Arizona Adventure!

It has been way too long since we posted. We spent last week in Arizona and had a great time. We stayed for 4 nights in Scottsdale at the Westin Kierland Resort, and then spend a night in Flagstaff after seeing the Grand Canyon, spent part of a day in Sedona, then finished up with 2 nights at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort. Our 10th anniversary was on the 11th, so it all tied in with that.

The kids were extremely excited to go on a "jet plane" again. They love flying. When you stop and think about it, they have been a lot of places for being just 5. New York, Seattle, Florida, Texas, Arizona. Not to mention all the places we have driven through!

The Kierland resort was so great. It is nice and has a great balance of stuff for kids and adults. We spent A LOT of time in the pools, where they had a nice long lazy river to float down and a great water slide that we couldn't get the kids off of! One afternoon, the kids spent time in their kid's club, while Kim and I got some time to hang at the pool, and then the night of our anniversary they had a "pajama party" for the kids where they took them to dinner, watched movies, and messed around while Kim and I went out for dinner. We also got to spend an afternoon with my Grandpa and Grandma Klem who live in Sun City West, AZ. We haven't seen them in a couple of years since Travis and Kasia's wedding, so it was great. They brought a cake to celebrate our anniversary, and gifts for Kim and the kids. It was great to catch up with them. We couldn't have had a better 4 days there and highly recommend the resort to anyone looking for a great place to stay in Scottsdale.

The trip to the Grand Canyon was probably cooler for Kim and I than the kids. They were looking forward to seeing "the big hole", but got bored with it pretty quickly. It was the first time I had seen it, and I have to say, everyone should check it out. It is amazing. I couldn't fathom how wide or deep it was. I would have loved to spend a lot more time there, but the kids were getting bored with it! On our way back to Flagstaff (another great little town that looks more like somewhere in Colorado than Arizona) we stopped by the small town of Williams, AZ. It is on old Route 66. The kids loved it since the movie "Cars" talks about it. Austin was a little disappointed we weren't in Radiator Springs like the movie, but we stopped at an old school DQ for a little ice cream, and all was good.

The next day we spent quite a bit of time in Sedona. First, the drive from Flagstaff to Sedona through Oak Creek Canyon is one of the most beautiful drives I think exists. I can't really speak to the beauty of it, or really of Sedona. It was a perfect day weather wise, and as you will see in the pictures, the red rocks against the blue sky is something incredible. It is touristy, with lots of little shops and stuff, but what an amazing place. Definitely worth another trip sometime.

We had a pretty relaxing last 2 days back in Scottsdale playing in the pool and just hanging out. It was another beautiful resort with lots of kids stuff to go along with being nice for adults.

The week went quickly, of course, but not without some good stuff from the kids. Caitlin would ask every kid in the pool to be her friend. A few of them actually played with them quite a bit! They called the shallow end of the pool the "hollow end." The night in Flagstaff we stayed in a Springhill Suites. When Caitlin heard the name of the hotel, she asked if they had sweets that she could eat.

I have to thank Lynn and John and our neighbors Livia and Brad. Of course, we thought we could save from boarding Hoops by having them check on him and feed and let him out while we were gone. Well, Hoops wouldn't eat or pretty much move the first couple of days we were gone. The third day, Lynn stopped by to find diahhrea all over the place in our house. Livia was kind enough to take him to the vet the next morning and then the kennel. Seems that he was nothing but depressed that we were gone, and probably lonely. The vet said he was fine, the kennel said he was great there, and Lynn and John cleaned up the house and we came home with basically no sign of the disaster that had occurred while we were gone. We owe them all dearly!

Enjoy some of the pictures from the trip...I think we took around 450 of them during the week!