Back from a fantastic vacation!!!

We made it home Saturday night and let me just start off by saying that Izzy was the absolute best traveler! We could not have asked for her to be any better!!!! She was great on teh plane, despite the long trip and the most amazing thing is she just totally went with teh flow the whole trip. I don't even think she had any major meltdowns! She napped everyday and slept just fine every night. After the first couple nights we just let her have a bed to herself which worked out much better, she is no fun to sleep with she sleeps sidesways and kicks you all night. It still amazes me that we would tell her it was time for a nap, take her in the bedroom, lay her down in one bed one of us would lay down in the other bed and in 10-15 minutes she was sleeping!!! It worked out great!!!!! She really was amazing!

Okay so here is how the trip went. Vegas was fine, except I was so sick. By the time i got to vegas on Wednesday I had a full blown sinus infection from hell. Luckily i called my dr and seh called in an antibiotic for me but even with that most of vegas i felt like crap and sounded even worse. I pretty much had no voice from Thursday until about tuesday! So most nights in vegas i was in bed early but I did try to have a little fun outside teh conference. One night I went to Toby Keith's I love this bar that was in our hotel and danced the night away and it was so much fun!!!! Friday night I saw Phantom with my mom and we had awesome seats and it was a really good show. Saturday was my favorite day because the conference was over and I spent the entire morning walking the strip! I put in my ipod and walked my booty off! It was really the only workout i did the whole trip. I under estimated how hard it would be to find time to get that in.

So chris and Iz came on Saturday afternoon and Izzy was SOOOOO happy to see me it was great!! She was kiddy with giggles and excitement, it totally melted my heart. By the time they got in they were starving and Izzy was tired so we pretty much ate and fell asleep by 7:30, my parents even offered to come to our room after their Circ De Soelie show so chris and I could go out but he was sleeping so we didn't take them up on their offer. Sunday we walked the strip a little with izzy then headed out. We were driving to grand canyon and on to sedona all in one day. Let me say this was a bit of a mistake. This was a VERY long drive, farther than I think we both thought it would be. Izzy did suprising well considering we were in teh car for about 8 hours!!!! We got a great rental car (they upgraded us after it was a 2hr nightmare to get the car) so we had a totally pimped out explorer that was super confortable and even had a plug for my ipod so izzy could listen to her tunes. We listened to a lot of toddler music on the drive. So by the time we got to grand canyon we really only got out once. (because there are no guard rails really so it made chris and I very nervous to have izzy running around, plus she was crabby and much happier in the car watching dora) but we did drive the long way all along the canyon. We then drove the next couple hours to Sedona. The road you have to go through the mountains to get down to sedona is supposed to be absolutely beautiful but unfortunately it was very dark when we went through so we could see nothing. And poor izzy, the road was very twisting turning, and by the time we got to the end she got sick! Poor kid btwn the stomach bug she had the previous week and the car sickness she is a bit traumatized, she will say "all done sick, yucky" randomly now all the time.

We pretty much ate and went to bed in Sedona the first night but our room had great beds and a private balcony with a great view. The next day we walked all around sedona and went otu to eat for lunch and grilled our own dinner on the bbq on the hotel/time share property. The place we stayed worked out great, they had a playground which izzy loved and an indoor pool which she also loved.

We made it to scottsdale about noonish, had some lunch and then checked into our hotel. While our hotel was not the nicest it worked out fine and was clean. We were on the ground floor right by the entrance to the pool so while izzy napped we could lay out at the pool and go in and check on her ever so often. The majority of the people staying at this place were all seniors so chris and I were teh youngest by a good 30+ years. It was hilarious, at one point we were at the pool with all the old folks that were in teh water and DH said he felt like he was in the middle of the movie cocoon!

(Izzy's favorite pastime at our hotel, playing with rocks outside our room door)

I will give the quick version of the time spent with family. It went very well, Izzy was the star of the show and got along nicely with everyone. It wasn't akward with Stu and wendy, it was fine. I really did enjoy the time spend with everyone. Here is a quick recap of what we did while in scottsdale.

Tuesday-arrived, ate, Izzy napped and then we went to my uncles house for bbq for dinner with family


Wednesay-We drove with my grandparents and Stu to Superstition mountain, a park about an hour from scottsdale and took some pictures, came back, Izzy napped and I hung out at the pool, we went out for dinner that night

Thursday-DH Izzy and I spend the morning ourselves walking around old towne scottsdale and the city buildings with a ton of fountains. We also watched a native american music/dance free show that was set up. Came back to hotel, izzy napped we drank beer and hung by the pool and then took izzy swimming when she got up then went to uncles house for bbq for dinner


Friday-We went with Stu/Wen and my grandparents to the Phx zoo. What an AWESOME zoo, so much better than the detroit zoo. Came back to hotel, hung by pool took izzy swimming after nap and went out to dinner with family and said goodbye to everyone


Saturday-Visited a park and let izzy play for a while then headed to the airport and headed home.

It was an awesome time. I am very proud of myself for being so relaxed, i didn't feel any stress. I started an finished a book "Twilight" I am now addicted and will be starting the 2nd one tonight i am sure.

We had wonderful weather, especially in Scottsdale, I miss it already!!! It is a whopping 15 degrees outside right now!!! I CAN'T WAIT FOR SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!