Travel Marathon

I think we can say our trip to Arizona was a big success all around! The boys had a wonderful time on planes, at parks, and in the "big red car" (with apologies to the Wiggles), Meh shaved 10 minutes off her last half marathon time, and it was very special to be able to catch up with and spend a long weekend with friends T and P and their sons J and M.

On Thursday morning, Papa dropped us off at the airport, where the boys made it through security (I got to carry Z, and his cast got to be swabbed, along with the boys' liquid sundries) and hung out for a bit in SeaTac's spacious central mall for floor to ceiling views of lots of baggage carts, trucks, and of course airplanes -- there was a rainbow-colored Horizon one that I think was their favorite; they're still talking about it days later. Onboard the plane, O actually slept most of the flight while Z enjoyed watching the view out the window (including the Grand Canyon), reading books, asking for "big presents" (last trip we'd wrapped some toys; this time we forgot, so he got to unwrap cars that Meh stuck in the [clean!] motion sickness bag), and watching the adventures of his favorite animated monkey.
Once we landed and claimed our "big red suitcase", we drove up to T's parents' house - they were out of town during our visit and had graciously offered for us to stay there. It was so nice being in an actual house rather than a hotel, and I think Z and O both liked having a few rooms (and lots of grandparent toys!) to choose from. They even had a tiny little bed for Z, though he's still getting used to the cast and had trouble sleeping except in bed with us, often leading to some heavy-footed kicking of mommy and daddy in the middle of the night. And the "neighborhood" is very lovely southwest desert, with plenty of catci and wildlife: the boys and I saw a coyote, rabbits (Owen: "where'd the bunny goooo?"), birds, and more.

We had lots of playtime with the J family boys, as well as M's college friend C and her daughters. Everyone played really nicely together, and all of the kids were particularly helpful to the immobile Z, bringing him many of their favorite toys (and once they learned he liked vehicles, often carried him tributes of every car, truck, and airplane in the house!) O got his first taste of our favorite west coast burger joint (that still somehow hasn't gotten to Washington); clearly he's a big fan of their grilled cheese, and was also pleased to nosh on their french fries. Z was meanwhile very happy with the excellent collection of In-N-Out stickers the cashier gave us.

On Saturday, we caravaned up to Phoenix for the girls to register for the race, coordinate getting into the same starting group, and collect their bags o' swag. The kids and I have clearly left the building, thankyaverymuch:

Afterwards, we grabbed some lunch and went back to the excellent McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park that Z had last seen nearly three years ago. Did he remember? Hard to tell, but both he and O had a great time pointing out the many parked trains and riding on the small scale train. The park has even since built a giant indoor model railroad hall, where I think we could have easily left Z for the afternoon if we so chose. But instead, he and I rode on the even smaller scale train while O and Meh watched.

Of course we brought some of the boys' favorite music on the road trip, and Z is so smitten by one of our newer CDs that he started his own performance on the drive back from Phoenix to Tucson:

Sunday was race day, and Meh left very early (4:30 am) with T to get back up to Phoenix. The boys were up soon afterwards; O impressively said "mommy running in pink shirt in Phoenix" when I asked him where she was. After a bit of toy vehicle play, watching an excellent sunrise over the desert, and then an episode of George, we decided to head off with P and his boys to Tucson's Reid Park Zoo. Everyone had a great time; J and M fed the giraffes, O visited some fish that were about as big as he is, and both O and Z fell in love with the playful sea otters (they're still talking about them today). We all had a nice guys' lunch (O ate a literally footlong hotdog plus suddenly decided that he liked potato chips) at the zoo cafeteria while awaiting news from the ladies of their successful race completion, then headed home for nap time before an evening dinner (outdoor grilling in January!)
On our last day in Arizona, we all headed to the mall where the ladies got to enjoy a nice pedicure (well earned after running 13.1 miles!) while the kids played (well, except Zachary, who was content to watch) in the mall's fun play area. Once they'd burned off some energy, we toured the mall (including a stop at the pet shop to visit with puppies, hamsters, and other cute creatures), with O joining the J boys in their jogging stroller while Z continued to stroll solo. At one point, O spotted a yellow bus in the mall, and everyone piled out to go play with the multiple toy claw machines it contained. Then a joint group lunch, and it was time to return the red car to the airport and get ready for our flight back -- the boys had big snacks and enjoyed watching the far fewer planes of the somewhat petite Tucson airport. Both boys were awake the whole return trip, which made for an exhausting afternoon -- papa picked us back up (with snow on the ground, talk about a temperature swing!), and we're now back home with the boys in bed, ready to conk out. More pictures of our Copper State adventures can be found here. Thanks again to T and P for spending time with us and being such wonderful hosts, and to J and M for playing so well and also being great hosts for our boys!