Cacti Everywhere

Good morning blog world! It's 5:48 AM Arizona time and I am ready to go. I am sure I'll be regretting this later, but I was really sick of lying in bed pretending I was ever going to get back to sleep. What can I say, if jet lag involves going to bed slightly earlier than usual I can handle it...sleeping later, no way!

First I just want to say thank you to my amazing sister for her guest post yesterday. It brought back so many memories...some of my brother and sister making me crazy as a child. Do you know I still remember the phone number of this boy I was friends with in 8th grade (who by the way, moved away and doesn't have that phone number anymore) because my sister and brother would chant it around the house? Awesome. Of course, I dealt with it all wrong and truth be told, the reason Caroline and I got so much closer my senior year of high school was because I finally matured and stopped trying to hide every friend who was a boy (or boyfriend) from my whole family. It was when I decided to stop being secretive that everyone calmed down and stopped caring. Go figure, why didn't I get that figured out at age 13? Anyway, I think I made a good decision to dance on the tables when I found out I had a sister. Good job 4 1/2 year old Kelly.

So on to Arizona...I have so many pictures to show you just from yesterday. Let's start at the beginning.

Preparation & Plane

I tried to prep myself for the plane ride by packing snacks. They no longer give you free food on the plane (not that I ever ate much of it) so I had to be ready for the 6 hour flight. Here are my snacks:

Planes themselves are a bit of an up and down experience for mine. I used to get air sick on them as a kid, but I seem to have outgrown that now. However, the nerves of the plane or maybe the change in air pressure does seem to negatively affect my stomach in some way still. So...about 2 hours into the plane ride after eating my peanut butter sandwich (which will not make a return appearance on a plane probably ever), all of a sudden my stomach blew up like a balloon (we are talking third term of pregnancy here) and then pain came with it. I immediately asked Eric to get me some Advil but while I waited for it to kick in I was in so much pain I thought I was going to throw up. I had to do laps in the aisle to calm myself down and make the pain go away. I don't know exactly what it is, but it always seems to help to stand up (well actually it would be best to lie down flat but lets be honest, where is that happening on a plane?). Fortunately, it only lasted about 15 minutes and then the Advil kicked in or something and I went back to feeling normal again. Don't you just want to go on a plane with me now? Other than that, the plane ride was just a normal ride. I sat next to a baby who slept the entire time, and then the mom & baby switched to be next to the dad and I sat next to a woman who tutors older kids. I also watched the movie "Closer" on my computer. Has anyone seen that? I thought it was terrible! Maybe I just didn't get it but it was one terrible situation after another...and I think it won Academy Awards...weird. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you the BEST thing about the plane. The winds were in our favor so it was 5 hours instead of 6, wahoo!!!

I forgot to get pictures on the plane (I was a little scared to move when I had the baby next to me, didn't want to accidentally punch him in the face). Did get an airport photo though...

Arrival & Car Rental

When we arrived in Phoenix and got our bags, we had to take a shuttle to rent our car. Both Eric and I just starred out the window at the palm trees and cacti. It's so fun to arrive in a place you have never been before...

Of course I was cheap and rented the "Economy" car. Eric was happy because his golf clubs fit in the trunk, but it was less than thrilled with my choice of manual locks and windows. Truthfully, if I had known thats what they meant by economy I probably would've paid the extra- why do they even MAKE cars like this anymore? What a serious pain in the butt.

Drive to Sedona
When I planned this trip I wasn't sure how we'd feel about driving close to two hours from Phoenix to Sedona after a long day of traveling. Surprisingly though, it was so scenic we barely knew it was 2 hours. It started with beautiful mountain views...

And of course lots of cacti. I don't think I've ever seen a real cacti not in a pot before yesterday.

When we got close to Sedona, the famous red rocks appeared.

I had thought Sedona was going to be similar to the Outback in Australia because they have that red rock as well. However, the lands in Australia are much flatter, so this is red rock with mountains all around, which makes the view very different.

Hotel
When we arrived at the hotel, we were upgraded to a room with a view, yay! Just look right past the parking lot haha

The inside of the room is really nice too. We got a one bedroom suite since Eric and my sleeping is so different, I figured it would be worth the extra few dollars (and maybe having manual locks for a week haha).

Dinner- Oak Creek Brewery Grille
As soon as we got to the room I started researching possible dinner options. I was really searching for a place that would be good food but casual enough that I could continue to wear my comfy yoga pants. I found Oak Creek Brewery Grille online and thought it sounded like a fun place to spend our first night. I did make a minor rookie mistake when I lead us first to the brewery itself where the beer is made, but luckily Sedona is pretty small so we were able to quickly recover. We had to wait for a table so Eric and I each ordered one of the Oak Creek beers. I got the Microlight which was delicious but my body was less than amused that I was attempting to drink beer after a crazy day. I only managed to finish half of it.

Eric also ordered a Prickly Pear Margarita. He said the only thing he did not love about it was that it was pink. Obviously that was my favorite part...

Eric also order the "Wicked Pickles" for an appetizers. We decided that "Wicked Pickles" should definitely be from Boston since "wicked" is really our word haha.

I ordered a Chicken Penne dish with marinated chicken, tomatoes, onions, olive oil etc. It was delicious and even though my body was confused that I was still awake and eating, it was happy to have some real food :)

I tried to go to bed around 9:30 Arizona time but it took me forever to fall asleep. The combination of a new bed, no fan (I sleep with white noise at home) and over tiredness made for a pretty miserable night sleep and of course now I'm up way before the sun. I have a feeling I am going to be exhausted today but maybe that means I'll sleep well tonight?
I hope everyone is having a good start to the week! (maybe you have today off? gotta celebrate those Presidents!)