A long overdue trip to Tucson

After two years of being away from Tucson, it was about time we had a cousin visit on the old turf. We left SLC Tuesday afternoon and stopped at Daniela's house so the boys could play. They had a great time hanging out with the cousins. Ryan got in the midst to join in the fun and they all loved it. We slept at my parent's house before leaving for Phoenix early Wednesday. Ryan left in Earl's truck and I drove the rental car with DeeAnn and the kids. It was my first time driving that stretch of road as driver instead of passenger. We stopped plenty of times on the way to avoid any accidents, and even had a few side of the road pit stops as well. The boys kept busy with snacks, books, music and dvds and did pretty well considering a 7 hour drive after 4 hours in the car the night before. DeeAnn was great company and help with the boys. In Phoenix, we met up with Ryan and one of DeeAnn's old chinese students for dinner at the worst Chili's ever. "Superman" was very interesting. I expected him to be pretty goofy due to his nickname, but he was very intelligent and nice. He's here to learn how to be a pilot. With only one school in China and a nation that badly needs pilots, they export their students to gain their flight education before bringing them back to fulfil a lifetime contract with the airline. Pretty wild. DeeAnn says he must be a "party" member to have such privilege, but to me, it sounds like slavery. Granted, he will earn a lot of money, but a lifetime contract at anything sounds scary.

In the morning, we left the hotel and parted ways again. Ryan was off for a day of business meetings and we were off to breakfast with Camilla Butler, who introduced Ryan and I in Spain. We met her at a cute place in called The Farm where I had the best french toast I've ever had. It was a little outdoor cafe in the middle of pecan trees, chickens, and gardens. It was good to Camilla after several years of not seeing eachother. She had to get off to her busy, lawyer workday and we were off to Tucson.

The boys loved our time there. Before even seeing the cousins, they had a chance to play with their toys. That was almost as good as playing with Travis and Cosette! Travis has just about every Star Wars toy ever imaginable so it was a heyday for my boys that have second-hand light sabers , a Transformer Millenium Falcon and one Star Wars Lego set (even though it is the awesome Star Destroyer!).

We all went to pick Travis up from his school where the boys had a great time playing in the school yard. It looks like a fun place to go to school. Back at the house, they spent plenty of time in the backyard as well as in Travis' bedroom. We ate pizza at the park and the boys were happy that "Superman" gave them little flashlights so they could navigate the horse droppings on the way back to the house. Before heading out to our hotel, they even had a little cousin bath to counter the sand bath they had outside! Of course, some Star Wars figurines joined them and they were very sad to say goodbye for the night.

We spent a good part of Friday at the Tucson Zoo and Reid Park. I miss that zoo! It is the perfect size with all the great animals you want to see in fairly decent habitats. We started with a ride on the train before moving on to lunch within earshot of my favorite monkeys. The boys had so much fun running around together, seeing all the animals and playing in the water. We lingered at Reid Park and taught the boys how to race leaves and sticks in the little stream. They got as frustrated and attached to their little "boats" as Gigi and I remembered doing in our respective childhoods.

Between fun activities with the family, we snuck in visits with some friends as well. We saw Becca and Fletcher Brinkerhoff and their cute little Bjorn. It was great to catch up. Seeing their pictures of their trip to visit John and Kadee Hughes in Spain made me jealous in so many ways. We also saw Jeff and Tamara, which was nice. We tried to hang out at Luke and Dave's. In fact, we were going to sleep there so we could hang out, but Cai couldn't fall asleep with all the noise and I had to abandon the plan. I went back to the hotel with Cai to join DeeAnn so Ryan could stay and hang out with the guys.

On Saturday morning, all the family, with the exception of Bert, met at Old Tucson, which gets it's own post.

Sunday was spent at church and just relaxing with the family. Sadly the ward boundaries just changed so we didn't get to see all the old friends that we were hoping to see. Still, it was great to see some old faces. The best was just spending time relaxing with and catching up with family.