Tucson in January

Doug had days that he had to take off or lose that he had to use by the end of January so that was a perfect excuse for us to head back down to Tucson. Besides the joy of seeing family we were looking forward to warmer and dryer weather and cleaner air. We had a fairly early flight on Thursday the 17th and got to Tucson by 10:30AM.  When I made the flight arrangements Finley hadn’t started preschool yet but then I learned that he was in preschool on Thursdays. It worked out though because that gave us time to visit with Pat and Jim Seddens. I first met Pat Seddens in 2008 when I worked for the Family Connection Center. I was scheduled to go to Tucson for a week of Parents as Teachers training. I was fairly active on a cross stitch message board then and mentioned that I’d be heading to Tucson and wondering if there were cross stitch shops or other things to visit. Pat posted on the board and gave me her email and said she’d like to meet me if I had time. Well....that was WAY out of my comfort zone but after two nights of sitting in the hotel room bored out of my mind (the girl I traveled to the conference with had no desire to do anything in the evenings except talk on the phone) so I got really brave and called Pat. She came to the hotel to pick me up and we went to dinner and a few cross stitch shops. She’s a delightful lady, about 15 years older than me, but we hit it off and found out that we had a lot in common.  The next year we ended up back in Tucson when Derek won a composition competition and his work was to be premiered at the music educator’s conference there. I had kept in touch with Pat and told her that Doug and I were coming and so we ended up spending the good part of a day with her and Jim. They took us up Sabine Canyon, out to the San Xavier Mission, and to lunch. Doug and Jim hit it off too and we enjoyed time together. Now fast forward all these years and Chad and Anney moved to Tucson so of course we wanted to see Pat and Jim again. We simply didn’t have time during our October trip.  So, we rented a car and drove to their home, which is on the opposite side of Tucson from the kids. We visited with them for over an hour, then went to lunch at a great bistro and visited there for a couple more hours. It was fun to catch up with them. Went back to the house where Pat had pie waiting for us but we were all too full to eat any so she sent a few pieces with us. It will be fun to visit with them periodically when we are in Tucson.

We headed over to the kids’ place about 3:30.  Chad and Anney hadn’t told Finley we were coming. He and Anney were headed out to get their mail when we drove up and got out of the car. We called his name and the look on his face was priceless! He was a bit confused but excited and I’m not sure that he enjoyed being surprised. It was great to see him though and get that hug from my boy.  We just played and visited until Chad got home. Anney had fixed dinner for us all and it was just nice to be there. We headed over to our inn at about 7:00 so they could get their boy to bed. We were tired too since we got up at 5:30AM to make our flight (and I hadn’t slept at all the night before).

Friday the 18th we went over to the house mid morning. We were lazy and didn’t get moving too early. We decided to all go to the park but to take two cars so that Anney and I could leave after a while and go do some shopping for baby things for Ari.  It was a nice park (well, as nice as a park in the desert can be). We left Doug and Finley there and headed off to see what we could find. We stopped at a second-hand shop but there wasn’t anything there that she needed so we went to Burlington and found lots of things there. We stopped in at Chick-Fil-A for lunch between stops. Doug and I were going to tend Finley that night while the kids had a date night so I dropped Anney off at Chad’s office at the university (crazy traffic right then with classes getting out, a high school next door, lots of pedestrians, etc) and then headed back to their place. We had stopped at the grocery store the night before and got some things for a simple meal; hot dogs, tater tots, melon, carrots, etc and then I bought ingredients to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. We played, had dinner, made cookies, played some more and then it was time for the bedtime routine. Finley was tired since he had Doug had played at the park for a really long time. We read books, sang songs, prayed, and then I tucked my boy to bed. He told me “mom usually sings ‘You Are My Sunshine’ to me” so I leaned over him and sang it quietly and then kissed his cheek. He whispered up to me in a sleepy little voice, “thanks for coming to visit me.”  That made it all worth while!

Saturday the 19th we arrived at their house in time to see Chad and Finley heading down the road with Finley’s big Tonka truck. They have a hill next to their house and so for the next 45-60 minutes it was a game of loading the truck with rocks and sending it down the hill, running down to retrieve it, and sending it back down.

