Christmas, part 2

Arizona was nice...a little cooler for them in the 50s but nice for us. We just had a good time relaxing and hanging out with the family. As you can tell from how often I blog, I don't always get much time on the computer. So, it was nice to be able to catch up and clean up on e-mails; I didn't feel guilty that I wasn't doing housework or laundry or anything else, plus Becca would just as soon play with grandma than me anyway. I got my e-mail inbox down from 6 or 7 pages to 3. Becca and grandma walked almost every day, if Barrett was awake, we all got a walk in as well. Darren was able to play golf several days which he hadn't done in months. The first night there, Darren's brother came over for cards. One thing we like to do is play cards; when it's just the 4 of us, we play hearts of which I rarely win but it's still fun to play. Darren's family plays schafkopf (shofscup is how they pronounce it)...it's like sheepshead if anyone knows that. I have no idea how to play; when we got married 14 1/2 years ago, I was told it takes a long time to learn and figured I'd stick to hearts. It looks fun however and they have fun.

We went to a place close by where they have skydiving and a wind tunnel. We watched the skydivers for a little bit, then went into the wind tunnel area. Militaries from all over including ours use this facility to train. Darren was going to go in but they were booked for the next several days. We watched the others and it looked fun. We only watched for a little bit because there were some military people there and we are not allowed to be in there while they're training. Check out their website: http://www.skyventureaz.com/default.aspx

Christmas day we hung out with the family. We had great food, then Becca handed out presents. It was actually a little warm that day, almost too warm for long sleeve so we sat on the back patio for a little bit. It was a nice relaxing day. Darren's sister-in-law, Becca, and I went to see Alvin & The Chipmunks 2 at the movies. It was really cute and it was fun going to the movies with Becca.

Becca being goofy--those are sleeves tied around her neck

Becca helping

Some friends we knew from Nashville had moved out there several years ago and we try to meet up with them while we're there. They have a daughter that's 4 and a son who's almost 2. We hung out at their house and surprisingly there were not any fights amongst the kids; they really got along well.

My child does not mind being in front of a large group of people and is fairly fearless, she'll try almost anything. Darren's brother has a 2-seater airplane and Becca went flying with him all by herself. She had a good time.

The last night, we hung out at his brother's house. They grilled out and we watched some football. Rhea was so sweet to make a birthday cake for Becca & Barrett; she put 5 candles for Becca and 1 candle for Barrett. Becca doesn't have problems being the center of attention and getting a little cake to boot.

Becca liked their dog because it actually played with her...unlike our dog

The flight home, I made sure we had plenty of snacks but still thought we'd have time to get something quick at DFW. But do you think things could go completely smoothly? When they announced we were coming in to gate A22 (or something close) and our connecting flight left from A29, we thought we were doing pretty good. Well, there was a plane at the gate so we were being rerouted to A16 and we had to wait a little to get there. We're off the plane and going fast to the gate so we might have a little time when I asked Darren what time it was. That's when he realized he left his phone on the plane. He dumps his stuff on the floor and hightails it back to the plane. Now I'm here with 2 kids, tons of stuff in the middle of the walkway at DFW. Finally, I slowly move our stuff over to the side. There was definitley no moving anywhere without help. Finally Darren comes back and we're going as fast as we can and of course Becca's tired; we finally get to the gate and they're making the last call...no one is sitting waiting on the flight..just us. Again, missed lunch but thanks to grandma, we had plenty of things to eat. At least there was no throwing up on this trip. Darren dropped us off at home then headed to the bowling alley...it was his league night.