Elsbury Clan: Widdowson vacation in the Desert! **Phoenix**

My whole family was fortunate to go on a vacation over Christmas break to Phoenix!!! We left the cold Nebraska weather on December 27th!!!

Elsburys, Ferzelys, and Widdowsons flew out of GI!

Hudson't first time in an airplane. He did really well.

We moved around a little so the girls could sit by one another. The flight went really fast and painless. :)

Sunny Arizona! Hud is a lazy traveler.

Mom, Dad, and Virg met us at the airport. We then went to eat at Matt's fav....In n Out Burger. Yum!

We drove to our hotel, Golf Legacy Resort. We had two sweets that have two living areas in them. There was a commons area in the middle. We were loving the sun the day we got there!

Each family was signed up for a breakfast and a supper. So, Matt, Hud, and I did our grocery shopping that afternoon before the football game.

This was how our shopping went...he was so tired from traveling! :)

It was so nice to just relax! We then went to a bar that was playing the Nebraska bowl game. We ate, played games, and cheered on the Huskers. Too bad they lost. :(

A friendly game of shuffle board.

Delanie wasn't feeling well and it was going to be a late night for Hudson, so mom took both of them back to the hotel.

Mom said he sat there the whole time and watched the game with her. Tired boy. ;)

Day 2

In the morning, Virgie made breakfast and then the men went golfing while the ladies and kids went to the Butterfly Museum.

Basking in the sun.

Butterfly Nursery

Huge butterfly right when we walked in. :)

Lily got one right away.

Hudson caught one on his hat.

Delanie carried one on her tush almost the whole time we were there.

2 at a time!

Maguire snagged him from me.

Syd wanted him too!

Grandma only got pooped on...ha ha!

Beautiful family in a beautiful place.

Liza got one too!

My cuties!

Nap time before going out for dinner.

We went to Ruster's Rooste. It had a western feel with a bull by the front door, slide, country dancing, cotton candy, and balloons!

Big slide!!!

Sisters!

My wonderful family (minus John, the photographer)

Hudson the bull.

Every day we pretended it was one of the kids' birthdays.

So, this night was Sydney's. They brought them all cotton candy and sang happy birthday to her. :)

The kids had seen a balloon man, so could not wait for him to come to our table. He finally came!!!

Syd's ladybug.

Hud's TMNT

Lily asked for a Monarch butterfly.

Delanie's creative hat.

#Rustersrooste

We had to go visit the bull, Horney! :)

Day 3

This morning, Matt and I made sausage and bacon bagel sandwiches. Delicious! :)

The littles of the Widdowson family.

This day, we decided to go hiking. We drove a little ways away. Mom and Dad stayed with Hudson and John and Laurie had work to do.

Ready for our hike.

(This was my favorite part of the vacation.)

A view of the city.

Lily and Syd were good hikers.

This is what some of the spots looked like that we went up. :) Loved it!

A look down at Eliza.

Virg

We were all spread out! Guire led us (basically ran up and down the mountain!)

Rocky made it to the top!

Woo hoo!

Matt on the ledge...Don't jump!

Fun!

Ferzelys

Virg and the boys

The boys

Mav and I decided to go a different direction than the rest of them. I will admit, there was a time there we thought we lost them. When we called for them, they didn't answer. They went a completely different direction than we thought.

We did it though! We just took a little detour! :)

Our hike was around 3 miles.

While we were hiking, Hudson was piling rocks. I wanted to take a picture of him and his rocks, so he just sat on them. ha ha

Fun in the backseat. :)

Scott and Eliza's turn for supper. Tacos. Matt and Mav enjoying some Chess.

Cards and fun

Dilly bars in bed. ha ha!

The kids had been swimming at the outside pool a few times. Guire and Caden thought this would be easier this night. ha ha!

A few of us adults went to a casino that night and lost a lot of money. Yikes!

