I know I'm biased, but my two nephews are the cutest kids on the planet. Emmett is the goofiest, little chicken-legged boy, who laughs so hard he goes silent. And the little dimples he has below his eyes win me over every time! Then there's Tate. The ultimate side kick, especially for Emmett. He is the happiest, plumpiest baby you will ever meet. Need I say more? But really he has little square teeth, I refer to as Chicklet teeth, that are spaced apart perfectly. Okay so hopefully this gives you some idea of how excited I was to see them- I hadn't seen them in 9 months!! The last time I saw them, Tate had just been born and was still in the hospital! I could hardly contain my excitement!
I left Chicago a little earlier than Rusty just so I could see them sooner! My brother-in-law, Jared, picked me up from the airport. I was excited to see Jared and Cassie of course too, but as we were driving from the airport to their house, I could not wait to walk in the door and see my nephews! You know how sometimes you picture reunions as big monumental moments, but then you see them and it's like "hey", all nonchalant?…well this was NOT one of those times. When I walked in, Emmett greeted me with the most excited "Kaichi" I have ever heard. And he came running and gave me the biggest hug ever. While that may not seem so monumental, it really was exactly how I pictured it. I loved every second of it.
While we were in AZ, we did tons of fun stuff. Cassie and Jared's neighborhood pool, or should I say pools, are like resort pools. There is one swimming/lap pool, and one that has a beach made out of sand. So of course, we spent a few of our days lounging on the "beach". We also went to the Phoenix Zoo a couple times, had a girls night out with some ladies from Cassie's ward, the guys had a guys night out to a D-backs game, we got to see our friends Cam and Kari, went to the Gilbert Temple, I helped Cassie re-finish some furniture (which I was actually no help with, in fact I think I made it worse haha, sorry Cas!), we went to a kid's amusement park, and we ate at their favorite spots!
While we were there, Rusty had the adult open volleyball national championship in Phoenix. As I have mentioned before he played with the Great Lakes region. They ended up winning first place! Yay! It was a fun tournament- not only because they won first- but because we were able to see a lot of people we hadn't seen in a while. Although it was a bummer Rusty wasn't able to join every activity we did, it was fun that we all got to watch him play. Plus Rusty and I stayed a few days after the tournament, so we were all able to hang out together.
Another successful trip to AZ complete! Can't wait to be back there this summer!
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| Gotta love the cacti in AZ |
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| Emmett learning to play volleyball |
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| This above 55-years-old team was called "Rusty's" hahaha |
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| Happy as a clam |
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| If you look closely, there is a goat (i think), right at the top of mountain |
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| Blurry, but too cute to pass up on |
