Tucson

Here we were, wearing shorts {and capris} in November. Not normal in our minds but normal for Tucson.
While Jacob was at work Riley and I walked about ten minutes to get some breakfast since he took the rental.

And here we are waiting for Jacob to pick us up and go have lunch.

Jacob was looking forward to having an IN N OUT burger. I'm not a fan of theirs so whatever. Riley had eaten soup at the hotel so all he wanted was a vanilla milkshake and fries. Jacob enjoyed his burger. I'm glad.

After lunch I dropped Jacob off at work. I kept the rental and decided to drive around Tucson. Driving back to our former home I got lost, lol. I forgot which streets I would take so what I did was to make sure the mountains guided me. As long as I stayed close to Mt. Lemmon I knew I would get to where I wanted to go. Once certain buildings looked familiar I knew exactly where to go.
I drove by Sydna's former high school. I took a picture of it and text it to her. Then I drove to our former house, looks the same. Drove by several stores that I would frequent, still looked the same. LOL!

I like this road. I would take it all the time whenever I wanted to go to Sprouts. I always liked coasting down this hill.

I stopped by the Foothills Mall to buy myself a caramel apple. Yum! Riley wasn't too fond of driving around Tucson. All he wanted to do was to hang out at the hotel.
So bizarre to see decorations in a desert setting. Mild weather around the holidays is just unnatural to me. I honestly don't know how we managed to live here for three years.

For dinner we went to Taqueria Juanitos. We were really looking forward to this meal. We would constantly frequent this place when we lived here. So so good! I had two carne asada tacos and caldo de res. It was delicious!

On our way back to the hotel we stopped by Dunkin Donuts. When we lived here there was only one Dunkin Donuts that we knew about and now they are everywhere and opened 24 hours. We got pumpkin donut holes. They are good!

The following day, after driving Jacob to work, I took Riley to the play area at one of their malls. We stayed here for about an hour. Like he usually does, he found kids to play with so he had a good time. Then we found these kiddie rides which he loved too. Good thing I had lots of quarters.

And just like that! Once we got back to the hotel he began to feel sick. He said his belly hurt. I had the suspicion that he was constipated. I think that's normal for kids when they travel because they tend not to drink as much water as they normally would at home. And since kids don't know how to really express what they're feeling it's hard to know how to help them which can become a bit frustrating. While he was trying to go potty he began crying and screaming. I had to calm him down to figure out what was wrong and he said he needed to throw up so I grabbed a plastic bag and placed it on his lap and sure enough he three up a lot of phlegm. I thought he was over his cold but apparently he wasn't.
I was suppose to pick Jacob up from work but thankfully two other guys from the Seattle office were also staying at the same hotel as us and they were kind enough to give Jacob a ride back since I couldn't leave because Riley wasn't feeling good at all.

At night we went to Target and got a few things to help him feel better. I had plans to go to La Encantada the following day which was our last day in Tucson but I decided to just stay at the hotel to make sure that Riley was back to feeling himself. Jacob took the car. We had breakfast at the hotel. The coffee that the hotel uses was really good. I should have asked what kind it was.

Jacob got off from work at 3:00 pm. We had lunch at Baggin's. Their caesar salad is really really good. The caesar dressing is similar to Paggliaci's.  And I thought their bread bowl is ingenious. It's garlicky and just yummy.

Because we had nothing else to do we decided to head to the airport. We got there about three hours early.

This was Riley's first time trying out the moving walkway ... he kept one leg off and one leg on the walkway and that caused him to do the splits and he fell. He said that hurt his private. We were laughing so hard. Oh man!

He colored, and drew and played games on Jacob's phone but then said, "this is SO boring! I want to go now .... Aaaahh!" This kid.

So long Tucson.

I didn't want to sit by the window so Riley did.

I forced myself to take this next picture. Then I put my phone away and closed my eyes for a while.

I don't like flying. I hate how take off feels. I hate turbulence. I hate the airplane noise. I hate how small airplanes are even the big ones {does that even make sense?}.
I had a bit of anxiety for the first ten minutes but after praying and changing my focus I felt fear leaving me. I also read quite a bit of Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst {which I was happy about because this book was just not working for me. It felt like if I was reading someone's nagging diary. I had to force myself to finish reading it}.

Thankful that we made it to Seattle safe and sound. We arrived before midnight. Riley was tired and not very happy and to make matter worse Jacob swung his laptop bag over his shoulder and accidentally hit Riley on the head with it. Ohmygosh! I know that's not funny but, ... it is!! I laughed so hard.

We were glad to be back in WA where it's cold in the Fall and Winter ... as it should be but I am thankful that Riley and I were able to accompany Jacob to Tucson.