These are from our drive down. We left Saturday after Katelyn's quiz meet and stopped at a hotel halfway. We arrived Sunday afternoon in Flagstaff.
Josh's grandparents, aunt and uncle, and cousins live in Flagstaff. While we were there, Josh surprised his grandparents and replaced their bathroom floor. He did a great job! The kids had a great time playing with the cousins. We also had the privilege of being there for the first time in 30+ years that his grandparents had ordered pizza and had it delivered. It was pretty funny! It was a joy to sit and listen to his grandparents tell many stories about our "roots" as they called it! One story in particular was heart-breaking, yet a miracle. Josh's Grandma's Grandma (that would be his great-great grandma) had 5 children about the ages of ours. They all ended up getting black diphtheria and 4 of them died within 6 weeks of each other. The last one was dying and wasn't supposed to live very much longer, but his mother went outside and cried out to God for his life. An hour later his fever broke and he survived. This young boy grew up to become Josh's grandma's dad. Praise God for miracles!
After a few days in Flagstaff, we headed to Phoenix. We visited the Wildlife World Zoo. It was so neat to be so close to the animals. The best part was feeding the giraffes! We then had lunch at the restaurant that had an aquarium inside it.
In Phoenix we visited my aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandparents. During our stay we celebrated Makenna's birthday...and had a party for both her and Brenden. My aunt taught me how to decorate a cake. I helped with Brenden's and did most of Makenna's. It was fun and I hope to make more cakes for their birthdays! While we were there my Grandad has some issues with his PACE maker, so he had to spend part of the time in the hospital. It was hard to not get to spend as much time with him, as he and my grandma are two of my favorite people, but I am thankful for the times that we had.
Since Phoenix has so many yummy restaurants that we do not have up here, we ended up eating out a lot...OK, so I mean A LOT! We ate at 14 different restaurants over 8 days. Yes, you read that correctly. Once again, the kids had a wonderful time with all the cousins. I especially enjoyed my time with my cousin. She is my very dear friend and I miss her already!
We also had the privilege of visiting Josh's other set of grandparents. Several weeks ago, his grandpa had a severe leg infection and had to have the lower part of his leg removed. He is recovering well from the surgery, but is still having some other health issues. We enjoyed visiting them in the rehab center where he is staying. We are praying for his continued recovery.
It was such a blessing to be able to spend some quality time with our families. Family is so important and I wish so much that we lived closer to more of our family. Thank you Lord for providing for us the means to get to Arizona!
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