To Phoenix we go!

This year I was so excited to hear that our Christmas trip would be to Phoenix.  Warm, sunny, and close enough that we could drive, which is so nice since we needed to drag along so much baby gear for Isla.  We drove 3 years ago when Miles was 2 months old so it was nice to be able to drive again with a newish baby.  And I learned a lot from that experience.  First of all it was so annoying to have to explain over and over again what snacks I had.  So this time while I was packing it all up, I snapped a quick picture of the snacks and also the treats and printed out a few copies.  Then from the way back of the minivan the kids could just look and choose what they wanted.  

Genius!  And it worked so well.

Taylor's dad rented us a nice big house so we could all be together and the fun began right away.  Lots of time to play games with Grams.  The boys beg every Sunday night for Grams to play games with them but most of the time she's in the middle of cooking or cleaning up from our meal and she doesn't get much time to play with them.  So this was much enjoyed time together and she was nice enough to drag along all their favorite games.  Since all of Taylor's siblings came to Christmas last year, they ended up going to their other families this year and we ended up being the only ones there with grams and grandpa for half the time.  It was actually perfect to do just kid things and lots of Christmasy things since I feel we so often miss out on those things during our trips.  It was perfect!

And of course since it's 20 degrees in Salt Lake, the boys LOVED having a heated pool and 65 degrees to enjoy.  Okay so I really loved the weather too.

How beautiful are these cacti?  My family drove a lot when I was growing up and I've seen most of the country but we've never driven through Arizona and it's absolutely breathtaking.  Huge rock monster mountains, amazing sunsets, and such a wide variety of cacti I've never seen.  It was a fun drive to really appreciate the beauty of nature.

And even once we were at the home we were still surrounded with desert beauty.

The boys all enjoyed having a diving ledge since our pool doesn't haven't anything like this.  And Miles was the king of the belly flop.  So funny!  He did this over and over again and just thought he was so funny.

Look at the perfectly flat splash he's made.

And after their fingers and toes got pruney, they came inside to put together the legos Esther and Arty gave them early for Christmas.

Isaac is such a crackup.  Never a dull moment with this kid and his laugh is so contagious.

Grams is always so patient with my boys.  I get frustrated and end up taking over and just building the projects on my own.  But she sits by and just helps them get it right and do it themselves.  She's such a great teacher!

And after everyone built their cars, the kitchen island turned out to be the perfect racetrack.

We didn't have space to bring all our Christmas decorations but I found these snowflake patterns on Pinterest and had to bring them.  So we spent an hour cutting out star wars shapes for the boys...

and ballerinas for the girls.

They turned out cute and gave us a little more Christmas cheer.

With all the beautiful weather we had to take walks through the neighborhood.  Ethan is an enthusiastic stroller pusher and fun to have along.

And then we got to see all the amazing cacti up close.

This kind is actually called a jumping cactus because if you approach it too fast it actually shoots off a puff of needles at you.  We didn't see it jump and we didn't try too hard since I prefer looking and not touching these prickly beauties.

We walked by a dead cactus too and it was neat to see what's inside.

Isla was our cute buddy as always.  I can't get enough of her.

The landscapes were really inspiring and lovely.

And back at home there was more fun to come.  Mini gingerbread houses to build and decorate.  I had planned to do these in Salt Lake but as always life got busy and it was nice to be able to just throw the kit in the car and do them in Phoenix when we had time.

Also great to find a kit that had enough houses for everyone to make their own.

And of course there was plenty of time to play with Isla while we hung at the house.  She didn't particularly love the hard stone floors.  Okay she hated them but that's just because she's currently very into rolling and is used to having her head land on soft carpet.  Poor little girl.  Oh well, it's just 1 week and then you'll be back and on a roll- literally.