Arizona Trip!

So, the day after tax season was over we headed down to AZ to see my family. My sister and her hubby were sealed to their daughter and it was so amazing to be able to be there with them. The drive down was AWFUL! Both Maddie and Bry woke up at 4 am when we left and neither of them went back to sleep. Well, Bry took an afternoon nap but Maddie would get to the almost asleep point and then start SCREAMING! She really wanted to be out of her carseat. Needless to say, it was a really hard trip down. The way home wasn't so bad because I broke every car law possible and let Maddie out of her car seat to take a nap. Yep, it's true. I'm the worst mom there ever was!  :)  When Bry layed down (Yep, he was out of his car seat, too!!)  to take an afternoon nap Maddie almost fell asleep in her car seat and I tried to get in a bit of sleep too. Well, again, Maddie woke up screaming and screaming so I took her out, laid her down on me and we both slept for a couple of hours. It was pure heaven! Maddie and I were both happy campers for the rest of the trip. The moral of the story? Do ANYTHING to keep your daughter from screaming in a VERY small car space!!  :)  So, here are some pics of our fun time down there. It was HOT! Too hot for April, in my opinion, but we all got to wear our summer clothes which was a fun change from sweaters. 

 My mom had some fun dress up clothes and Maddie really liked this butterfly outfit!

This is the AZ Temple grounds. It was so pretty with all the flowers.

Maddie loved walking around the grounds too. Well, she loved being pushed around the Temple! I tried to take her out and she kept saying stroller stroller so I put her back in and she happily sat there for almost an hour!

This is my mom and my sister Katie. Maddie LOVED my mom and it was so fun to see my mom play with my kiddos. She doesn't get to see them very often so I was happy when Maddie wasn't shy or scared of my mom. She's been a bit clingy lately and hasn't done very well with strangers.

This is Jake. Bry wouldn't let Jake out of his sight almost the entire trip. When we were at my mom's house Bry would go grab the leash and take Jake around and around the yard. If Jake would go inside to get away from Bry, Bry would follow him inside and say "Come here Jake, let's go for a walk!"  It was adorable. He really loves dogs. Too bad he'll never have one. Ever. He'll just have to enjoy all the neighbor's dogs!

My sister took us to this great park while we were there. It was HUGE and covered which is a necessity in AZ. The kids had a blast playing with the toys and with their cousins.

They had a much bigger rock that the big kids climbed up and Bry was pretty sad that I wouldn't let him do what all the big kids were doing. Luckily, there was this rock. This was the smaller of the two rocks, if you can believe it. Now can you see why I wouldn't let Bry near the other one???

All in all a wonderful trip. We celebrated Maddie's birthday while we were there so I'll post those pics next. Stay tuned!  Thanks to my family for a great trip. :)