In preparation for our trip to Arizona for my brother Joe's wedding, we bought C an adorable suit and matching father/son ties.
After 1.5hrs on the phone with Orbitz who messed up our flights, we finally were back on the 5am flight. We thought C would just sleep on the planes; first he woke up at the same time our alarms went off (I was hoping he'd sleep til we were ready to go) then he was all wound up and the 1st 2.5 hr flight he slept only about 20mins then squirmed and kicked and fussed. It was pretty miserable for me. I would not travel with a 1yo under any other circumstance than for a wedding of a sibling.
Thankfully he slept on the 2nd flight or I would've seriously flipped out; I was exhausted and wanted to nap too.
My parents graciously rented a 4bdrm house (with an icy not heated pool) where we stayed with them, my grandparents and my aunt & uncle. It was tons of fun! I really enjoyed staying with everyone. There was so much to talk about and share, and there were more eyes on Carsen :)
The first night, Joe & Ellen invited us over for a BBQ. Turns out, Joe can really grill a mean burger! It was nice to see them before all the wedding chaos started.
The day before the wedding was a welcome fiesta at this beautiful hotel. There was tequila tasting (though I avoid tequila at all costs so), fresh guacamole (ate my fair share) and lots of cool firepits. Carsen was only interested in picking up gravel, and I spent most of the time following him around making sure he wasn't eating the rocks.
Dinner was served late for us but it was a-mazing. C kinda started to lose it and threw chips everywhere. Nice.
Thank goodness he can still sleep anywhere. This was a test because I hadn't tried that with him in months so wasn't sure what he'd do.
Once he fell asleep we had a lovely dinner :)
The day of the wedding, we decided to go to the mall. My mom heard they were doing makeup makeovers at Macys and is thought it'd be fun to have our makeup done but my mom wouldn't come. So Matt, C and I had some lunch and I sat down for what she said would take about 30-45mins. Why on earth it needs to take so long I have no idea. Lady, you don't need to apply like 12 applications of basically the same color in tiny, light swipes. This is not a Monet; it's just eye shadow. To her credit, it did look good but it took twice as long as she said. Meanwhile C was getting very tired and fussy. By the time we got back to the house, it was time to rush to the wedding site to take early pics with Joe & Ellen. So Matt and I rush to get dressed and get C dressed and pack a little bag for the babysitter who was going to watch him, and I even forgot any food except some crackers and one squeeze bag that he ate in the car.
It was hot, he was in a hot suit, he wanted a nap and probably more food and basically just melted down into a squirmy fussy mess. Thankfully Joe wanted to still take some pics because I didn't think I could keep him clean and dressed for another 1.5hrs.
You can't even tell I curled and did my hair in the car ;)
And again Carsen was only really interested in rocks.
Thankfully Ellen's parents hired us a babysitter and she even took him for a long stroller ride during the ceremony. I'd thought he could at least sit with us through that but without having napped recently and it being in direct sun, he would not have made it through even the 15min ceremony.
The ceremony was short and sweet, and I'd maybe have gotten a decent pic but we were staring right into the sun. It's hard to pick a site and be able to predict where the sun will be certain times, I've learned working in conference services. And unfortunately I hadn't been able to find my phone charger so my phone went dead just as the ceremony ended so I have no pics of the reception.
There was a really lovely cocktail hour with some to die for crab cakes. Admittedly I would've loved to enjoy even more cocktails and wine than I did but Matt and I had started trying to get pregnant the month before so I thought I should take it pretty easy. The dinner was fantastic; and oh.my.gosh their red velvet cake (which is usually overrated to me) was sooo good I could've eaten about 12 slices. They also had a dessert table - win! The most fun though was they had a photo booth where 10secs of shots became a flip book. What a super fun idea! We really enjoyed that. We tried to do a bit of dancing because Joe and Ellen kept mentioning it so we tried to keep the floor going, despite the more club than wedding appropriate music; even my 84yo grandpa was dancing!
We stayed a few extra days just to enjoy the only vacation we'll probably have this year, with the cost of flights and that Matt is in the hole on time off at work.
We enjoyed the sun and heat! And even the icy pool .
Matt started a workout program a few weeks before and his hard work is really paying off. I lost a little weight too but not nearly as much as Matt.
We were sad to leave Phoenix to go home to a cold, rainy March at home.
Matt fell in love with Phoenix again. (He lived there for 2yrs about a decade ago). We've since entertained the idea of moving there if Matt could find a good job down there. We'll see what unfolds...
