Yuma :: Part III

For the final installment of the Yuma trilogy, I only have a few little bullet points...

• Inevitably, on a late night flight, we sit next to Renee, a woman who talks through my social cues of pulling out a magazine, me constantly checking on our sleeping baby, AND continues over the drink cart...I now know every place she's ever lived, why she divorced her husband (he was a cowboy and all the cowgirls liked him...), names of kids, grandkids, and pets, and what she thinks of auditors....
• If Renee wasn't enough to push us over the edge, the kid sitting behind us sure was! Without taking a breath the entire flight, he discussed philosophy, the beginning of the earth and universe, "What is matter?" and various other concepts that were probably lectured about in his college classes that quarter. These folks made for a long night....
• Harrison became quite bored of the two above mentioned conversations...

He spent most of the flight in this position, full open mouth slumber...Thank you airplane white noise!

After landing, we made our way to pick up the pups, which of course was a fiasco in itself in the middle of the night...Sorry Norton family for the loud wake up, next time we'll double confirm the location of the beagle before opening your bedroom door and scaring the crap out of Martha and the rest of the sleeping family members. :)

We eventually pulled into our driveway at about 2:30 AM after 13 hours of travel and we were exhausted! Thanks Denny and DeeDee for the great time and we loved all the sunshine!

Whew, hope y'all enjoyed reading about our Yuma adventure! Until next time....

3 Months

While in Yuma, Harrison hit the 3 month milestone!! YAY!!

He's becoming quite the little flirt, with a cute little smile ready to melt hearts...

His personality is slowing starting to show too.  Not sure what it is about Adam, but he can always draw out the biggest smile and loudest laugh.

We can't wait to see what the next month brings! He's beginning to reach for toys more and more, and we've witnessed a few more rolls from the tummy to the back.  He loves the little activity mat Grammy and Pops bought him and talks to his friends there.

Speaking of talking, he's becoming much more vocal in general! And all the noises he makes are so sweet!

Can't wait to see what he thinks of his Yakima baby friends the next time we visit! :)

Yuma :: Part II

We left the Yuma saga yesterday as we arrived to Adam's parents house.  The following days included lots of neighborhood walks, delicious food, and fun family time! 

Beautiful Arizona foothills. 

We went on many many walks around the neighborhood.  Harrison has it made! :)

Gotta keep the sun out!

One of the highlights of the trip was the Christmas light tour! Denny and DeeDee were excellent tour guides as we made our way to the best decorated homes on the trusty golf cart.

So festive!

Now, an entire block of houses were decorated to the hilt (and the ones that weren't, we assumed their neighbors guilted them into putting up  a strand of lights... or else the neighbors snuck in under the cloak of darkness and decorated it...)  It was a great light tour!

Speaking of golf carts, that seems to be the vehicle of choice in Yuma and residents don't leave them out of the Christmas festivities!

We also got some great daylight tours of the community by foot and cart.  We learned about palm tree varieties, cacti, the Yuma sewage system, "Tommy Manana", and what the neighbors were up to from our knowledgeable guides. 

Adam was kind enough to jump in and direct traffic at the beginning of our cart tour.

Harrison had the best seat in the house!

The tear had nothing to do with the quality of tour guidance or golf cart driving skills. We simply forgot the almighty binkie...

A few other highlights of the trip...

**DeeDee and I declared ourselves warriors for surviving childbirth and that the men have no idea what we go through.  Girl Power!

**The shrimp/scallop fiasco of 2012.

**The update text regarding Dudley, which was simply a picture of a roll of paper towels covering Tiff's living room floor.

**The infamous disappearing dead Saguaro that still has yet to be found.

**Countless lime-a-ritas!

**Adam went on a solo-tour...

 **And Harrison received so many hugs and kisses, he lost count...

I'd say our Yuma Adventure was a success!!!! Although we are still as pasty as ever, it was nice to get some heat and it was probably the most sunshine Harrison has ever seen!

Stay tuned for the final leg of the trip, the 13 hour return to Bellingham.....

Yuma :: Part I

Warning: the Yuma Experience will probably need multiple blog posts as the events you are about to read deserve special attention to detail.

As many of you know, Bellingham during the fall/winter/spring is quite soggy and dreary.  We needed a little Vitamin D in our lives and missed Adam's parents, so we decided to take a few days and travel to the unofficial Saguaro cactus capital of the US (probably).

Real life Saguaro cactus in action down in Yuma.

Our journey began early Saturday morning.  We packed up the car full of dogs, bags, and a baby, and traveled to the house of a friend from work who unknowingly agreed to watch the craziest puggle ever (unless we ever ask any of my readers to watch her, then she's an angel!!).  We stayed a few minutes for Gracie to acclimate to the new environment and new playmate (a 3 year old brown lab) and I knew Stef would have her hands full.

"What?? You're leaving me??" 

