Arizona Trip || 2014

Your grace oh Lord is sufficient for me.

Our trip to meet our first nephew! 

We had been excited about this trip since we found out we would be an aunt and uncle. We knew we would do all we could to fly to AZ and meet him. And the day was finally here! 

2-15-14

Getting to the airport was insane! 14 cars in the ditch! Scary icy roads. But we made it. We prayed the whole way! 

We got to Phoenix. That was nutso. We waited two hours to get our rental car. When we got to the hotel, our room was gone. By this time it was 11:30pm. So we quickly called Kalebs parents to see if we could get into the condo a day early. Thank God, we could! So we got the codes and directions and made our way from Phoenix to Tucson. WOW! It was a long drive at night! Surprisingly their was some traffic. We finally got to the condo at 1:30am. At this point, we were exhausted!! We got Elijah down and we passed out. 

The whole reason we were going to stay in Phoenix was because we wanted to visit a church, Mars Hill Phoenix. So we decided we would get up and drive from Tucson to Phoenix. Church was at 12:30pm. We invited Kaleb's family but they couldn't come with us. It would've been fun to share the experience. We stopped by their house to see them before church. And I got to hold Baby Trig for the first and only time. 

I had big dreams of taking photos of the cousins together. I had pinned lots of cute ideas. But I didn't get to do it. I will just have to save the ideas for when we have our second baby. I will explain more later. 

 I am really glad we went to Mars Hill. It was fun to see how they do things. My real dream is to go to Mars Hill Seattle and hear Pastor Mark Driscoll preach live from his stool/pulpit. :) 

Kaleb's parents met us at church. They were only there for the end. I wish they could've seen the whole service. Pastor Mark's sermon was all about not labeling people and allowing room for growth and grace. It was good.

After church we all went to Cafe Rio. Kaleb misses their food. Such big burritos! I only ate half! Yummy left overs. We hit up a few stores. We Found Elijah some cute sandals and Kaleb got some flip flops. 

Elijah was so tired. We headed back to Tucson. The traffic was insane. There was a lot going on in Phoenix that weekend. Which is why we lost our hotel room. 

::Some highlights of the week were::

•slushies from Eegee's! 

• yard saling with my MIL 

•the Tucson zoo 

•photographing Elijah with mountains in the background! 💙🌵☀️

•meeting our nephew

•swimming outside in February! 

Monday: 

It was nice and warm so we hung out by the pool. Then Elijah fell asleep. So my MIL and I went shopping. We went to a thrift store, sweet repeats & Trader Joe's. 

Tuesday: 

We hung out at the pool. We watched movies in the evening. 

We did that every night. So relaxing. 

Wednesday: 

We went to the Tucson zoo. It was a really great time. It was nice to all be together. It was the only day in the whole 9 day trip that we spent time all together. Trig loved his Ergo carrier and pretty much slept the day away; as babies tend to do. Elijah loved the giraffes. Kaleb and E fed carrots to them. {pictures to follow} He really liked the giraffes and kept staring and pointing. 

P R I C E L E S S ! 

Elijah played in a grassy area and he met a sweet little girl. It seems that they instantly had a cute connection and were following each other around. I snapped some cute photos of this. Elijah won her heart or perhaps she won his. Ebear fell down in some mud. So he was pretty dirty. I got her parents' email so I could email them the photos from the zoo. The little girl kissed Elijah's hand and say "bye"! Such a gem! 

My heart exploded. 

God sends shining beautiful moments like that to us. He knows my heart and knows that kind of thing brings me great joy! 

We went to a yummy restaurant Beyond Bread. Kaleb ate fast and held Baby T. Elijah was sleeping so the grandparents took turns staying in the car. Such a blessing for me because usually I wait in the car while Kaleb gets groceries or runs into Walmart, if Ebear falls asleep. Very often, We end up doing drivethru if we eat out. 

Wednesday night Elijah started to have a fever. And continued to be ill the rest of the week. He was very stuffy and not as energetic and he had a pretty bad cough.  :( 

Thursday:

I hung out at the condo with Ebear. When he napped I crocheted on the porch and tanned. I was content to do this. Kaleb had fun hanging out with his brother and his dad. 

{They went to the gym. 

They saw Robocop.  

They played paintball.}

I'm glad they were able to be together. That was my hearts desire. I wanted them to be together as much as possible. 

Kaleb sacrificed and moved to MN and the LEAST I can do is let him hang with his brother for a week. :) 

Friday: 

On our way to the zoo Wednesday, Kaleb saw a VerVe Aveda and decided to call and make me an appointment to get my hair cut and styled Friday. It was such a fancy place. They give you hibiscus water while you wait. Yummy!! I felt so blessed and spoiled. T&T watched Elijah. It was lovely. Kaleb went and got a massage. I felt so fresh and new afterwards! 💗 

We had spaghetti dinner. E & L brought baby T to the condo and we hung out for an hour or so. That was nice. I ate three plates of spaghetti. Elijah was nursing like crazy. So I wanted to make sure to eat plenty. I know it was soothing his sore throat. 

Saturday: 

My husband, his brother and dad all went to Phoenix to play some paintball. My MIL and I went driving around finding yard sales. It was a blast! A fun adventure. We ended up finding some cute clothes for baby T and a few things for Ebear. Elijah found his new and the only stuffed animal he really loves <<besides Scout {Leap Frog}>> a TY ❤️ LION. He is so soft and cuddly! 

