At the beginning of December is when Grams left. She was able to stay a little longer and spent some great time with Arabella. The photo below is when she was getting ready to enter the airport for her trip home. You can see that Ara was sad to see her go.
We were not feeling very happy after everyone left. I know, I get it. In most of America, people hate to spend time with their family – of any kind. Not us though. To cheer ourselves up, or at least try to get our mind off of things we took a trip down to Chandler to see the lit-up Tumbleweed tree (pictured below). Around this time we also went to yet another Coyotes game. You can see the black/grey shirt that I’m wearing is actually a Coyotes jersey. So fun times, but we were getting tickets left and right to go to games. Why? Multiple reasons, one was work – I had won some crazy good tickets to see a game and then we started looking to see what we could find. Tickets were cheap and it was a time to be around a wonderfully airconditioned building. We were able to take photos with the mascot and everything – so we ended up going all in and getting warmup jerseys.
Anyway, to finish off the year, we took a trip (another one, yes) to Oregon. We went to visit the entire family (as we had only spent time with Gramps and Ellie/Nonnie). We wanted our kids to see their cousins. If we could why not try to fit in a trip to Tillamook, a Blazers game and some good memories along the way?
As you can see, we fit in the Blazers game. The picture of the donut was actually something they were only doing for a few months and being the big fans that we are, we had to get one. The snowy picture was not in the Portland area as snow is rarer than common but rather taken along the way up after entering the state on the southern border. The Blazers game was exciting for Ara as it was a rare occasion to visit the “home arena” vs always cheering opposite when watching the Blazers and Suns play in Phoenix.
Finally, we have photos of the kiddos since we spent some time visiting with the fam. It was a fun ride back – in fact, the whole ride was fun. We rented a Mustang and got a convertible. The crazy people we are – we dropped the top while it was snowing for a minute or two, then again near the ocean, and also when coming back via California. Ara LOVED it. The last photo was the last day of the year on our way back. This was a great memory I have of her, smiling, giggling, and (at her request) holding my hand while enjoying the wind. What a way to wrap up 2016.
just Pray
note: this post was published on 07/25/22 but moved the publish date back to the end of December 2016 to keep chronological order.