Next, we made our way to Adam's sister, Tiffany's house, in Monroe, who surprisingly knowingly agreed to watch the oldest and most senile beagle known to man. (Thanks Tif for lifting the ban on Dudley-sitting, although I wouldn't blame you for reinstating said ban...) After dropping off both dogs and breathing a sigh of relief that neither dog-sitter regained their sanity and said, "Actually....you know, guys...we can't really watch your puggle/beagle/ball of energy/urine machine for you," we made our way to the Northgate area where our airport shuttle driver, Kellen, would drive us to SeaTac. (Seriously...thank you to everyone for their generosity in allowing us to vacation to Yuma, we owe you all BIG TIME!!)

Resting up in the car for the long travels ahead...

We made it to SeaTac just in time and made it to our seats on the airplane without incident.  By the way, being able to board the plane with the first class passengers because of Harrison was GREAT!  Adam had reserved an isle and window seat in our row and we anxiously awaited the boarding of the rest of the plane, praying someone didn't have the unfortunate luck of reserving the middle seat between us...as the plane continued to fill with the seasoned passengers/snow birds headed to Arizona, we rejoiced when they finally closed the door and we had an empty seat between us! woo-hoo!!!

Harrison did great on the flight, aside from a diaper blow out. I know space is limited on those planes, but I felt a bit like a contortionist trying to change a poopy diaper in the airplane bathroom during turbulence.  Harrison was not impressed either.  To make matters worse, the drink cart blocked my return to my seat for about 15 minutes (which could be a blessing in disguise as I could calm Harrison in the back of the plane without making too many enemies.)

Before take off...something tells me Harrison isn't so sure about this...

We landed in Phoenix around 7:30 pm and tried to make our way to the rental car desk...which turned out to be a shuttle ride away! So after basically 10 hours of traveling, we were so not looking forward to another cramped vehicle.  We also found out on our way that instead of the 1 hour drive from Phoenix to Yuma that Adam somehow thought we would be traveling...it actually takes close to THREE hours.  So needless to say, an additional shuttle ride was not something we looked forward to.

Now, I'm all for saving money while traveling, but there is definitely something to be said about paying money for good customer service with a reputable car rental company.  And after the customer in front of us received a FULL REFUND because of the service she received, that should have been our indicator to switch companies....

After clarifying that we actually did need a car size bigger than a smart car (could you imagine the leg cramps with that size??) and that there better be a car seat in our vehicle, we made our way to the car garage...only to find NO CAR SEAT! And when the car seat finally arrived, it was the wrong size...meanwhile, Adam made friends with Jackie, the irate customer service representative apparently not afraid of shouting choice words extremely loudly in the garage about a former customer... Whew, it was a circus in there...

Finally settled in our Dodge Charger, we hit the road to Yuma....

Now, I'm sure the Arizona desert is beautiful it's own way, however, driving on a deserted at 10 pm is not beautiful...in fact, it's a little scary.

First of all, we noticed an interesting warning sign on the side of the road...

Now, my first thought was, "Holy crap! There are horned horses on this road?!"  Turns out, after discussion with Yuma residents, this is a burro (or donkey) crossing sign, apparently they are wild in the Arizona desert.  Regardless...after getting a little laugh about the strange wild life in Arizona, we moved on to more pressing topics, such as how we were going to maximize our tanning exposure on vacation and "Are we almost there yet?!"

All of a sudden, Adam freaks out! Apparently there was a burro on the side of the road, basically standing on the white line! I missed it, but was freaked out, regardless...wild horned horses on the side of the road in the middle of the night with no one to save us if it went all bucking bronco on us?? SCARY!!!

Luckily, we made it to Yuma at about 11:30 without another burro sighting, ready to hit the hay and take on the next day of Yuma adventure!

Stay tuned for posts of our stay in Yuma and Harrison's 3 month pictures, Yuma style!! :)

Christmas Photo Fiasco

As hard as it was to top last year's family Christmas photo (yeah right...if I hadn't put "Merry Christmas" on it, you wouldn't have even been able to tell it was a holiday themed picture...and Tom looked like he was about to beat someone up...), I think this year, we really accomplished something special.  Well, at least we got some holiday flare in the background...that's a start!

As the tradition goes, please enjoy the entertainment at our expense...

The first staged family photo can be quite exciting for all involved. 

As you may have noticed, we tried to decrease the chaos by not including the dogs this year, but then we thought, "Oh let's just hold Gracie since she missed out last year..." Plus Harrison was pretty interested in her walking around outside of the shot.

Well, that lasted for one shot.....

One can only smile and look cute for so long before it just becomes too much! But we couldn't quit till we had that perfect shot!  Also...I think Adam was trying to overcompensate for Harrison screaming by looking EXTREMELY happy himself...that's quite a smile there... :D

FINALLY, we got a photo that will do and y'all will see it in your mailboxes soon. :) Please ignore the pasty white skin that comes from living in a predominately cloudy climate.  I feel pretty much translucent. If there is another Twilight movie, I'd be a shoe in for an extra...

Today, we are having a birth class reunion with all of our fellow classmates and their new babies at a restaurant downtown! 7 babies and new parents in a single room...Lord help us...and the other patrons...