"Arizonas!"

Back at the beginning of November, Melia, Evera and I went with my mom to Arizona to visit her sister.  Melia was SOOO excited to ride on an airplane!  I told her beforehand that we were going to go to Arizona on an airplane to visit Grandma's sister and she was so excited and kept saying we were going to "Arizonas!"  It was pretty cute.

 

She knows that Mike flies on airplanes for work sometimes, so Melia was so excited to get her chance to do the same.  She thinks Mike "drives airplanes" for work sometimes.  Lol.  So she kept asking if Daddy was going to drive the plane for us.  :)

We rented a car in Mesa and drove to LEISURE WORLD to visit my Aunt JoAnne!  Yes, I said LEISURE WORLD.  It's a retirement community in Arizona.  It was QUITE the experience!  :)

JoAnne is 19 years older than my mom and so her husband is retired.  JoAnne is 85 and Mac is older than she is.

Here's Uncle Mac and Aunt JoAnne's cute house.

 Here's their cactus in their front yard.  Aunt JoAnne hates it and wants to rip it out but apparently it's the only one of it's kind in all of Leisure World and some people are jealous and have begged to take a start off it so they could grow one.  Lol.  JoAnne thinks it's so ugly!  :)

Uncle Mac is so good at decorating their house.  I loved it.  It was so pretty.  Here's their master bedroom with the bathroom at the back.  Their house was so ornate and beautiful.  I was in love with their bedroom set.  I love the lightly whitewashed wood.

 Here's the room the kids and I shared with my mom at their house.  I LOOOOOOVED the bedspreads and pillows/pillow cases along with the crocheted bedskirt.  I would LOVE something like that on my bed.

My mamma is such a great grandma and it was fun to get to spend time with her with my kids, without all her other grandkids around.

Speaking of my mamma, this picture is for her.  She wanted me to take a picture of this amazing genealogy chart Mac made with countries and years and pictures.  It is pretty awesome.

Leisure World was quite the place.  At the clubhouse they had all sorts of things going on and all sorts of things you could do. 

 

I would imagine in my old retired years all that stuff would be pretty fun.  Uncle Mac's favorite place is the computer center.  I know if Mike and I lived there in our old age, the woodworking shop would be his favorite.  I think I'd like the jewelery and lapidary; or maybe the card room.  

When we were there all these old white haired ladies were having a billiards tournament.  They were all wearing matching uniforms and everything.  It was pretty fun/funny.  They wouldn't let me take a picture though.  The woman in charge said it'd be too distracting.  LOL!

I stopped in to check out the woodworking shop, so I could tell Mike all about it!  See those shelves at the back of the picture?  Those are covered with wooden toys (cars and such) that the men have made for needy children.  I met this cute old man who was making this AMAZING wooden house.  It was so ornate and beautiful!  It even had working mechanisms!  It was awesome, and he was so proud to show it off!

It was so beautiful walking around the grounds of Leisure World.

At one point my mom and I were taking a little longer than Mac and JoAnne enjoying the surroundings.  Mac and Jo stopped by the side of this building and just leaned up on it.  Melia immediately ran over and stood just like them.  It was pretty cute.

Melia loved these pretty pink and yellow flowers along the route.  

Aren't they cute?

 This is Mac and JoAnne's nightly routine.  How cute is this, and so cliche but adorable!  "Grandpa" asleep in his chair, and "Grandma" knitting.

My cousin Whitney (actually 1st cousin once removed--i.e. my cousin's daughter,) was living with Uncle Mac and Aunt JoAnne when we visited.  It was so fun to get to know her better and get to spend time with her.  I haven't really spent time with her since she was probably 6 or 7.  She was sooo cute with my kids!

She had Evera smiling so much!

Melia ADORED Whitney! 

 She played so cute with Melia and was so fun!

And when Whitney had to go to school she'd give her bunny rabbit to Melia to "babysit."  It was so cute and Melia was soooo excited about it.  Wow.  Whitney is one of those people who'll make a FABULOUS mom.  She's so creative and fun.  I am jealous of those people who it is sooo natural for.

Also while we were out there we went to Anthem, AZ to visit my cousin Michelle.  It was super fun to get to see her and her cute family and feel like we got to bond a little.  I don't have any cousins my age on my mom's side of the family and Michelle and her brothers and sisters are the closest to me.  It was fun to get to spend time with her because I've never felt that close to my cousins on that side.  (I've always been closer to my cousins-once-removed, like Whitney.)

Here are two of Michelle's adorable daughters, Kalia and Lily.  These girls were so cute with Melia and Melia had a BLAST being a girly

Lily did Melia's hair like a PRINCESS!  :)  Melia loved it. 

Here's Melia with Michelle's oldest daughter Jasmine, and her youngest daughter Kalia.

Melia even loved Michelle's OLD OLD golden retriever.  I don't know if I've ever seen an older dog in person.  He was so sweet.  And SOOO OLD!  I hope Chief lives to be old like this.

I had to take a picture of this 6 generations frame Michelle had up in her house.  I definitely need one of these for myself.  So I am going to put this on my to-do list!  LOVE IT!

It was a really fun trip and the kids were surprisingly good.  I was happy to get home to Mike though!

On the way to AZ I sat next to a man reading an inappropriate book.  It was uncomfortable and awkward.  Unfortunately my mom and I couldn't sit next to eachother because two people with "babe in arms" tickets cannot share a row.  But we got to sit in front and behind eachother.

On the way back home from AZ though, I got to sit by this nice grandma who even held Evera for me a little.  She was sweet and requested to hold him.

 My mom was great with Melia and brought lots of stuff to keep her entertained on the plane.

 Here she is peeking through the seats at me.  She had so much fun flying.