A couple of months ago, we learned that Sean "had" to go to a workshop for a week in the Philippines. When I heard this, I knew that I needed to go somewhere while he was in Manila :) We talked it over and decided it was time for Asher to get better acquainted with the cousins on Sean's side of the family. So we confirmed it would be okay to visit and bought tickets to Phoenix, Arizona for the end of September! When the time came to go, we excitedly went to take the short 45 minute flight - cake :)
At the airport, we had to introduce Asher to Cinnabon! Mmmmmm.
We got there in the early afternoon, and right away, the cousins were off to play!! And apparently, the older ones know what to do with their younger cousins... put them to work!
But these cousins are nice and reciprocate the kindness :)
They're tough!
Cole is a good big brother, and after he and Asher took their turns, he made sure little Lincoln got a turn too - with slave driver Asher standing by making sure it happened :)
That night Asher was out cold!
The next day after church, we went to visit the Mesa temple. It was a beautiful, but hot day. The kids had fun walking around and hanging out with each other.
This is also where Asher committed his first act of theft :) We went into the visitor's center, where he stole money from a nice man who was sitting on the couch. The man had taken a couple of things out of his pockets and placed them on the bench next to him. Since some of them were coins and Asher's no fool, he proceeded to pocket them and sneak off. I was really confused when he showed me the coins, but once I figured out where he had gotten the money from, we had him give it back and apologize for taking it. I don't know if I should be overly concerned about the fact that his first "crime" took place at the temple, hahaha :)
Our stop at Cinnabon began the gluttony of this vacation :)
When we went to Costco, we had to get some yummy pizza for lunch...
Then a day or so later, we found out it was International Pirate day (yep it's a real thing, and it is old school Jack Sparrow Pirate Day, not modern Somali Pirate Day)! Krispy Kreme was having a special where if you dressed up and talked like a pirate, you could get a dozen glazed doughnuts for free! While we didn't have any official pirate costumes, we found some red bandanas and scarves that we wrapped around the boys' heads and waists, and we even made use of Anakin Skywalker's dress up leggings... unfortunately, I accidentally put them on Asher backwards and wasn't about to put them on the right way, cause they were a little small to begin with :) But we "arrrrr'd" our way to some yummy, free doughnuts!
Arrrrrrrr! Doughnuts!!!
Mmmmm, totally worth it!
Then later, we went to a McDonalds that had a great play area. I was able to catch up with my Sis-in-Law and Asher and Lincoln could play, play, play! One funny thing that happened was this...Asher was at the top of the slide where I could see him. He was fully dressed at the time. Then he went down, and came out looking like this!
What happened in those three seconds it took to get down that slide???
We were then introduced to the wonderful world of gak! Asher spent lots of time playing with this wonderful, "melty", blob with his cousins
One night we were there, Asher's Aunties put together a birthday celebration for Asher. Thank you guys! He got presents!
Yay for Thomas the Train!
When he was done opening the presents, he gathered them up and went off by himself. "Mine!" Apparently, this is a natural reaction with you are in a house with four other kids :)
His nice Auntie Meghan baked some delicious cupcakes for us to celebrate. Thank you Meghan!
Time to blow out the candles!
Look at that - barely any effort and those candles are out!
Delicious!
One afternoon, Asher and I were able to go and visit some of my cousins who live in Mesa. I was lucky enough to visit with the whole female half of the family :). My aunt was so kind with Asher and played with him and gave him cookies. Instant favorite great aunt for him :) While we were there, I learned about how they irrigate in Arizona. Basically, once a month or so, they turn on their water pipes and flood their backyards. Trying to put aside the arid images of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez that are further down the line and rely on the same water sources, I embraced the unusual practice. The kids had a grand ole time playing in the water.
Running...
Jumping...
Wading with toys...
And of course, relaxing in the hammock :) It was a great afternoon, and we were happy to catch up with my cousins!
We had a great, relaxing week, and we are grateful to have been able to visit. It was great to see how much all the kids have grown, and we loved that Asher now knows his Whalen cousins even better.
Flying back, we were able to coordinate out flights (Sean's from Manila and ours from Phoenix)where we arrived within 40 minutes of each other. We got our luggage, came out to the car, and this is what we found:
A flat tire. Booo.
Just what Sean needed after a 14 hour plane ride. Fortunately, the weather was gorgeous, and it was only early afternoon. Imagine having to change a tire in 100+ degree weather or late at night! No thank you!
No worries though! Sean had it under control :)
And Asher was so good and helpful!
We got it changed, and made our way home on the spare. It's a good thing we bought those four used tires before we got to Albania! Haha. After all the rough roads in Albania we had no flat tires. Go figure, back in the States and the tire goes flat sitting in the airport parking lot. Now we only have three tires left - what are we going to do?
Ever since we changed the flat tire, Asher has been obsessed with flat tires as he plays or whenever we walk around the car, he will point out which tire was new because of the flat tire. When we play with play-doh, we frequently play "flat tire". The game goes like this - I make a play-doh car, give it four wheels. Asher then proceeds to give the car a "flat tire" by squishing one of them. Then he asks for a spare tire from me where I then make a new tire and he replaces the flat tire with it. Lots of fun :)
Thanks again Missy and family! We loved visiting you and can't wait for Thanksgiving when we can see you again!
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