Welcome to Arizona, the land of dry heat

Welcome to Arizona, the land of dry heat and cacti. For the record, dry heat is STILL hot!!! If I'm sweating, it doesn't matter if the heat is dry, cold, wet, or whatever, it's H-O-T! While we were in Phoenix for vacay, temperatures were pushing 115-120 degrees! AR and I, who normally ride our bikes and walk around our neighborhood almost every night were both struggling to get to QT for a drink but no worries, once we had an ice cold beverage, the walk back was much easier.

So what did we do in those high temperatures? Well, we swam... a lot!!! We only had to get a hotel for two nights then we stayed the other three nights at my friend's condo. I found a great deal on Groupon for two night's stay including breakfast, pool, AND two water park passes for less than $150. So our lodging for the trip was a steal!

Saturday we spent the majority of the day swimming then hit up old Scottsdale for dinner. We had burgers at David's Hamburgers. We snapped this picture and sent it to Nanny to say we were having dinner with granddad since his name is David.

Then we found this delicious old ice cream parlor called the Sugar Bowl. Look at her eyes, we were both pretty stoked to eat this! They also had an arcade so we spent some time playing in there and winning some trinkety prizes.

Sunday we got up and swam at the hotel with a friend of ours then went to lunch at Portillo's. In the afternoon, we hit up Big Surf Water Park. They had TONS of rides that were perfect for AR so we had a blast there!

If she did this water slide once, she did it about 50 times!

Oh, I forgot to mention that the hotel ran a shuttle from the airport to the hotel AND to the water park, too! This was us waiting for the shuttle to pick us up.

Monday we went to the Grand Canyon. Then Tuesday, we visited the Kimpton Palomar Hotel. It was a real swanky hotel with a rooftop pool. So long as you ordered something from the bar, you could swim for free! AR and I enjoyed these delicious nachos.

And we also split a Shirley Temple!

The afternoon was still hot so we went to see Captain Underpants and had the whole theater to ourselves!

After the movies, we headed over to Chase Field to catch our Red Birds playing the Diamondbacks. They had a sign making station and AR definitely had the most eclectic sign showing her support for Dback, Brave, and Card players.

We got a stamp in her MLB passport book, a certificate for her first game, and as an added bonus, we found Hazelbaker cards! She was precious as she held the card to her chest and said how much she missed him.

After a few innings, AR and I decided to explore the stadium. We found the Kids Club on the top level. It was awesome!!! It's free to join and the kids get something almost every visit. They have a huge playground that AR loved running around and playing on.

We moved down to the main level and hung out in the outfield for half an inning with Tommy Pham.

Baxter the Bobcat, the Diamondbacks mascot (why it's not a snake, I don't know???), visits the Den during the 4th inning so the kids can see him and get pictures.

They had real live batting practice for the kids too! AR hit off the tee at the first game then wanted real pitches for the next two times. She loved this area!

We found the pool in the outfield!!!

Wednesday was headed to OdySea which was a nice, indoor activity. It's hard to capture all the animals in pictures but I got some really great videos.

They had stringrays that you could pet... AR preferred to look and not touch, I don't blame her.

This was the second time we saw this shark... the first time was in the bathroom when we were washing our hands!

For some reason, I don't see swimming with the sharks in her future.

They had an awesome penguin exhibit.

And then, of course, we found CUPCAKES!!! We visited 21 Cakes.

AR got white cake with chocolate frosting and I got an Oreo one. We both agreed the Oreo one was AMAZING!!!

Then we headed back to the condo where we both took LONG naps!!! It was a two hour time difference, which I didn't think was a big deal, but we were up EARLY every day!!!

After our nap, we headed back to Chase Field. We ate dinner at the restaurant beside it then played Connect 4 and Cornhole before the gates opened. Funny how just six months ago, AR did NOT understand Connect 4 at all and now she finally gets it!

This time, we headed down to the Cards dugout during their batting practice, in our Diamondbacks shirts mind you. She yelled at Greg Garcia (#35) to see if he missed his former teammate Hazelbaker. He nodded that he did and AR told him she did too.

Mike Matheny stopped and signed her ball for her as did the bullpen catcher, Teran. She was pretty stoked about that!

I'm not going to lie, Chase Field has ruined me. Sitting inside, in the AC, watching baseball... I never want to sweat through another outdoor game again.

AR was supporting #hazelbakerthecupcakemaker the whole time we were there!

Game #2 and she got this sweet Dbacks shirt.

Thursday was a day game so we woke up, packed, and headed down to the stadium for our last game at Chase Field.

AR got Mike Mayers autographed and when she asked him what his batting song was, he laughed and said he wished he got to bat. He went on to pitch later in the game that day.

Game #3 and she got this sweet Dbacks sleeve. She wore it from the moment she got it until we crawled in our own bed back at home in Missouri that night.

