A Trip to Arizona – Friends, Family and Love

Arizona Fun

My bestest friend in the whole wide world is Heather.  I was lucky enough to grow up next door to her and spend many hours and days of my childhood in her home and with her family.  I think of her mom as my second "Mom" and so on.....   Almost all of my favorite memories include her and my childhood was so much better because she was a part of it.

We have grown up now and now we are over 1.600 miles apart.  We live in Minnetonka MN and they are in Sierra Vista AZ.  This is a lot of distance but like many great friendships time and distance do not matter because they are stronger than both.

It is not just Heather who lives in AZ but her parents are there as well.  My mom dearly misses Heather's mom Bev so I thought it would be great for the three of us to take a trip down before Marcus turns 2 (when I have to start paying for flights for him).

Mom and Marcus on the plane on the way down.

We got to Tuscan around 1 pm in the afternoon and made our way to down Heather's house in Sierra Vista.  It was a super cute house and we were so excited to see her family-  They have a 7 month old little girl that we couldn't wait to meet.  

After we got settled we all went out to eat a yummy Mexican dinner. Marcus LOVED the green salsa.  Mommy, Grandma, and Heather all had a yummy margarita- gotta love the south!

Sunday Morning Geocaching and Pool Time

On Sunday Morning we just spent some time lounging around the hotel.  We actually had a geocache 350 ft from our hotel room so Marcus and I headed out and found it.

Marcus with the cache

Can you see the geocache on the bottom of the sign

Grandma and Marcus in the pool having fun!

A trip to Tombstone

On Sunday afternoon we headed over to Bisbee Arizona- which is also the famed Tombstone from the old west.  They still have the original main street so we got a chance to see some of the old west.

Marcus really didn't like wearing his hat.

Mom and Bev pushing the strollers down the boardwalk.

Marcus and his new friend Heather!  During dinner he wanted nothing to do with me and was happier with her.

This was the whole crew- Mom, Terry, Marcus, Me, Bev, Bethany, Heather, Tim, and Gabby

It was a fun place to visit.  Mom, Marcus, and I even went to the Old West show to see the story of Doc Holiday and company-  Just have to say that the acting was pretty bad but we enjoyed it anyway.

And than an ER trip

Marcus went to sleep pretty easy on Sunday night and right about midnight Marcus started screaming-  It was not a good night.  He did not sound good and had a very worried Mommy and Grandma.  So at 5am PT I called his Dr's office in MPLS to find out what to do.  The nurse advised that we head into the ER so off we went!

We got the ER around 6 AM PT and waited and waited.... for a little over an hour before we saw an MD and Marcus was pretty unhappy.  This is a picture after we finally got checked in.  You can see my unhappy boy here.

The Doctor finally came in an very quickly gave a diagnosis- double ear infections!  YUCK!  No wonder the poor baby was so upset.  We had to wait for the DR to right up the orders and in the meanwhile Marcus passed out on the hospital cot.

A bit of hiking...

We got back to the hotel and I put Marcus and Grandma to sleep and ran off to do a bit of hiking and maybe some goecaching.  Heather's husband Tim had given me a bit of advice and I found the park he was looking at.  It was really pretty.

Picture of me out hiking

I checked a few things out and decided that it was time to head back and pick up Marcus and Mom so we could check continue our adventure.

Mom is not always much of a hiker but I thought it would be fun to bring her along and see if she wanted to try it out.  Both here and Marcus were rockstars and made the entire hike- Although Marcus did get carried for park of it.

Ramsey Canyon Preserve Information

We did the big park of this hike and it was AWESOME.  We saw lots of birds, and deer and really cool trees.   Marcus had to stop and look at and feel a lot of the rocks along the way, 

And we made it to the top

Mom completed Nature Bingo and won Marcus a bouncing ball!

The start of a new friendship: Marcus and Gabby

For our last night in AZ, we went over to the Mill's house (who just by luck was less than two blocks from our hotel) and hung out.  Tim, was the grill master, and cooked up some yummy food.  Bev made great sides- Marcus really loved the salads (odd little boy).  The best part of this trip has been the visiting also getting to see Marcus and Gabby together.  She is a doll!

I hope this is the start of a long and amazing friendship-  just like that of their Mom's and their Grandmom's!!!

This was a great trip-  Thanks for letting us visit!

One last stop on the way home

Monday night was not perfect but much better than Sunday night.  Marcus slept most of it and only on Mommy's head for the about 1/3 of it!  Since we had a little time we decided to drive up to the Bioshere and see if we could get a tour (The sign said it was only 20 miles north of Tuscan (I think they fibbed a bit here).  The drive out was beautiful and we had a blast.  We got there to late to do a tour but it is now on the list of places I would like to see!

Overall this was an awesome trip and I can't wait to see this family again in August when they visit Minnesota!