A great escape...

from the cold that is!

This past week my Grandma and Grandpa Craythorne had a trip planned to go visit my Grandma's sister, Shirley and her husband, Dennis, in Queen Creek, Arizona and with Keaton and I both about ready to pull our hair out from being stuck inside the house all the time (Okay, so it was mostly just me ready to pull my hair out, but... :) ) we decided that we would tag along with them! So, on Tuesday, March 15th we headed away from the cold and into the 90 some odd degree weather that the state of Arizona is currently lucky enough to be experiencing. Oh, it was simply wonderful!

I couldn't have asked for a better baby to be in the car with through the hours and hours of driving that we did over the past week. Keaton was a real trooper. He slept, and ate, and played, in the car and seldom seemed one bit sad about having to be in his carseat for such a long time.

I would like to summarize our trip day by day. (I will try to be brief.)

Tuesday, March 15th- We headed out, stopped for lunch at a nice little cafe (in I don't even remember what little town now...) and then made our way to St. George where we stopped to visit my Grandma's brother Noal and his wife Betty Jo. (I love visiting Noal and Betty Jo, they are such nice, fun people to visit with and have always been so very kind and caring to me.) Then we finished our drive for the day by stopping to stay in Mesquite, Nevada for the night.

Wednesday, March 16th- We continued our drive after a quick breakfast at McDonald's. We did make a few stops along the way- for gas, bathroom breaks, lunch, and maybe once to change a really stinky diaper. :) But, we finally made it to Queen Creek, Arizona around 5pm on Wednesday afternoon. It was fun to take a tour of Shirley and Dennis's nice home and then visit for a while. And then Shirley made us a super yummy dinner of chicken enchiladas.

Thursday, March 17th- Shirley made us a delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns. Then we all went on a little drive around Queen Creek (all together in an old caddilac car that had no air conditioning, I might add, my Grandpa was pretty hot by the time our drive was over, ha ha).

So, this is a kinda random picture, but while we were on our drive we saw this car and its license plate surprised us. How do you end up with a license plate like this???

Thursday afternoon we went to lunch at a fun little Chinese restaurant and then Keaton and I went on a walk for a bit while everyone else visited and watched the BYU game. (I know, I know, I should have watched the game, but it was just too nice outside to miss out on taking a good, long walk!) And then, once again, Shirley and Dennis made us another great meal- baked potatoes and steak. (We were really spoiled on our trip with lots of good food!)

Friday, March 18th- We ate a late breakfast/early lunch at IHOP. Then we drove out to Mesa to buy some oranges.

I had never seen orange trees before, and I thought it looked pretty cool seeing the fruit hang on them like they do and with so many oranges in each tree. (I also saw grapefruit and lemon trees.) And the smell of the orange blossoms everywhere we went... heaven. Arguably one of my favorite smells ever, if there was one reason why I would want to live in Arizona, that would be it.

Here's Keaton just happy to be along for the ride. What a lucky mom I am to have such an easy-going baby. :) He was all smiles all the time. (I think his cheeks get chubbier, and chubbier everyday!)

On Friday afternoon we made a quick, little visit to the Mesa Temple. Which was very beautiful and fun to see with all the palm trees, orange trees, and cacti all around it. Every temple is unique and so is the area surrounding each temple. I really love that.

I had also never in my life seen real live cactuses (or would it be cacti?) before. They really are quite strange looking if ya ask me. They had many different kinds in a little area in front of the temple.

So, I was a little disappointed when taking this picture because a wedding party was right outside the front of the temple doing wedding pictures so I wasn't able to get a very good shot of the front of the temple without all those people in my picture. Darn.

On Friday night we met up with my Grandma's brother, Douglas, and his wife Sue, (who live in Mesa, Arizona) to go out to dinner at a very, very yummy Mexican restaurant. The food was delicious and I had a great time talking with Sue, who I haven't seen very many times in my life. Sue is such a fun, nice, and caring lady. It was lots of fun getting to know her, and I could really tell that she is such a great mom and grandma. After dinner we headed back to Douglas and Sue's house for dessert- to die for strawberry shortcake- and to visit with Douglas's daughter, Allison and her family- and oh, what a cute little family they are! It was so much fun to visit with them. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures. We stayed pretty late at Douglas and Sue's but, on our way back to Queen Creek we drove past my great Grandma and Grandpa Cook's house that they used to come and live in every summer for many years. It was dark when we drove past, so I couldn't get any pictures but, I really loved driving past where they used to live and imagining them living in this nice little house sitting in the sun every winter while it is still nice and cold in Utah. I might not mind doing something like that one day...


On Saturday, March 19th, we mostly just relaxed while Grandpa and Dennis watched the college basketball games... just waiting for BYU to play again!

Saturday afternoon, my good friend Marianne came to visit me and to meet Keaton for the first time! I haven't seen Marianne in over a year and it was pretty crazy to me that of all places we were able to get together that we were able to meet up in Queen Creek, Arizona! (Marianne and her husband live in Peoria, Arizona where Landon is going to graduate school and Marianne was nice enough to drive the hour and a half to Queen Creek just to come and see me!) We talked and caught up for hours and hours- we had lunch together and spent time holding Keaton and talking some more. It's times like this that I realize what a lucky girl I am to have such a great friend. Yes, we often go months and months without talking, but once we are together it always seems so easy to just catch up right where we left off. And we can always talk about just everything and anything, which I truly love.


After Marianne left I watched the end of the BYU game. Go BYU! We won! And then, our wonderful hosts made us yet again another delicious dinner- potatoes and roast with carrots and such (a kind of "crock pot" combination of things) and then the rest of the night I had to opportunity to just spend it visiting with my Grandma and Shirley just talking about anything and everything. It was so much fun to spend so much time with Shirley, getting to know her a little better, and realizing how much my Grandma and Shirley are like each other. They are both amazingly sweet and lovingly fun people to be around and I feel incredibly grateful for the chance I had to spend time with them.

On Sunday, March 20th we woke up and had a quick breakfast of cinnamon rolls before heading out at about 8am for our long drive home. 13 ish hours is a long time to be in the car! But, our drive home, for me anyway, went by surprisingly fast. Keaton was as good as can be and I read almost an entire book on our way home plus took quite a few little naps. :)

Here is a picture of Keaton from right before we headed out. On Saturday, Grandma bought him this super cute turtle pillow pet and I just couldn't help taking a quick picture of him playing with it. It's as big as him! But, he loves it, especially when he can manage to put this cute little turtle's face in his mouth. Of, course, for Keaton, anything is fun as long as you can try to eat it. :)

I was really sad to come home to the awfully cold weather we are having here in Utah, but I did miss Justin quite a bit after being away from him for almost a whole week, so I guess it was worth it to come home. I guess. Ha, ha, just kidding. It is so nice to be home again, I just miss the warm! Spring and Summer please come quicker! :)