Jones Family: Arizona part 1

The night before we headed to Arizona was our last night with Eric, so we celebrated his birthday, then drove to London to stay the night it the hotel so we could all catch our early flights.

As soon as we found out my brother was getting married we started looking into plane tickets and Dental conferences so Blake could maybe go back and help with either the flight there or back. We found a conference in Arizona the same time I would be flying out. He got everything set up, paperwork submitted and they said he had to wait until the week before to get his plane tickets. So I bought ours, then the week before they kindly informed him that the Air Force only flies American and I had booked our flights on United. So he did fly the same day as us, but they wouldn't let him fly with us. Seriously? I was so mad! Eric was also flying to the states the same day, different flight. We were even in different terminals, which is a little bit of a pain in London. That means they are like miles apart.

So we had a plan. Blake and Eric left the hotel at like 5:30 to check Blake in for his flight. He checked ALL our luggage. Luckily he could check 5 bags because he was active duty military. Then he drove Eric to his terminal to check in and check his bag. Then they came back to the hotel to get me and the kids. We jumped in the car and Blake drove Me the kids and Eric to the terminal. We checked in and Eric helped us through security and to our gate then left to catch his plane. After we were through security we realized we had forgotten Alissa's car seat. Doesn't seem like a big deal, but we hadn't purchased a ticket for Parker, so he had to sit on my lap, which he doesn't do very well. Alissa is fine on my lap or sharing a seat with someone else, but the rule is she has to be in the carseat for take off and landing. She doesn't fit in Parker's infant carseat. I did take it on the plane though, hoping there might be an empty seat. No luck. It was a full flight. I was prepared for the worst. I thought it was going to be a disaster. Flying for 8 hours with 4 kids all alone. It wasn't at all though. Everything went so smoothly. After take off I just had Remi share a seat with Alissa while they watched movies and got Parker's car seat out of the overhead storage and buckled him in. He fell asleep and just sat in it for most of the flight. I was in shock when we landed in Texas and hadn't had any major problems.

In Texas we had to go through customs and I realized how glad I was that Blake took all our luggage. We would have had to collect all our bags and take them with us through customs and recheck them. That would have been me, 4 kids, a double stroller, 2 car seats, 2 suit cases and a duffle bag all trying to go through customs and security. DISASTER! Instead we just had to get our 1 bag searched in security, then ran to catch our next flight. We got on just in time and got to Phoenix to be met by Grandma Jones and Blake. He was supposed to arrive a few hours after us, but had got on an earlier flight! We headed to Walmart to grab a few things, then back to the airport to get all our luggage that didn't make it on Blake's flight. Then we drove to the hotel.

The next few days were kind of a blur of sleeping when we were supposed to be awake and waking up at hours like 3, 4 and 5 in the morning. Made for an interesting few days in a hotel room in Phoenix with 3 adults and 4 kids. We did funny things like put the kids sitting on the bathroom floor with the DVD player on the toilet so the rest of us could sleep.

We had tons of fun though. We went to a fun train park, swam wen to the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Temple, swam and went to a Kansas City Royals Spring Training game and swam some more. Blake spent his days at a dental conference. Then Saturday after Blake got done we headed down to Green Valley where Blake's parents live. We stopped at the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch just before it closed and fed the animals.

The rest of the time there we went for desert walks, hikes, died Easter Eggs, swam, visited the Desert museum, swam, Blake and I got to go hiking alone, swam some more went golfing and just enjoyed the warm weather and company.

Easter Pageant

Spring training game

feeding donkeys

"Feeding" goats. We had food for them, Parker just thought he needed to stick it down their throats:)

desert hike, playing peek a boo while hiking with Grandpa

Lizard the kids caught

petting the lizard to sleep

This poor lizard lost its tale in all the excitement of being caught by so many kids. Everyone got a kick of the tale still wiggling when we put it on the picnic table. It was pretty funny, gross, but funny.