Arizona

Eliza and I decided to tag along when my mom and brother were driving out to Arizona for a couple weeks. Eliza had not met my grandparents or many of my extended family members, so we figured this was a great chance. Mike was sad that he had to work and couldn't go with us.

In the interest of catching up on the blog before the new baby comes, I'll document our trip mostly by pictures, lots of pictures.

The drive was mostly uneventful, which is good for traveling with a toddler and a lady 35-weeks pregnant. Eliza was generally a great little traveler.

We did have to take some emergency potty breaks like this one in the middle of nowhere New Mexico that required a new outfit and intense car seat clean-up. Eliza loved walking barefoot on the red sand. Unfortunately, we picked up about 20 hitch-hiking flies at this stop.

At the family 4th of July party, Eliza and I went swimming. You can't really tell in this picture, but Eliza loved it!

Eliza had a lot of "firsts" on the trip, including her first ride on a teeter-totter. Here she is riding with my brother Derrick, with me on the other end. It's sad that my 6'3" brother and my 30 lb daughter together weigh about the same as I do right now!

With Uncle Derrick's help, Eliza took her first swings at a pinata!

She rode her first horse!

My uncle has an old school merry-go-round in his backyard which I have always loved. Like me, Eliza is a spinner. We both love dizzy rides and we aren't wimpy about it either. She and I rode on this while all the other kiddos were gathering pinata loot.

Eliza warmed up to her great-grandma after a little bit. She especially loved rocking with her.

It was a little harder to warm up to Grandpa, but as soon as he shared his scooter, he won her heart.

My mom helped with Eliza's baths while we were in Arizona, which was very nice. She let Eliza wear some fun bath bling and have crazy shampoo 'dos.

Grandpa's ramp was the source of hours of fun. Eliza would push cars up and down it and slide down it herself. When she got tired, she would cuddle up in the small space between the ramp and couch.

Eliza got to be good friends with Uncle Derrick, who she only met a few months ago when he returned from an LDS mission to Uruguay. He was very helpful with Eliza on the trip.

Being at Grandma's always puts me the mood for a project. On this trip, I decided I wanted to learn to piece a quilt and to quilt it by hand. Eventually, I'd like to make a nice quilt for our bed, but I started out a little smaller. With fabric I found in Grandma's stash, I put together this quilt for baby Bean. My mom, grandma, cousin Alicia, and I quilted it together.

I was so excited to get a 4-generation picture taken!

And one with Grandpa too!

Before we left, Eliza gave Grandpa a smooch!

On our way home, we visited my Aunt Nancy at her cabin. Eliza fell in love with Nancy's teddy bear collection. They had a wonderful snuggling/wrestling match.

She gave Eliza a new book and some animal crackers, which Eliza enjoyed very much.

Thankfully, the ride home was about as uneventful as the trip out. We were so excited to see Mike again after two weeks of missing him. He was really glad to have us back, as well.