We had fun even if we didn't win. :)

Day 4

We had breakfast and headed to Sedona for our Jeep trip. Sedona was 2 hours away from Phoenix. The trip was in the mountains and nowhere to pull over. Hudson told us he needed to go potty and we stopped at the first exit we could. He had already went :( We did not have another change of clothes.

Naked boy. ha ha.

We stopped at a Walmart on our way. They had nothing to choose from, so he was stuck with Sponge Bob. :(

Laurie had gotten these shirts for M&D for Christmas.

We only rented 2 Jeeps so the Jeep riders were:

Matt, Mom, Mav, Guire, Delanie, Caden, Syd, Lily, Hudson, and myself.

Holding on!

Matt drove "Jessica" and Grandma drove "Ginger."

Grandma on the rocks!

Watch out...she might be a Jeeper now!

Amazing view

Exploring

There was an old log cabin on the mountain.

Oldest to youngest

I saw a wild pig!

Our next stop, we switched people. Girls and boys. I commented about driving and mom was quick to let me. Oh boy!

Lily lost her tooth!!! She had lost it the night before and the Tooth Fairy found her in Phoenix! :)

The girl Jeep!

This trail was a lot harder and very steep. I was a little nervous, but I did it!

Matt and the boys stopped to take some pictures of us.

Matt is in front of us. Its hard to tell in this picture, but it is very steep!

Our two trails were done and we were on our way back. It took us a little longer than we were supposed to. Oops!

When we got back to the Jeep place, I saw a Jeep that was named "Lily." We all then drove back to Phoenix in the dark. We had another fun day.

Day 5

We started a relaxing New Years Eve day. :)

Dad wanted to take us girls on our annual Christmas shopping spree. Yes! So, we left to shop and the rest of them went to ride go carts.

We all got jewelry! Notice the bling on my ears??? We then had a great lunch at Cheesecake Factory. Thank you so much Dad! WE love this tradition.....even him! :)

On our way back, I noticed we were in Chandler and that is the address of the Origami Owl Nest. So, we stopped there. Virgie and I went in and had a little look around. We were hoping they would offer a tour, but no such luck. :)

Matt did well and took some pictures for me of their day. :)

Looks like lots of fun!

When we all got back the kids really wanted to go swimming, but it was pretty chilly out. Like 40 degrees. Brrrr! Uncle John said, if you stand outside in your swimming suits for 5 minutes with out complaining then he would take them swimming. Well, they did it! ha ha.

Maverick stayed back and took Hud swimming in the tub. :)

Spraying water

Grandpa snuck in and poured cold water on them!

Mav was ready the next time.

More cold water. The bathroom floor was covered in water when they were done. Thank you for being an awesome cousin, Mav.

We all got ready for our New Year's Eve dinner!

Even though we had reservations, this place was BUSY. We didn't get to sit at our table for a little while, but thats okay. John and Laurie knew the head chef at Flemings Prime Steakhouse and knew we would enjoy our food. It was delicious!

My NYE sweetheart! I loved being with him on vacation. Vacations are much needed I believe!

After dinner, we walked to a bar. It was full of young people with short, tight dresses on. ha ha! We found a spot to sit (velvet couches and chairs).. :)

Happy New Years!

Lighting was off, but still a cute pic.

Not a great selfie, but we were having a good time. :)

All the kids were asleep in Gpa and Gma's bed. Mav did a good job babysitting. :)

Day 6

In the morning, Matt, Virgie, Mav, and I went golfing on the course at the resort. It was 18 holes, but we only did 9. It was chilly out at first and then started warming up.

I didn't do well, but it was fun. I definitely need to golf more! Anyone want to go with me?

Ready to go to the movies with Grandma.

We went to a mall that had a huge food court and a Merry go round.

The kids stayed with Grandma and went to the movie. Grandpa took Guire and Caden to the arcade. The rest of us went on a Segway tour in Scottsdale! (my 2nd favorite part of the trip.)

Us girls had been on Segways before, but the guys had not. Our guide gave a short introduction to everyone (much quicker than our guy on N. Carolina.) The guys caught on very quick!