I enjoyed getting to know my MIL. We have never spent a lot if time together. And this was a nice way to do that. 

SHOPPING! Finding good deals! 

Sunday: 

Bright and early at 6 am Elijah was up coughing. He coughed so hard he puked on Kaleb. 

Poor daddy got barfed on. 

That's parenthood for ya. 

We decided to bring him to the doctor just to make sure he didn't have an ear infection or a bacterial illness. 

The nurses and doctors were nice and took good care of us. I had a feeling it was just a simple virus and it would pass. And they reassured us that it was. 

We were back to the condo by 10am. Elijah had a fever of 100 Wed-Sun. 

Poor baby. 

We hurried up and got ready for Baby T's LDS church blessing. It's nice to see parents caring about their children. And dedicating them to Jesus. 

Because we aren't members of the LDS church, Kaleb wasn't allowed to lay hands on his nephew and be part of the blessing. But Kaleb's brother did get him the job of holding the microphone. So he was the best microphone holder I've ever seen. ;) 

It wasn't our ceremony and it wasn't about us so we set our feelings aside. Even thought we felt extemely awkward and out of place because we aren't LDS. And even though Kaleb wasn't able to do anything but hold the microphone, God heard his prayers. As He hears everyone's. I'm so glad our faith is a matter of the heart. And that God hears all of our prayers. 

Elijah slept the first part of the service. But then he wanted to nurse. But he struggled to do so because he was so stuffy. I was becoming engorged. And it was painful and I kept having to hold back tears. Ah! 

I spent the rest of service letting Elijah enjoy the outdoors because he wouldn't sit still for the rest of service and I didn't want to have him screaming and babbling and yelling while people were sharing their testimonies of how Much they love their church and how they know it to be true. 

After church, we ran to McD's for sweet tea. Yummmm! 

And then they had a lovely catered meal for everyone at Emily's parents house. It was lovely. Such good food. 

We took photos. I would've loved to take more. I had big dreams of pretty photos with mountains in the back. 

But I still had Elijah and myself keep our distance from the baby. And I was washing our hands all the time. I tried nursing Elijah again, and he wouldn't. I was getting so full and nervous about a breast infection. 

I was so sore and desperate! And holding back tears all day.  

We took some family photos. 

And then we said our cya laters. L & E and baby T said they would come to the condo later that evening. I was excited for that! I thought it would be a nice evening just hanging out and being together. 

On our way back to the condo we stopped and took some photos down a gravel road! Kalebs dad is so sweet and 

Found a great place to make my photo  dreams come true. Even though it wasn't all of the Holzhauers, it was still a blast. 

Truly, he is a wonderful man. 

The photos turned out great! 

Elijah smiled so nicely! 

After that I was really feeling overwhelmed by the engorgement so Kaleb ran into Walmart and bought a hand pump. That solved everything. Now we have a pump if I ever need it. 

And Elijah nursed when we got back to the condo. The pump did the hard work. 

That evening Landon came over and hung out. I was extremely sad. So I took my frustrations out on all of our belongings and packed and prayed and listened to music. 

 Elijah really enjoyed cuddling with his uncle on the couch. 

This is when I packed up all of our stuff. And crammed everything in the bags. 

RECAP: Because Elijah became ill, we didn't spend much time with baby T. There's no way to know when a sickness will happen. I do wish we would've spent time with our nephew at the beginning of the trip. But there was no way to foresee the future and know that Elijah would get sick.   

As I said earlier, I had big photo dreams of getting fun cousin photos. But because they were busy at the beginning of the week and then Elijah got sick, it didn't happen. And I had to accept that. 

 But God knew Ebear was going to get ill & He worked it all out for the best. If we would've had T close to Elijah before he had symptoms, perhaps he would've passed his viral germs on to that sweet little babe. And because I was spending my time caring for Elijah, I didn't hold Trig again after the first Sunday because I didn't want to give Elijah's germs to him. I cried and listened to worship music while I packed up because I felt so disappointed. 

It was a good lesson in making the best of things and being thankful through everything. 

I always want to take the ups and downs in stride. I did my humanly best to do so. And I let God help me and gave Him my burdens. 

Elijah really bonded with his Nali & Papaw & Uncle Landon. For that I am thankful. 

He even said "pa pa" so clearly right to his grandpa! It was beautiful! 

I wanted to walk in Jesus' footsteps on this trip. I stumbled but I also was able to stand firm. 

Stand firm in God's love. 

Jesus shows His grace and love daily. He showed it to the world when He died in our place. 

It was wonderful to see everyone. E was busy with baby T so she wasn't able to be with us as much. But that's how it goes with a new baby. 

We did our best to make the trip fun. Especially since we won't be coming back for who knows how long, since next year we will have to buy 3 tickets. And we don't know if we can afford the extra expense of a third ticket. 

Kaleb is setting it up so his brother can play with him on his paintball team for a tournament in August. That will be fun to show L&E where we live. It's a very quiet existence out her in a town of 300 ppl. 

End note: 

Bathe your life in prayer. It helps. Praying definitely helped me during this trip. It really did. And having my friends and family praying for safety and peace of mind kept me from losing my nuggets! Trips are stressful with busy toddlers. 

But God is good, all the time!