Wild, Wild, Wild West

Our Wild, Wild West adventure began at 3:30 am on Thanksgiving morning. That's how early we had to get up for our 7:25 am flight from Manchester, NH to Phoenix, AZ. I thought that we would just load the boys into the car while they were still sleeping. In fact, Evan went to bed in his clothes. But, both boys seemed to sense the excitement of the adventure, and they woke up while Mommy and Daddy were doing some last minute preparations. Evan was so excited that he literally bounced out of the bed down the stairs.

This was this first time that we were taking an airplane with The Brothers YZ, and we knew the airport would be a crazy experience. When we arrived in the Manchester airport, Evan asked, "Where's Grampy? He must be waiting for us somewhere." I explained that we had to ride in the airplane first, but before we could ride the airplane, we had to make it through airport security, which would turn out to be the most stressful part of the trip. (Even Liam had to take off his Robeez.) The Brothers YZ did very well on the flight with no meltdowns. Evan had the window seat, and he was amazed to be over the clouds and see sunshine when it was so foggy on the ground. He got a little upset when we flew from the mountains to the city of Phoenix, as he thought we were leaving the wild, wild west. As we screeched to a stop on the runway, Liam squealed with delight. That was only a prequel to how excited he would get upon seeing Grampy at the arrival gate.

Liam and Evan had a great time meeting their cousins for the first time and enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving feast prepared by Grammy. Evan was immediately taken under the wing of Cousin Haley, who later won the title of my "best big girl." Evan loved the array of vegetables available at Thanksgiving diner, and Liam, not the vegetarian that his brother is, even had some turkey. The Thanksgiving feast was topped off by a campfire on the pation with ghost stories by Brett, Connor, and Haley.

On Black Friday, we did not go Christmas shopping and had quite the adventure. We started out with a trip to a huge recreational facility in Glendale to watch Cousin Michael play baseball, play in the playground, and feed the ducks. Then, it was off to see the dancing fountains and have lunch at Westgate plaza. We capped off the day with a visit to Cabellas, a big sporting goods store with a wildlife museum and aquarium, where Evan regaled Grammy with a story about each taxidermied creature.

That's it for now. but there will be more adventures to come on this wild, wild west adventure.