Farris family blog: Arizona

While there was a big part of me that was sad about leaving Dallas, I knew Arizona was only for a month. And you know, we can do anything for a month. Plus, we had never been to Arizona so what a cool way to get to experience this state. We decided at the last minute to leave our car here in Dallas(which was such a GREAT decision) and just be a one car family for the month. Arizona brought a lot of first for us. Well, for our family at least. It was our first time to fly as a family of four and Tucker's first time to fly ever! Which was so much fun! The last time Carter flew he was younger than Tucker, so to see how excited he was about the plane this time was awesome. Both the boys did incredible on the flight. Bret sat with Carter a few rows behind us and Tucker and I were seat buddies for the trip. We both had awesome ladies sitting in our rows with us who loved on our kiddos and took pictures for us with our boys:) Carter was so excited to take off and fly and also very excited to order his drink on the plane! It worked out great that we were a few rows apart because when Tucker got restless he would walk back and forth to Bret and I. He was the in flight entertainment with his cute little smile at everyone. Carter was entertained by the ipad and watching movies. When we got to Arizona, Bret scored us an SUV thankfully. If he wouldn't have I am pretty sure we would not of fit any of our luggage into our car. So we headed to our hotel because we were in a hotel for the first week we were there. Which initially was a bummer but its kinda nice to have free breakfast everyday and your room cleaned for you. Seriously, its the little things and I am totally not complaining about it:)

Arizona was hot. As Tucker says"It's hooooootttt" I mean so hot you feel like you may melt sometimes when you walk outside. Still at 8pm it was over 100 degrees. So really, besides swimming or going to the fountains there was not much else to do. We swam at the hotel, we swam at our apartment and we found whatever water activities we could find. Thankfully there are a lot of them there.

That first week in the hotel I started feeling a little off. More tired than usual, but we had also just moved twice in two months and I really was exhausted. But then I started feeling a little nauseous. So lo and behold I took a pregnancy test and what do you know....we are having another baby:) It was not a surprise to us, we wanted another one but I will say what was to come next I was not expecting. With Carter and Tucker I always felt great during pregnancy. With this sweet little baby I have been so nauseous and not hungry and just pretty miserable. So, the heat in Arizona didn't really help that at all, but somehow we survived. It has been pretty cool how God has provided camp friends or people we know or family in every place we have been so far. Even in Arizona one of our camp friends lived in Phoenix so we were able to meet her for a few playdates. And one of my sister's best friends also lived in Arizona and watched our boys one night so we could have a date night! I mean really the Lord is so good to us!

The one car thing worked out so perfectly since Bret was at a mall. When the boys woke up in the morning we would take him to work and then come get him in the evening. Some days he needed the car, but most days we were able to have it and even if he needed to run errands we would just go pick him up and go with him(usually to home depot) but it made for seeing him more and we are always about seeing daddy more! Bret's mall had a great playground I would also take the kids to play there anytime or just while we were waiting on him. Our kids are also obsessive with merry go rounds or carousels and if they sit on them long enough someone usually puts quarters in for them. I guess being cute has gotten them somewhere;) This month our boys shared a room for the first time so that was interesting. I would always just have Carter nap with me in my room and Tucker would usually nap and sleep in the bathroom or in the boys room in his pack n play. It worked out pretty well. We were regulars at the apartment pool and made friends there because there were lots of other kids who loved to swim as well. One of our favorite places we went was to Scottsdale. It is such a fun town with a really cool train park I took the boys to and downtown had really fun fountains and restaurants that we went to as well one night( oh and escalators and a candy store) which were the boys favorites.

Bret really enjoyed the people he worked with in Arizona and it was actually a great month for him and a great month for us as a family even despite me being sick a lot.

At the end of the month we had our first home visit back to Houston which was a blast. We stayed with our friends the Coldwell's and had so much fun with them getting to hang out, go down to my dad's house, dinner with my mom, go to the dr. finally and see our baby:) and find out he/she will be here in January, and going to church and seeing a bunch of friends! Before we left for Houston Bret found out we would be heading to Grapevine next(yay back to Dallas) So Bret left Houston on Monday and then the boys and I stayed till Thur when we met Bret's mom and she took the boys back to Dallas for us.(such a blessing) I flew back to Arizona to finish packing and wrap things up there. Bret and I flew back to Dallas on Sunday and were so excited to be back in Texas. When I got back to Arizona, my sweet husband had already packed everything up and so I just got to rest and relax those few days we were there. It was so needed and I was so thankful for those days to rest after such a fun week in Houston.

Arizona was beautiful but I am not sure I would ever want to live there. I hear the fall and spring are amazing, so maybe we would have to try to come back around then. It was a great experience for us though and now we can say we lived in Arizona!