Weekend Adventure in Phoenix

 

We are back in the groove after our weekend adventure in Phoenix at the end of March.  It was a fun, fast weekend- here is a rundown of the events.

Preparing to fly with a toddler apparently had me convinced that I needed to prepare for battle. I took advice from anyone and everyone possible, stocking up on all sorts of crazy distraction devices for a 2.5 hour flight. Here were some of the chosen items. James is obsessed with Finding Dory at the moment, so thank goodness for the Target dollar bin and all of the themed items.

**Side note- I was kicking myself for buying the stupid $8 stuffed Elmo doll. Turns out he was one of the biggest hits of the trip!**



 A co-worker of mine who is well versed traveling with little ones gave me this snack idea.

 

Our flight was scheduled to depart KC at 6:10 AM. This meant we needed to be out the door at home no later than 4:00 AM. Insert a displeased toddler here when his daddy went to get him up.

Here is what we looked like as we prepared to depart....

 

Ok, now this is much better!

 

We had mixed emotions on the flight. James started out pretty decent, but then got super antsy and was over it. Thank goodness for the sweetest 21 year old college girl who just doted over James the whole time. We left KC at 6:10 AM and with the time change in Phoenix we landed at 6:30 AM.

We grabbed our bags and headed to get the rental car. James didn't seem too enthusiastic to be in Phoenix, haha!



 

We headed off to the resort after we got our rental car. Our room wasn't quite ready so we found a breakfast spot. James did pretty well entertaining himself with some color time at breakfast.

 

Post breakfast we headed to grab a few snack items at Wal-Mart. Sweet boy grabbed a quick nap while we drove around and scoped out the city.

 Mom and Dad while James napped.

We finally got settled into our room and decided it was a good time to hit the water park with James. He was a little unsure at first, but then LOVED the water!

Scoping out the suite.

 

Not so sure about the waterfall.

Loving the water!

That thumb is never far.

 

Poolside snack- Cheerios!

 We got cleaned up to head to dinner at a yummy taco place then enjoyed a beer flight at a local brewery.

Busy boy running around the brewery.

On our way we decided to detour and check out mommy's childhood home in Phoenix. I don't remember a single memory living in Phoenix as a toddler, but it was neat to see the house in person that I have seen in pictures my whole life.

 

  

Tired from the long day we all headed to bed at a decent time. Daddy found he and mommy some local beers, so we enjoyed them in our suite while James went to bed.

With the lovely time change, James awoke us around 4:00 on Saturday morning. After only being able to contain him so long, we grabbed some coffee and ventured out for a walk around the resort to help pass the time. 

 

 

Post early AM walk, we went for a drive to grab some breakfast. James enjoyed a long nap while we enjoyed some massive burrito in the Walgreen parking lot. Keepin' it classy!

 

Late morning we ventured to Surprise, AZ to head to the Royal's game. The gates opened at 11:00 so we wanted to be there relatively early in case James didn't last the whole game (which we figured he wouldn't and he didn't). 

 

Headed into the stadium.

"I got your back, Dad!"

 The early arrival allowed for several photo-ops and play time within the stadium.

Family selfie!

"Try to catch me, Dad!"

Bubble break!

  

  

All conked out and headed back to the resort.

Saturday evening was low key. We ended up ordering room service for dinner, watched the KU game and headed for bed early to prep for the flight home on Sunday. The apple doesn't fall far from the mommy tree when it comes to couch sleeping. :)

 

We were up and at 'em early again on Sunday. We decided to get to the airport early just to ensure we were on time and didn't have any snafu's. We got through the car rental place and security without issues then grabbed some breakfast to fuel up for the journey!



 We quickly got settled with some snacks and Elmo before take off. It wasn't long before our sweet babe was snoozing away! The flight home went much better- James slept most of the way and was more content that on our way out.

We were happy to be back in KC. We grabbed our bags and headed to the curb for our ride home (thanks, Grandmommy!). I think it's safe to say that James was over the weekend of travel! ha!

 





It was a great weekend over all. A lot of special family memories were made and several lessons of traveling with a busy toddler were learned! :)

Jabber Walkie

James' vocabulary is really exploding lately. The boy is saying different words left and right, annunciating more, and has now started to put 2-3 words together. Here is a running list of what I can remember to date.


