We're Back!

I have so many posts in my brain! But first a recap of our HOT trip to Phoenix. Our flight down was almost a disaster. We flew on Frontier airlines because they were the cheapest but also because we had vouchers after a flight cancellation nightmare when we were Austin, TX in April. Purchasing the tickets was complicated because no one seemed to know how to proceed using the vouchers and sure enough...when we got to the airport to check-in, our tickets were very messed up. Basically, they had a ticket for me but none for Seth or Sam. After about 40 minutes, a somewhat competant ticket agent figured it out and we had to purchase one ticket. Believe me, Frontier will hear about it! But we were happy to finally be on the plane.

As soon as we hit the tarmac in Phoenix the wall of heat hit us. Wow. Seriously...I don't think I could ever live there. It's the end of September, people, and every day we were there the temperature was over 100 degrees. It made it too hot to do anything involving movement except swim...which we did a lot of. The hotel we stayed at had a giant, waterpark type pool area with a wave pool, lazy river, waterslides, baby pool, and sprinkler park. The boys had a great time but it was hard without Jay. Sammy almost drowned once, which is hardly a surprise, but it kept me on my toes after that. Once Jay came back after his conference, everyone had a great time. The next day, I kept them at the small pool with no frills that was right by our hotel room. That way, I could let Henry take his much needed naps and still keep the other boys entertained. We spent a lot of time with our friends, the Giles, who live in Mesa. We were neighbors in Denver while Cory was in dental school and Jay in med school. But I never got to hang with her when she was a mom as her first son was born after we both moved. Libby and I had a great time letting our boys play and swim and catching up.
Jackson, Sammy, Seth and Jefferson taking a swim

Jay did great on his presentation and received a lot of positive feedback so I'm happy for him. He worked hard and deserves the recognition. I'm still trying to decide if I love the medical conference/family trip combo. How can you complain about a free hotel room and going places we'd never go to otherwise at this point in our lives. Yet, it's hard to be away from home with three kids and not get frustrated when he's at the conference he's supposed to be at. I'm sort of a sleep nazi and my babies just don't sleep well in hotels. But how fun to go places with Jay. In one calendar year, we've been to Washington D.C. (with that trip, Gettysburg and North Carolina too), Austin and Phoenix. And I was planning on going to Milwaukee and Denver for fellowship interviews but didn't due to Henry's ICU stay. I do love to travel and I suppose if this is how it's going to be for the next few years, I'm just going to have to grin and enjoy it...sleepless nights and all.

My tiredness is reflecting in how I'm writing. I really did have a good time. I'm not going to post pictures because that just takes so much effort sometimes and I can't do it tonight.