Fun Friends in Arizona

We got to see lots of fun friends while we were home for Thanksgiving. We wish we could just pack them all up and move them here so we could have someone to hang out with!

Straight from the airport, we picked up our rental car and followed Cosmo and Jenn's directions to some random neighborhood in Mesa. We parked in front of a house and walked into their backyard. Their yard and carport had been converted to a "restaurant" serving delicious, authentic Mexican food. It's just some random family that decided to make their own little restaurant. It's advertised by work of mouth only (I'm sure it's probably illegal to run a restaurant in your backyard). But let me tell you...it was absolutely delicious and the perfect way to start off our trip in Arizona! Here's Ruby being best friends with Jenn:


We convinced Levi and Heather to come down from Payson to hang out. All of us ladies took our daughters to see "Tangled" while the men watched the babies and played video games. Bea and Berlyn must have already left when we took this picture, but we all had so much fun! Ella and Ruby were a bit traumatized by the end when [spoiler alert] Rapunzel's hair gets chopped off. They were both crying and kept asking when her hair was going to grow back and be beautiful. Despite the hair heartbreak, we all had such a fun time on our girl's night out.

Kendyll, Ella, Canaya, and Ruby

Ella was in heaven having Kendyll to play with for the day. She talks about her all the time and has so much fun when they get together. I really wish we lived closer to them!

We went up to Prescott for an afternoon to visit my Grammy and Uncle Bill. I remember taking lots of pictures, but they must have all been with Grammy's camera. We stayed there for a while, then went down to Prescott Valley to visit Blake and Faith. Richard and Blake have been friends since they were babies, so it's fun to be able to visit them every year. They fed us a wonderful dinner (I ate elk for the first time!) and we got all caught up on each others lives.

Ella and Brea are just a few months apart and have a great time playing together.

After looking through the pictures for this post, I realized that Ruby doesn't have any of her own friends. Her friend is this horse. But look at that happy face! She's glad just to play with toys and Ella and her friends.

Three silly girls. Brea had lots of fun toys and dress-ups. It was hard to get my girls to leave!



We hung out with my cousin Ally a couple of times, so my girls got to play with her cute kiddos. They sure had fun and even cleaned up the playroom when they were all done!

Tylee, Ella, Tate, and Ruby

Lucky for us, the Couser's were still in Gilbert while we were there, so we got to hang out with them a few times. Richard and I went to dinner with Gary and Missy one night, then we got the kids together to play (and for Missy and I to chat!) a couple other times. I sure miss them and I'm sad they won't be in Arizona anymore. Stinky Utah. Stealing all my friends.

Annie and Makenna

Here's Bryker, flipping me the bird! Ha ha! I don't know how I caught this, but I think it's hilarious.


We went to Tumbleweed park one day and it was so much fun. Ella, Bryker, and Ruby had a good time running all over the place.


I also got to meet up with my friend Jenn and let our kids play at the park. She has kids the same ages as mine, so it's great to play with them. Everyone's got a buddy. Jenn and I got caught up and the kids got some energy out. Can't ask for more!

Annie, Peyton, Ruby, Ella, and Brooklyn (Logan must have been in his stroller still).