Way Out in the Desert

One of my dearest friends got married in Arizona last weekend, and Mike and I made a quick weekend getaway out of the occasion. While I would have loved more time with Kelsey and palm trees and my husband, the many days home with sick kids this year really ate up my personal days. It's good that we planned this adventure to be a quick one. 

Here I am at 8 A.M. drinking a terrible glass of Pinot Grigio at Detroit Metro Airport last Saturday morning.  The justification for that (and the wine soon after on the plane) was that I wanted to sleep on the way to Arizona so I would be somewhat prepared for the time difference and ready to hit the ground running for the rehearsal and whatnot.  And it was my first time flying away from my babies.  Yes, babies.  Back off.

Yes, I did sleep a bit on the plane, in case you're wondering.  And no, I didn't get tan.  My Irish skin just doesn't do that.

Michael and Sophie stayed at my parents' house and were pretty excited that Mommy and Daddy were going on an adventure on an airplane while they were on an adventure of their own.  I left some little gifts for my mom to give the kids each morning, and she sent texts with photos like the one below to tide me over.

"Thanks for the pinwheels, Mom.  They're almost as cool as a vacation."

The kids slept well, had no accidents, and only mentioned that they missed mommy and daddy toward the end of the last day.  Couldn't have gone better, really.  We're lucky that my mom really knows these two so well after caring for them a couple of days a week during the school year, and they clearly felt at home with her and my dad.

We're also lucky that Mike and I didn't die and orphan our kids, not that I worried about that compulsively for weeks leading up to this or anything. 

Chaparral Suites - Our hotel in Scottsdale was a taste of paradise when back home spring was taking its sweet time kicking into gear.

The weekend in Scottsdale included the wedding rehearsal at the breathtaking Royal Palms Resort, a visit to Kelsey and Anthony's house (got a peek at Kelsey's dress--perfection), a dip in the pool back at the hotel, an amazing gazillion-course rehearsal dinner at Noca--a restaurant run by one of the groomsmen, lots of girl time in the bridal suite on the day of the wedding, and the emotional and beautiful wedding itself.  

Rehearsal Dinner

To commemorate our trip we picked up an Arizona Christmas ornament at the airport for my parents as a thank-you and one for ourselves.  I also found this book for the kids:

Way Out in the Desert by Jennifer Ward, T. J. Marsh, Kenneth J. Spengler

Thanks to this book Mike and I are now confident in our pronunciation of saguaro, ocotillo, and javalina, and Michael and Sophie love taking turns finding the numbers hidden on each page.

One of the reasons I didn't blog much leading up to this getaway was that I was putting some of my writing time and energy into my toast.  I'll be posting that in the next day or two as well.