Cody has had dental workshops in Arizona this summer. He had one a few weeks ago and decided to make it a family trip. I said yes, even though I knew I'd be on chemo, it'd be hot and a long drive and Tucker would miss the first couple days of school. The drive down went a lot smoother than I anticipated. It only took us 11 hours and we never had to bust out the DVD player or the road trip treats. Cody drove the entire way. We stopped for lunch and a potty break, oh and to snap a picture of Lake Powell at the Glen Canyon Dam.
We arrived Tuesday evening to our awesome villa in Scottsdale. It had a full kitchen, bedroom and living room area with a pullout sofa. Cody started his class on Wednesday morning so I got up early to go for a run and then dropped Cody off at his convention center. I found a train park nearby, and took the kids there. For $1 you could ride the train and the carousel and kids 3 and under are free. It was perfect. The weather surprised me and wasn't nearly as hot as I imagined it would be. The Phoenix area had received a lot of rain lately and so the temps were only in the low 100's. Still hot, but not the 115 temps they had earlier. It was also very humid to me.
Because of the hot temperatures Arizona receives, they have tons of splash parks/pads. I took the kids to one at the Scottsdale Quarters on Thursday morning. We also went to our hotel pool and played on the splash pad there and the playground.
The first two nights we ate out for dinner. Red Robin one night and we found a Mongolian grill for another evening. The kids loved that. We ate at one in Colorado before we moved 4 years ago and have been anxious to go to one ever since. I bought breakfast items and some instant mac n cheese for some other meals. I had my first Trader Joe's experience. Not sure what the hype is about. I obviously didn't buy what people think is cool.
Friday morning I got together with a childhood friend, Susan, that grew up with me in my home ward. She has supported me throughout this year by even coming up to my 5K in April along with her whole family. Her husband just finished medical school and is working at a local hospital. We went to a splash pad of course and then let our kids play at her house so we could visit.
Cody is much funner to play with in the pool. I have dumb earplugs that I'm constantly worrying about because of my tubes and Blake doesn't like to hold still. It's a good thing Tucker and Aubrey can swim and Cole can float in a life jacket. That makes life much easier and enjoyable.
Blake is a daredevil. It had just rained and I took him to the playground. This apparatus was very wet and he's throwing his head back and laughing.
Friday night we were able to hangout with our good friends, the Skinners. Jeremy and Cody went to dental school together. Hannah has a sister that lives 2 streets away from us, so we see them more frequently.
It was pouring rain and thundering/lightening when they arrived at our hotel so we sent the men off to the grocery store for dinner and waited until after we ate to go swimming. Because I was on chemo this whole week I never felt great, but it could have been worse.
The Thursday night we were there we met and had dinner with the Bennett family. Ian did his endodontic residency at the University of Maryland. They moved there after we left, but we'd heard a lot about them. It was fun getting to know each other and let the kids run wild.
2 comments:
It was so fun to see you Lisa! You are awesome that you did this trip even with your chemo - Love you!
Lisa, you don't know me, but I saw your comment on Jen Roper's blog and then navigated to your blog and read your story. You are an INCREDIBLE person. My husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor exactly 2 years ago. He had a grade 2 astrocytoma on the top right side of his brain. He also had brain surgery and is doing really good, life is different- but good :). Anyway, I wished I could've talked to more people that knew what we were going through during that time. I'm still very tender from our experience. It's amazing how one day the biggest challenge is being locked out of the house and the next your husband is diagnosed with brain cancer and your vision of the life you planned has taken a sudden nose dive. During our trial, I would envy people that on the outside seemed to have "normal" lives. Now I don't. I wouldn't trade the things I've learned, the woman I've become,seeing the support and love from so many loved ones and strangers, and most importantly, the relationship I've developed with my Savior. We as a couple have grown so much and our love we share is on a far deeper level than it ever would have been without this experience. Thank you for sharing your story, it was special for me to read that. And the pictures of the surgery were so interesting! I laughed at the part where you quoted Arnold Schwartenegger cause my husband would always quote that line before we knew he had one, so we laughed when he told the doctor that jokingly. I would love to keep in touch with you and make some "brain tumor" friends. It is nice to read about other people in our boat that are doing well and not feel so alone. I too shield myself from any bad ending stories of others. You are amazing and keep that head of pretty red hair up!
Love,
Missy
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