mini vacation- Tempe

Wednesday

Laun had to attend & speak at a Conference in Tempe, so we all came along for the trip. It snowed before we left the house & the kids were excited to play in the snow. As we were driving you could see snow on the mountains, Clayton tried to capture it, but it is hard to tell in this picture.

Before we went to the hotel I took the boys to get haircuts. Normally Laun cuts their hair, so I think it was strange and fun to the boys to go somewhere for a haircut.

The kids were so excited to get to the hotel. Tonight Jane Collier treated us to dinner at the hotel. We had a good time chatting & eating yummy food. Clayton got a steak & Porter got sliders (mini hamburgers with horseradish sauce). Marlee ordered a kids meal of grilled cheese. I think my salmon meal was the best though:)

Thursday

Huge highlight of the trip for the kids was the kiosk- a little room full of all sorts of food. This was free to all people attending the conference at the hotel & we got special permission since Laun spoke at the Conference.

There’s a food side (even the drawers are full of food) & a beverage side.

The kids are loving this & so am I…

I took the kids to see the movie- Escape from Planet Earth. The kiosk snacks came in very handy:)

Then we went swimming (the pool was heated) & the kids had me carry them across the pool over & over again. They loved it & I got a great workout.

The hotel we are staying at is right by the airport, so we saw so many planes flying over. We are also right by A mountain & I decided that we’d have to hike that tomorrow.

When we got back there was ice cream at the kiosk. This is basically the best vacation ever for these kiddos.

Then we were lazy for a bit & just hung out in the hotel room watching TV.

For dinner we walked to a Southwestern Grill restaurant called Z-Tejas. We got a virgin pina colada to share.

The boys each picked appetizers for all of us to share. Clayton got grilled shrimp guacamole tostada bites & Porter got shrimp & pork dumplings with ginger sauce. I love that my boys are so willing to try new foods.

We had fun walking on Mill Ave. We saw an ASU shop & Clayton was wearing his UofA jacket. He thought he was funny to put a thumbs up for his jacket & a thumbs down for ASU. Laun actually attended ASU for awhile when we lived in Phoenix, so I guess we should be both ASU & UofA fans.

After our night walk- the kids in front of the hotel sign.

The view from our hotel room.

Laun came back from his dinner with other Conference people & we headed to In-n-Out for some shakes.

 

Friday

We hiked up A mountain.  I’ve got to say, the mountains in Tucson are so much prettier.

The boys on A mountain.

Porter slid down one side of the A & lets just say he’s lucky he didn’t really hurt himself. I think he got more speed than he expected.

Stopping for a snack break.

Some views from A mountain:

The cream red roofed building is the hotel we are staying at.

We had a great hike- here’s the view of A mountain from our hotel room:

 

Laun was featured in this magazine, since he was a speaker at this conference:

The kids & I had a great mini vacation. We didn’t see Laun a whole lot, but better than staying home & not seeing him at all for 3 days. He was very happy that we joined him. We got home tonight unfortunately, we wished we could have stayed for longer.