"Momma"- Momma
"DaDa"- DaDa
"Bookie"- Book
"Oof"- Puppy/Dog
"Baa"- Sheep
"Oye Oye"- Pig
"Naaahh"- Hourse
"Tuttle"- Turtle
"Pish"- Fish
"Walk"- Walk
"Eh-mow"- Elmo
"Wheeel"- Whale
"Puh"- Pooh
"Baaa"- Bath
"Ette"- Eat
"Ilk"- Milk
"Awffle"- Waffle
"Go-Go"- Goldfish
"Baahr"- Fruit Bar
"Bake"- Bacon
"Chee"- Cheese
"Ooooh"- Cheerio
"Ball"- Ball
"Muh Muh"- More
"Pease"- Please
"Uuhh ooo"- Love you
"Nigh Nigh"- Night Night
"Bay butt"- Belly Button
"Muh-Bake-Pease"- More bacon please!
"Bay butt- Momma"- Momma's belly button


I'm sure there is more that I can't remember and I have no doubt this is only the beginning o the fun we're about to endure with this little jabber walkie! :)

The Sickness Saga Continues....

I tell you what... we've all about had enough of this sickness plague going around in the Leach residence! It seems as though we cannot catch a break. If it's not a cough, it's a diaper rash. If it's not diaper rash, it's diarrhea. If it's not diarrhea, it's vomit. Get the picture?


Last Friday I was about 2 minutes away from getting James at daycare. The weather was G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S out and I had just called John and confirmed we would book it to the park and take advantage of the awesome weather. As I was about to pull into the daycare parking lot one of James' teachers called me to let me know he had just vomited A LOT everywhere. Awesome. I arrived to daycare to a puke covered babe, quickly getting changed by his teacher (bless her!). We quickly packed up our stuff and headed home. A GI bug had been going around last week and I was fearful it would hit James eventually. We got home Friday evening and just tried to lay low. After about 3-4 vomiting episodes and 2 baths, we finally got our little buddy calmed down and in bed around 9:00. No fun for anyone involved.


Saturday we thought we were in the clear. James had been tolerating bland foods and water, doing great! I was thankful all we were dealing with at the time was some diarrhea. I was encouraged when he was playing and active. We even walked the sidewalk outside just to get some fresh air before dinner and he was in bed at his usual time without a fuss.


And then, Sunday....


Sunday came and I assumed we were still headed in the right direction. John reminded me that I still had a few bags of frozen breast milk in the freezer so I thawed a bag thinking that would settle better than a cup of whole milk. After some breast milk and Cheerios the fun began again. Vomit. EVERYWHERE. And it did not stop for the day.


After about 5-6 vomiting episodes and his lack of being able to keep any food or drink down I decided to call the pediatrician on-call. I had debated on taking him in to an Urgent Care, but really did not want to risk exposing him to all of the influenza cases that are running wild! I was so thankful that it was his own pediatrician on call and she was kind enough to trust my assessment of him and call us in some Zofran. Thank you, Jesus! What a miracle Zofran is.


We finally got a dose of Zofran in him and a few crackers. I was nervous to give him any solids, but the poor baby was so darn hungry I couldn't get him to calm down without some sort of food/drink before bed.


I'm crossing my fingers AND toes that we are finally headed in the right direction. Lord, please do not let my baby throw up anymore. I think we are all tired of the sickness (and the laundry and disinfecting)!

2 Years Ago

I thought it would be worth noting that this day 2 years ago brought some exciting changes to our family (if you're bored, go ahead and reference post #1 on this blog). It was 2 years ago that today that I was home alone and on a whim took a pregnancy test and it was POSITIVE. John was getting ready to land in Baltimore and catch another flight- he had been gone for almost a week and was headed for a work trip post fun-friend trip in CO to ski. I'll never forget his response as I texted him a picture of my pregnancy test- "hahahahah". Funny indeed, but so exciting! Not the most ideal way to tell your husband that you are pregnant, but if you know me I am not a patient individual. :)


What a wild, exciting, fun, journey it has been these last 2 years. It has been simply amazing! John and I learn new things about each other and about James every day. Some days are hard, some days are a piece of cake, but all days are totally worth it!


I love our little family and we are so blessed that we are where we are!

The memory that popped up on my Facebook feed this am. He was so little!!!