When planning the roadtrip, we didn’t allow for more than a few hours in most places. We spent about a day in each state…except for Alaska (for obvious reasons) and California (since it would’ve been impossible), yet we allowed for 3 days in Tucson. Which is probably one of the ugliest and least exciting places we’ve been. But Lindsay and I both knew we wouldn’t be able to spend less than 3 days with Carrie, Zack, Beth, Drew, Samantha and of course the Stewarts. Our visits to Tucson to spend time with the kids are standard and at this point, necessary, since both Beth and Samantha are our goddaughters, Carrie is our big sister, Zack is a blast, and Drew is the most adorable 3 year old around. Even though we both didn’t get to bed until 4:30 am… the minute we heard little Samantha talking in our half asleep state around 8 am, we literally hopped out of bed to find her. * I may have tried to shove B over in order to get to her first lol* She is so big now and a totally different child than she was in November when were in Arizona for Thanksgiving and even from March when she came to Brent’s wedding. She of course didn’t leave her mom’s side when we first raced to her…like kids after an ice cream truck on a hot day. She looked at us unsure…. But not that unsure…like she knew us, but wasn’t giving in so easily. I heard the boys wake up so I walked into their room where I was greeted by Drew. He gave me the biggest hug. It was the best feeling in the world. Zack gave me a big hug too and we went back to the playroom where Lindsay was still trying to coax Samantha. I’d given up on Sammi Jo and just let Drew snuggle with me, but when Sammi saw Drew snuggling, she realized it was okay, so she came over, gave me a sweet “Hi” and a big hug. This is the reason Tucson gets 3 days. Plus it was a much needed rest, relaxation (if you call chasing 4 kids and being a human jungle gym relaxing), and indoor time. We played out in the pool… on the slide ‘n slide and the array of baby pools and had water balloon fights. Even us big kids played… it was hilarious to watch Lindsay slide down the slip ‘n slide and then tuck and roll off the end…or even more hilarious to see Carrie half slide down and then have all 4 kids drag her down the rest of it. Carrie baked for us… her signature sugar cookies…of which I got like 3 of us.. cookies go fast when you have 4 kids and 3 adults standing around.
One of the days we were there it was 115 degrees. Carrie and I had to run some errands (and have a cousin date at the Carl Jr’s) so we left Lindsay with all the kids. She decided she wanted to take the kids to a movie so they’d get over the “where’s mom?” dilemma but we had taken Lindsay’s car, leaving them with Stewie’s car with no air conditioning. When we got home and found the kids and the car missing, we decided to go get them at the movie theater so all 5 of them wouldn’t be packed in this tiny car with no A/C. We found them and after a little wandering of the mall (which is totally not enjoyable when you have 4 kids who all want to run to different stores and play in the play pin, etc) we headed home. Somehow Carrie and I got stuck in the no A/C car, while the brain child of this adventure was in the A/C. Ofcourse we hit construction so by the time we got home, we were literally dripping sweat. Solution: jump in the baby pool…with our clothes on. So we went running through the house, dropped our stuff, and ran outside while all the kids (and Lindsay) looked at us like we were nuts. Clothes in all, we jumped in. The kids joined us. Clothes and all. We looked like some serious WT…kids and parents in the baby pool with our clothes on while the baby wandered around in just her diaper…which ofcourse blew up when it filled with water.
We did a lot of playing. Drew came up with several games that involved me chasing him around. He used a remote to “turn Brittany on, and turn Brittany off” and I often played the big giant that would chase him, then get tired, fall asleep, and snore loudly until he woke me up..which would ofcourse anger me, so I’d chase him some more. And ofcourse little Sammi Jo followed her brother wherever he went.
Dinner time is always madness, but after we played games like Disney Scene It with a guest appearance of Alicia via Skype. On our last night we play Quirkle, which got both Stewart and Beth riley up. It reminded me of our many games of Chicken Scratch at Grandma’s at MetzFests.
3 days goes by way too fast. But we enjoyed our time with our favorite kids and came back with paintings from Drew… from our day of painting. (also very messy).* I painted!!! I painted what I wanted stayed loose with it and not so tight and exact like usual it felt good. I knew as soon as I started painting I was going to have a group of followers. Amd yes a big mess thankfully I anticipated this and painted outside. B even painted me something. Best gifts ever..they are going right on my wall.*
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