A grand finale to 2008!

Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays ... 

After celebrating our 1st Christmas in our Colorado home, we journeyed over the river and through the woods (and across a majority of New Mexico) on a road trip to our previous home -- Arizona. The trek was 13.5 hours. We stopped 4 times. The boys watched 7 movies. Every town between here and there has a restaurant called El Rancho. The trip was all so very worth it to see our family in AZ (Scott's younger brother Eric and his girlfriend Charity), as well as some of our friends and neighbors from our days in the desert. We spent 5 very busy days in Phoenix visiting old hotspots & favorite restaurants and enjoying the warm weather. No coats for us! Here are a few highlights...

• When living in AZ, we hit a lot of kid hotspots, but Eric and Charity found one we had yet to encounter. Our trip to the Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium was fantastic! Exotic birds. Stingrays. Funny monkeys (real ones ... not to be confused with our children). Some unique white species of animals, including a white tiger, white alligator, and white peacock. A great outing for our family -- thanks, Eric & Charity!
  
• The boys used to love going to the train park in Scottsdale. Luke remembered it all too well, and Reid had fun rediscovering it now that he's older.
• Funny story while dining at Pita Jungle -- Scott mentioned they had falafel there. Reid misunderstood and piped up, "I want waffles..." Slightly different, but both good to eat!
  
• The city has changed some in the time since we moved, but our friends there are still the same -- wonderful! We picked up right where we'd left off in our conversations with them. To those of you we didn't get to see, we hope to see you on a future trip. 
• In all, our journey was jam-packed with the equivalent of a month's worth of get-togethers, laughs, memories, and outings in a mere 5 days. We are grateful for the 8 years we spent in Arizona, a chapter of life that helped to define who we are. It was nice to revisit such a good time & place in our lives.

The posts below feature some fun photos from our trip. Enjoy!