Back to reality

I have officially decided that I would LOVE to live in Arizona from January thru April (Just like a senior citizen!) The weather was beautiful: 89 to 96 degrees and sunny the whole time. If you remember, I was really nervous about going on vacation with Ryder. I was nervous about the plane rides, the nap schedules, the time changes, the heat, etc etc etc. The plane rides went better than I thought. On the way down there, he stayed awake the whole time except for the last 20 minutes during the landing (of course). He actually did fine up until that point watching baby einstein dvds and eating PBJ sandwiches; we only had to get up and walk around for the last ten minutes while he had a (very) mini meltdown before he finally fell asleep when Grandma Amy was walking him in the aisle and back by the bathrooms :) On the way home we were lucky enough to have a couple empty seats on the plane, so Grandma Amy sat in another row and Grandpa Paul and I finally got Ryder to fall asleep for about an hour or so in the middle seat between us:

We stayed in a house at a golf course resort called The Boulders. Like I said, I was really nervous about the sleeping arrangements/nap schedules. But it literally could not have worked out anymore perfectly than it did. Right outside the master bedroom (where Joe and I stayed!!) was an office. It had blackout shades and was tucked way in the back of the house where it was nice and quiet. The resort gave us a pack n play crib and I brought our monitor and so when he slept, we could sit out on the back patio and not have to be stuck inside listening for him. The room must have been close enough to his home because he had NO trouble taking nice long naps every day. It was fantastic!

The place we stayed was right off hole #5, so one night after dinner, Joe brought us out to the tee off area (if that's what it was called) and we took some pics of the beautiful view. The pictures seriously don't do justice as to how gorgeous the view was. And of course, Joe brought his clubs so he could play the hole one more time...I took a swing (and a biff) at the ball a couple times as well :)

Here was a typical day in Arizona for us: Considering we were up waaay early with the time change (think: 4-5am) we got plenty of day time fun. Usually Joe and his dad would play golf first thing in the morning. I would hang out with Ryder until his morning nap while Grandma Amy, Uncle Logan, and Amy Grace (who has her own blog too--check it out and follow her) would do their own thing: work out at the fitness center or go on long walks around the 1300 acre resort. Then I'd put Ryder down for his first nap of the day around 8am and Amy Grace, Logan, and I would head to the pool mid morning while Grandma stayed with Ryder while he slept. Once Ryder woke up, Grandma would pack him up and meet us at the pool and we'd swim around. Ryder LOOOVED the water. He did great and enjoyed it way more than I thought he would. We brought this really cool floaty device thing and it worked wonderfully!

Around noon we'd head back to the house and make lunch and eat it outside on the shaded patio. After that we'd either head back to the pool, a couple days some of us would head over to the Golden Door Spa and have a massage or an aloe body wrap (it was heavenly!!) in the afternoon. Ryder would take his second nap of the day and sometimes I'd take a nap too--awesome for me!! Then we'd shower/get ready and head out to dinner somewhere around 5-6pm and when we'd get back we'd put Ryder to bed and then sit outside by the fireplace outside. The first picture is of the patio at night with a flash and then I turned off my flash so that you could see what it really looked like at night. It was pretty sweet:

You can't really see with the dark one, but you get the idea. Anyways, the trip exceeded my expectations (especially with how well Ryder did) and we had a great time....and then we came home to 30-40 degree weather and rain. At least we missed the horrible snow that happened earlier though. UHHH, when is spring going to really show it's face?? Hopefully sooner rather than later!! I'll post a few of Ryder's one year photos later either tonight or sometime this weekend hopefully.