Thanksgiving in Phoenix, 2013

Phoenix for Thanksgiving was just fabulous! (We got it right this time on our family trip planning and actually planned a trip which was well-suited for kids. Haha)

We left Pasco on Wednesday night and had a glorious direct flight from Pasco to Phoenix (direct flights from Pasco are few and far between.) We arrived at around 10:00pm, rented a car and drove to the Arizona Biltmore Hotel. We ended up checking in around 11:15pm. Our room was nice, but there was no pull out couch for the kids (as there was supposed to be) and it was late and we were tired, so after some choice words of encouragement on Dae's part, the hotel opened up an extra attached room for us and gave us a $100 voucher to the hotel. Sweet! So we ended up with a 2 bedroom condo-type thing with a kitchen, which was a perfect size for us. Kids could sleep in their room and we could sleep in ours.

We stayed 4 nights and our days consisted of:

* Wake up around 7am, make breakfast
* Mel goes for a run around 9am. (I ran 5.5 to 6 miles every single day! I was very happy about that. Most importantly, it gave me free reign to eat whatever the heck I wanted)
* Around 10:30am, drive 7 miles to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Scottsdale. I became addicted to a drink called a Pomegranate & Blueberry Tea Latte and Dae would order his usual White Chocolate latte.
* Hit the mall. Twice we hit the Scottsdale Fashion Square. Dae, realizing how fashion starved I have been, nicely took over watching the kids for a good 2 hours or so while I shopped H&M. It was heavenly :)
* In-N-Out for lunch. Double-double, animal-style, for Dae, a lettuce-wrapped burger for me, and hamburgers for kids. (The first day, Thanksgiving, we had the buffet at the Gold Room at the hotel. It was probably one of the best buffets I have ever been to. Being Chinese, I have been to my fair share of buffets, so that's saying a lot. It also didn't hurt that the champagne was flowing during brunch)
* Hit the pool. Our hotel pool had a cool waterslide that Leelee loved. Olin, on the other hand, absolutely hated it. We took him down it a couple of times and after that he would say urgently "no, no, all done, all done!" I think he was traumatized after my first trial run with him. I didn't realize how twisty it was and we ended up going at a greater velocity than I had anticipated!
* Shower
* Eat dinner. One night we met up with Dae's friend Tim at a Korean restaurant. The other nights we visited the Zoo and had Cheesecake Factory.
* Put the kids to bed. Dae and I ate snacks in bed and watched Pawn Shop on the History Channel or random movies on HBO.

A few funny things:

1) Leelee has somehow learned the numbers to call for emergency help on the phone, but he's got the numbers wrong. Example: Leelee tells us "If you say/do that again I might call the police on you. I know their number. It's 991"
2) Olin bumped his upper left incisor (#F) last week and it was a little bloody. I'm trying to get a good photo of it, but since then, it has been slightly mobile and has darkened a little bit. Of course I am watching it like a paranoid hawk, worried that he will prematurely lose it and be a little Billy-Bob with a missing tooth until his permament tooth comes in 6 years from now (Dawn, I feel your pain!).
3) Leelee is swimming SO well. The main pool at the hotel was a perfect 3 foot depth. Leelee was a little fish, swimming everywhere and with great confidence. He would swim underwater,  jump and swim and hold his breath, and do the dead man's float. He even showed me how to swim underwater, kicking his feet and rolling his hands (picture doing a speed bag in boxing). It got me wondering - Did they teach him that at CBRC? We definitely haven't taught him anything! It was so cute.

Naked, watching the iPad, a good portion of the trip

Lovely dining

Banana Republic shopper

Croquet at the hotel

These little ducks nestling together for warmth on my run.

Again, partially naked and watching the iPhone

It felt so good to lay in the sun

Camel ride! Phoenix Zoo Lights

Phoenix Zoo

I call this photo "Teeth"

Leelee the little fish, swimming underwater

Olin's face when asked if he wanted to go down the waterslide

Olin's face the rest of the time when playing and jumping with Baba

Leelee with the biggest smile every time he emerged from the slide