Scottsdale, Arizona

4/6/2026

We left the house at 6:50Am for  9:30 flight. Good thing we left early b/c it took us 50 minutes just to drop our bags at baggage claim! We have TSA pre check so that got us right through from there. We didn't have time to go to the lounge so we grabbed some bagels and I got to open some birthday cards from the family.

Mike had fun birthday surprises for me all day! With the time change, I get a 27 hour birthday!

The kids did great on the plane, Beckett read his new "Who would Win" book and Norah played with stickers. When we finally gave in and let them have tablet time, B played a tetris like game and N watched "Little Angel".

Brett and mom got in at 9am , so they picked up one of the rentals and drove to Phoenix for a mural tour.

Clt and Buff crew got in right around 11am. The kids were so excited to finally start seeing everyone. They ran excitedly up to Gpa, Yia Yia and Tine in baggage claim. We scooped up the other rental (got upgraded to a Kia Carnival van for extra cargo space).

We stopped at Chik fil a for lunch then headed to the Botanical Gardens, timing worked perfectly for everyone to arrive at 2.

Russell and Alecia drove the 12/13 hours in their RV to join us for only 2 days!

The kids ran around the gardens, seeing all the Cactuses. Nor sure that I would necessarily recommend if you're also doing hikes but still had a good time and the kids needed to get out some energy.

It was great having R and A with us to get to know Mike's side of the family since they haven't seen each other since our wedding (9 years ago).

The Airbnb hosts graciously agreed to let R and A's dogs in the backyard as long as they didn't go in the house so we could avoid a pet fee.

Uncle Brett and the kids got in the pool immediately. Beckett was too excited about the pool to realize the dogs were here and way later asked "How did we get dogs?!"

Christine and Mike went grocery shopping while the kids swam.

We had Grimaldi's pizza for dinner then Mike had a little slice of cookie cake for me and regular cake for everyone else since the grocery store didn't have many options (Not a big cake fan).

We was wonderful celebrating with both sides of the family.

The wee one hit a wall and demanded to be put to bed in the middle of dinner (we ate late so it was about 7 AZ time) Thankfully I had already bathed her after swimming, she snuggled for 5 seconds and was out. Beckett followed suit shortly after.

Our family is in a bunk bed room, they're all queen size bed so Norah is in a bottom bed with Beckett above her and and Mike and I are in the other bottom.

B woke up at 11pm and turned on the lamp. When I asked him what he was doing, he said he was wanting to read a book. I told him it was 11:00 and he needed to go to bed, so he shut it right off and fell back asleep. I asked him in the AM if he remembered doing that. It was so funny! He said that he did but forgot that we were all sharing a room. I asked him if he normally reads books in the middle of the night and he said no, which made it even funnier!

4/7

N woke up at 4am crying for me, so I hopped in her bed so that she wouldn't wake up the rest of the house. Unfortunately, Becks woke up as well and couldn't go back to sleep. Mike eventually took them downstairs around 6:30 and I fell back asleep for a little while longer.

We took our time getting ready and hiked 1.7 miles of the Gateway Trail at McDowell.

From there, we drove to Old town, Scottsdale and had lunch/shakes at the Sugar Bowl.

We did some souvenir shopping, the kids picked out stickers from their water bottles and we got our typical souvenir ornament; a Cacti of course. I got a hot plate of a hummingbird for Christine to hold onto for Christmas as well one for us-of a roadrunner (reminded me of this trip as well as our Joshua tree trip).

Once everyone was shopped out, we went back to the house to make chicken sandwiches and swim..oh and eat crickets..Unko Brett bought sour cream and onion flavored crickets for everyone to try..they weren't terrible..just crunchy lol

4/8

We were up and out the door right at 7am to head to Sedona.

The bathrooms were basically just giant holes with a toilet seat, Norah wouldn't pee in the hold, she was too scared. We tried to get her to go in the RV but she wouldn't do that either. Then I tried to get her to go in the woods...that girl just decided to hold it until she absolutely couldn't anymore!

We all started at Crescent Moon Ranch/Red Rock Crossing. We hiked around for about 1.6 miles near a creek and around some trails for a couple of hours. Brett told Bex a joke and it was hilarious to hear him try to repeat it to others.

-do you have Zachary disease?

-what's that?

-When your face looks zachary like your butt.

We said goodbye to R and A (who unfortunately already had to head home-so glad to have them, lot of memories made) and had a picnic lunch of pb and j sandwiches and chips. 

Then we went downtown Sedona, which was just gorgeous with the background of red rocks! We did some shopping and got icecream/shakes.

We had a bit of a scare when Mike forgot to put the car in park and got out. Thankfully, Brett quickly yelled at him that the car was moving and he was able to hop back in before any damage was done!

From there, Mom went to a very cool arts and crafts district while the rest of us went to do a spectacular hike. we hiked around Bell Rock/between courthouse Vista and Bell for 1.75 miles. Everybody loved that hike!

Norah was wearing Beckett's old hiking boots and they were so stinking cute on her and brough back so many fun memoires of him hiking in Joshua Tree in them.

We scooped up mom and went to a Mexican restaurant that was on the way back to Scottsdale.

Christine was driving the other rental and had a slow leak in one of the tires..thankfully ended up not being flat so they were able to fill it and keep on trucking, but that wouldn't have been ideal as it was already late and we were still over an hour from "home" (Brett ended up getting us a killer deal on the car because of it!).

4/9

The next day we went to the boardwalk (total tourist trap) and just walked around and the kids did the carrousel. From there we went to Putt Shack which was such a fun experience!

When we got home to swim, we had to put plans on hold to skim the pool AGAIN..there was a great tree above the pool that provided wonderful shade but a ton of maintenance for renters. They actually refunded us some money due to that and a couple other issues we had. Overall, it was a wonderful house, they just needed to make a few adjustments..including some safety revisions as I slipped walking onto a rug and bruised my tush and elbow very badly.

We decorated the house for Christine's 40th birthday and Mike, Christine, Brett and I went out do the a sunset desert UTV tour, which was an absolute blast! We were SO filthy when we got home. 

4/10

we took our time the next morning getting ready, we played pickle ball, and actually saw some hummingbirds right next to us in the trees.

Brett went to the aquarium while the rest of us did the 1/4 hike to The Hole in the Rock. Cool sport! We even saw a roadrunner, literally crossing the road right in front of us!

We grabbed subs from a deli, while we were waiting for them, Bex and I ran into Goodwill from a few "new" books for the kids.

We spent the rest of the afternoon just enjoying the amenities of the house! 

Another fabulous family trip in the books!