Scottsdale, Arizona

This summer we decided to take a "stay-cation" in Scottsdale. Saturday morning marked the beginning of our adventure with 3 kids, the hottest weekend of the year so far and no A/C from the front air vents in the car. We were determined to have a good time, sweaty or not.
Our first stop was to get Kevin some new work clothes. Luckily, the Van Heusen outlet store near Superstition Springs Mall is closing so he was able to get 80% off...total score!! While he was roaming the store, I let the kids play on the mechanical rides outside the store. Kimble, of course, loved the horse. Karter, on the other hand, really wanted to ride the elephant.



We treated the kids to all-you-can-eat pizza, bread sticks and salad at CiCi's Pizza for lunch. Kevin used to eat at CiCi's quite often when he was on his mission in Georgia. So, he was happy when they opened in the valley and is usually the one that wants to eat there whenever we are in the area. The kids love it too!


After checking into our resort (yes, not just a hotel but a resort booked through Priceline) and cooling off, we headed down the street to Scottsdale Fashion Square. We actually had a couple stores that we needed to hit, but neither of them were located in the mall. So instead, we found the kid's play area and let Kimble and Karter explore for a while. It took forever to get to it though... that mall is definitely NOT stroller friendly! We soon had to find a place for dinner. We drove around for a long time trying to find a sit down restaurant that actually sounded good and wasn't way expensive. I finally just pulled into 5& Diner, not remembering how much I don't like it. The meal was not great and the service was pretty bad as well. We were, however, able to get a cute picture of Kimble wearing the hat Kevin designed.




We finally ended up at the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, just down the street from our hotel. The weather was still pretty hot, but we really enjoyed it. We got our tickets and headed straight for the carousel. Kimble just couldn't wait to ride the horses. Karter could really care less. Then we jumped on the train. Karter rode backwards with Kevin, so he ended up twisted for most of the ride. We then walked around to check out all the trains, rode the carousel one more time and had ice cream to cool off. We loved visiting the train park and want to go again once the weather is better if anyone wants to go with us!








What a day! The pool was our last stop before bed time and just what we needed. We even got to sleep in, which for us means getting up after 7am. Kimble was the last one to wake up, so I was able to get a picture of her curled up on the end of the bed instead of at the top and under the covers. I was worried about Karter falling off the very high bed during the night, so I lined the side of the bed he was on with chairs and pillows.



We had such a great time on our mini vacation. We hope to have another one after school starts down in Tucson, an area we really haven't explored. Next summer we plan to visit some Utah state parks and family history sites with Kevin's family and can't wait!