Once again, showing #hazelbakerthecupcakemaker some love!

After the game, we ran up to the TGI Friday's that's in the stadium and woofed down some fries and chicken. Then we caught a Lyft to the airport and boarded our plane home.

It was the first vacation with just the two of us and it was awesome!!! We stayed busy, played hard, and still got some R&R then it was back to reality. I'm ready for our next adventure and I know my Mini Me is always game for a little road trip fun. Stay tuned to see where we take our next adventure to!!!

Grand Canyon

AR and I had the experience of a lifetime this past Monday. We got to visit the Grand Canyon and we got to see it by helicopter! It was a check off both of our bucket lists and one that we'll never forget. When we first decided to take our summer vacation to Phoenix, I knew I wanted to visit the Grand Canyon. It was about three hours away but I figured when would we ever be close enough again so we had to make the trip. I researched and researched and researched some more trying to find the most affordable yet best way to view the Canyon. After hours of research, I decided on a Detours of the West tour and it was the best decision! Everything from booking to pick up to the tour and dropoff was easy peasy. This was definitely the BEST option!

First stop was at the Red Rocks in Sedona. We stopped to get a scenic view of the red mountains first.

We had a great group of people on our tour, mainly all couples, one guy from New Zealand visiting the States for the first time (luckily he was wearing a bright orange shirt so we always kept in in view!), two sets of parents with their adult kids then AR and me. I'll be honest, I was worried that AR would be bored but she was an all-star! She loved looking out the window, I let her take pictures and we didn't even get the tablet out until the last three hours of the trip (we started at 6AM and didn't get back until 8PM!). Two of the couples complimented her on how well behaved she was as the exited the tour bus and I was so proud of her and couldn't agree more.

We stopped at some stores in Sedona for about 30 minutes. We took in some more views then AR and I were off to find some postcards, it was the ultimate scavenger hunt but we found them!!! Here's AR posing with the Snoopy Rock in the background.

I snapped this picture on a whim and it might be one of my all time favorite pictures of her now, doesn't she look so grown up?

Waiting on the last few people to get back to the bus, I couldn't resist snapping this... love those bright colors!

She was "freezing" on the bus so she hijacked my jacket!

About two hours later, we got to our next stop. I hadn't told her what we were doing so she was super surprised when she saw the helicopters and found out we got to ride in one! She was also excited because a girl on our helicopter looked like a mermaid from Mako Mermaids...

This is us right after takeoff!

OMG! This girl LOVED the headset and monopolized the air space. Our pilot, Sean, would tell us some facts about the Grand Canyon. When he finished, she'd say, "Thanks, Sean, that was interesting!" She even complimented him on his music selection. I was also very proud of her for asking questions like how deep the river was and where the other helicopters went. I love to see her being confident and not worrying about what other people think.

Holding her Mama's hand as we takeover, I'll forever cherish little moments like these.

And now the wonder and awe that is the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River!

Even from above, it is impossible to capture the massiveness of this place!

All smiles from both of us!

AR and I shared photography duty and we both captured some stunning shots.

After the chopper ride, we got to see the Grand Canyon by land.

Looking to see how far down it is... it's amazing to me that there weren't more guardrails or safety precautions but I guess everyone knows to respect the Canyon and it's greatness.

AR with the Duck Rock behind her... it took me awhile to figure this one out but I finally saw it!

I love being able to share experiences like these with my girl. She's an amazing travel companion and we both learn so much from each other.

 

Oh, we also loved that the temperature was about 20 degrees cooler than Phoenix although the altitude and dryness really messed with our sinuses. 

So don't quote me on all this but I think this is the Little Colorado River. It has calcium in the water so the reflection from the sun makes it this pretty blue color.

We even got to walk below the South Rim! I think our guide said maybe like 20% of people that visit the Grand Canyon do this so we're in the minority here. 

This was our guide Mr. Mark. AR asked him to be in this picture with her. To me, it looks like they are photoshopped in the picture but they're not, that's nature's real beauty right there! Shoutout to Mark for showing us some amazing sights! With our tour, we also got a delicious lunch which for AR and I was enough for both lunch and dinner.

This girl is so brave and fearless! #lovemyAR

Photo by AR, love her point of view!

Seriously... best...kid...EVER!

The colors are just so beautiful, it's hard to capture it all in photos!

I think AR took this one and it's one of my faves, we also love all the blue!

We got in a few jumping pictures, too!

I even got in on it too... not sure if I'm more impressed with the height I got or AR for capturing this picture in motion...

Oh and of course we can't go anywhere without cartwheels!

Then on the way home, we saw the sun setting through a wild fire. Pretty awesome pic!

 

And that, my friends, was the trip of a lifetime!!!