We decided to go miniature golfing since Chad had heard of a place from his coworkers. It was a really cute place. There were lots of trees and shade, which is imperative in Tuscon, and the course was nicely maintained and really cute. We had fun watching Finley hit the ball, then go pick it up and put it right next to the hole and hit it in!  There was also a huge arcade in the "castle" and he wanted to spend lots of time there (I think Chad did too). They played a few games after we were done golfing. Chad told Finley that they'd go back one day on a "boys' day" and play video games. 

We went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch (I miss that place) and then went back to the inn to rest for a while and so that their little family could have some down time too. Went back later around 6PM and we all went to the "Screamery" together which is an artisan ice cream shop. They had really fun flavors and I'll definitely go back next time we're in town. Finley chose chocolate but then he decided that he really liked Grandpa's chocolate better so he had a spoon in each hand eating ice cream from 

two bowls at once. Silly kid!

Sunday the 20th we went to church together. When Anney and I went shopping on Friday I found a cute Sunday outfit for Finley and he looked really cute in it. We were excited to go because he was giving a talk in Primary. He was actually supposed to give it the week before but they were nice and changed his week so we could be there to hear him. He was supposed to tell his favorite story about Jesus. I asked him what story he was going to tell and he said "Jesus and the pigs!"  What??  His talk went something like: "Jesus met a man that had bad spirits in him. He told the bad spirits to go into the pigs and then the pigs runned into the sea! Jesus helped the man feel better."   It was adorable. 

After church Anney had lunch for us, some yummy chicken and butternut squash soup. We had decided to go hiking in the afternoon so we stopped at the inn and changed before we went to the house. Hiking in Arizona isn't like hiking in Utah. There's more rocks, more dirt and definitely more cactus and prickly things!  A desert landscape will never be my favorite scene but there are some cool things out there. We went to Tanque Verde falls. It was all downhill to the falls and my knee started screaming fairly soon so we found a nice mesa for me to wait at and the rest of them headed down to the bottom. My left knee has finally started to feel better after 18 months and I just didn't want to re-injure it.  I took lots of pictures, texted back and forth with Brent, took more pictures, thought deep thoughts, and just enjoyed the view. 

After an hour or so (maybe more?) I saw them coming up the path and heard Finley calling me. Silly me, jumped up and ran to meet my boy. Well, that was the plan. Instead I took a glorious tumble and landed hard. Ouch. Cactus spines in my hands, road rash all up and down my left arm and right leg, a bump on my face, etc. It's a good thing Chad was there to lift me up because I don't know that I could've gotten up by myself. Limped back to the car where Finley was waiting with some wet wipes to clean me up. It hurt pretty bad and we stopped at the inn to get some pain meds. Only stayed at the house for a short while (played a game of Candyland with Finley and Anney) and then headed back so I could elevate the leg and get some ice on it. It was a long painful night. I'm too old to be doing such foolish things. The funniest thing was a few days later when Chad sent me the following text:

Monday the 21st was our day to head home but I had made our flight for later in the day since I knew Chad would have the holiday off and we wanted to be able to spend as much time as possible with them. We decided to go to the zoo. It's a small zoo but well maintained and we saw lots of animals we haven't seen at other zoos. Lots of shade there too with mature trees and several bamboo stands. It was fun to see Finley's excitement. My leg was hurting pretty bad (along with every other joint in my body from the jolt) but seeing him having fun helped me forget my owies!  One of the funniest things about the day was when we were watching the otters. A little boy, probably about 5 years old, turned to his mom and excitedly said, "Look! A waterproof dog!"  I laughed and laughed and the mom laughed too. I don't think I'll ever see an otter again without thinking of that! We told Finley we'd buy him something in the gift shop and after much deliberation he chose a meerkat (I think because Grandpa told him that was his favorite). He promptly named it "MeerFinley."

We headed to a Mexican restaurant for lunch that Chad had heard about that had received some awards. My chicken was really good and Doug loved his Sonoran hot dog. Finley was being super silly and it was fun to sit and talk. It was hard to say goodbye after that but I got a big hug and a sweet kiss from my boy in the parking lot and then we were off to the airport. We were early and had plenty of time to read but I'd always rather be early than late. Arrived back in SLC to 7" of wet heavy snow on the Toyota and I wondered why we had come home since the temperatures in Tucson had been a balmy 68-78 degrees the whole time we were there!