Arizona Trip & My 32nd Birthday!

This year at the beginning of February, we did something we never do.  We took a spontaneous family trip on an airplane!  How it came about is a bit of a long story, but there were some good friends near Phoenix, AZ we hadn't seen in a long time, there was a potential job opportunity there we wanted to at least check out, and we were planning on taking a pre-Spring Break family vacation anyway (since Jon knew Spring Break time frame would be busy for him at work).  So when we found pretty cheap flights to Phoenix, we thought, "Hey, let just go visit family, visit friends, check out the area and the job, and make it a fun little family vacation."  So that's just what we did!

We were able to stay a couple of nights with Jon's brother Scott and his family and it was great!  The kids loved playing with their dogs, eating all their snacks, playing on their playground, picking lemons and grapefruits from their tree, and Scott and Allison were great hosts!  It was my birthday while we were there and they even made me a cake :)  I was also super excited because Phoenix has Cafe Rio so I got to have a yummy pork salad for my birthday dinner!

We also got to spend lot of time visiting with our awesome friends Justin and Alissa.  It had been way too long since we had seen them and it was a blast catching up!  I brought the kids over one day to play at their house and Alissa bought us Chick Fil A for lunch since it was my birthday.  We went to a park together and the kids got to play and enjoy being outside.  They invited us over for dinner the next night and then we watched The Bachelor together in our sweats, just like old times.  Some people are just "your people" and these guys definitely are :)

The next day we checked into The Great Wolf Lodge and spent the next day and a half there.  It is such a fun place for the family!  This kids love the water and the slides and the crafts.  We let the kids all do a build a bear this time and they all thought that was pretty fun.  Overall, I think we all preferred the Wisconsin Dells Lodge from last year slightly better but this one had some fun new slides to try out.  Plus, Justin and Alissa, surprised us and decided to come join us for swimming one day with their kids!  That was lots of fun too!  

We had too wake up WAY too early the next morning to fly back home and that was slightly miserable, but little Madi fell asleep on take-off and slept the entire flight home!  That was a major relief (except for my sore butt because I couldn't shift positions for 2 1/2 hrs!). 

It was definitely a fun family trip and it was great to see family and friends!  My kids have asked me no less than 200 times since, "When can we go back to Scott and Allison's house?"  We will definitely have to plan another trip out there sometime!  

New Years 2020

We celebrated New Years in our traditional- low key way.  We have come to love this tradition over the years!  We spend Christmas and the days before and after surrounded by family and for New Years Eve, we are back in our own home and we just enjoy celebrating together.  We do a finger food dinner- anchored usually by buffalo wild wings (but after Jon had to wait an hour after his pick up time for our food this year we are thinking that might need to change).  Then we watch movies together in our PJs and sleeping bags and pause throughout to enjoy Cotton Candy, Snow Cones, and Chocolate Fondue.  Then we do a netflix countdown, send the kids to bed between 10-11, and then stay up together watching our own movie and toasting with some grape sparkling cider at midnight.  It's good times :)

Christmas 2019

Once again we headed to Minnesota to spend Christmas with the Day family in Rochester.  My kids love spending Christmas at Grandma and Grandpas house.  Their Pack cousins have flown in from Utah the last several years also and they have loved the constant cousin time with them, Mark's kids, and Mikes's kids.

We spent 8 days there this year.  There wasn't a lot of snow, which was kind of a bummer, but on the bright side- no one got sick this year!!!  Jon and I also got 1 week gym memberships which ended up being a really nice outlet and way to not feel as gross from all the yummy food.

We were able to go see some fun movies with the help family around to watch our kids after they were in bed.  We saw Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Jumanji 2, and Knives Out.

We made some new ornaments for Grandma's tree, made gingerbread houses, and the kids had fun playing together inside and out.

Colton mostly asked for Legos for Christmas and got 2 sets of Jurassic World legos, a stuffed Komodo dragon (which he also requested), some 3-D puzzles, some blank books, and personalized look and find, a letter writing/sending kit, and lots more.  For his big surprise he got 2 tickets to Dino Quest that is coming to Des Moines in February- one for him and one for Jon!

Katie asked for lots and lots of things, she had a two page + double sided Christmas list so pretty much everything she got was on the list.  She got a blinger, hatchimals, a stencil kit, a barbie and barbie dresses, blank books, some clothes, and more.  Her big surprise was a Barbie Dream House which she really really wanted but didn't expect us to get her!

Zach lost his Christmas list and couldn't really remember what he wanted so we shot in the dark a bit but he seemed to enjoy what he got!  He got a stuffed puppy, a personalized Zach puzzle, a buzz light year toy, a spider man web shooter, some ninja turtles, a camera, and other fun things.  His big surprise was a Hot Wheels John Deere Gator and he loves it!!

Madi doesn't even know what she wants half of the time, mostly she was just excited we let her eat lots of treats all week.  She got some stuffed toys, a toy piggy bank, a toy guitar, a personalized book I made for her, some clothes, and other things.  Her big surprise was a Cozy Coupe!

Jon and I mostly picked out our own presents but I surprised him with a Vikings Yard flag, which I think he likes and I got some clothes and a heated blanket and a curling wand.

It was a great Christmas and we had lots of fun spending it with family!