Trip

At the end of June, the girls and I went on a road trip with Karen and my mom to Scottsdale, Arizona. My mom had an appointment with a doctor at the Mayo clinic there. I had never been to New Mexico or Arizona so I was excited to add those to my list of states I have visited.

Scottsdale is about 14 hours away from the Denver area, so we decided to split up the driving into two days of 7 hours each. Albuquerque lies right about half way at around 7 hours south, so it worked out well.

We rented a minivan and I was the designated driver. We left on Saturday, June 25th and spent that night in Albuqueque. We arrived in Scottsdale on Sunday night, June 26th.

The tall saguaro cacti are so amazing! We loved the scenery around Scottsdale. It is definitely arid and HOT, but it is also very beautiful. It was around 115 degrees during the days we were there. Thank goodness it is a dry heat – that definitely helps it be almost bearable.

My aunt and two of my cousins live in Scottsdale, so we were able to have some family time while were there. On Monday, Aunt Kay took us to a nearby restaurant and then to a fancy mall that had several levels. The girls enjoyed a play place and the glass elevator.

We all enjoyed browsing around. Aunt Kay was a lot of fun and would race with Adrianna, so Adrianna liked her right away. She whispered to me, “Is she going to stay the night at our hotel?” and was disappointed when I said that she wouldn’t be staying the night with us. But her spirits picked back up when I told her we would see her the following day at my cousin Kathy’s house.

I was happy to learn that my cousin Kathy had recently moved to Scottsdale. She invited us, along with Aunt Kay, over for dinner and it was delicious! We got to meet her husband, Erik, and their son, William. William is 6 months older than Bree, so it was fun to watch them watch each other. I really enjoyed the time with my extended family!

We stayed at a La Quinta in Scottsdale. Other than the very first night there, we were able to have adjoining rooms, which was nice when it came to the girls’ bedtime and Bree’s naps.

On Wednesday night, we went to a restaurant in Mesa called Organ Stop Pizza. Greg had shared with me on numerous occasions an event from his childhood where he was traumatized by a loud pipe organ at a pizza joint called Pipe Organ Pizza. (Just because of the loud noise and he has sensitive ears.) So when I saw the Organ Stop Pizza place when I was doing a search online for restaurants to visit, I knew I just had to visit. And I texted Greg a picture of the pipe organ followed by another text with a picture of pizza to see if he could figure out where we were. He did. LOL.

Turns out that this pizza place was not like the one Greg remembered from his childhood though. It had a musician playing the organ and wasn’t just background music; it was the main event. After reading their website, I found out that this particular pipe organ is the largest Wurlitzer pipe organ in the world. Fun!

Both girls really enjoyed the experience and so did Karen and I.

They ended the show with a medley of all the songs from The Sound of Music. (You can see Adrianna’s excited expression below as she recognized the songs.) During the Lonely Goatherd song, the puppet cats came out to perform. By the end of the medley, the entire audience was singing along.

Unfortunately, our fun trip ended up with most of us catching a flu bug. I got it first on Wednesday night, which ended in me spending most of the night in the bathroom. Bree woke up and was crying loudly but I was too busy in the bathroom to hold her, so Adrianna went into the next room to ask my mom or sister if they could get Bree. I couldn’t even drive my mom to her doctor’s appointment on Thursday morning. Thankfully, she and Karen were able to take a free shuttle from our hotel. Karen got the flu next, barely making it off of the shuttle and into the hotel lobby bathroom. And then Adrianna got it that night, so I was up all night with her. It was not a fun way to end our vacation and we were sad to have to cancel our plans to visit the Rincon Ranch in New Mexico with my Aunt Kay and her friend Ed.

I was feeling mostly better by Friday, so we decided to make the drive home. Poor Adrianna was still feeling sickly, which you can see from her expression in the picture below at an overlook we stopped at on our way home.

We made it home safe and sound on Saturday, a day earlier than we’d planned due to the flu. It is a week later and I still feel like I am recovering from our long road trip. But it was fun and so worth it. My mom got some good information from her doctor at Mayo and he also recommended a new treatment that sounds hopeful for her condition.