Life as a Family of Four - Part 2

Continuing on from last week, another favorite weekly spot for us was the aquarium, we were gifted a membership and took full advantage of it. As I had said before it was a Godsend during the peak of COVID closures and the summer heat of Arizona. Being a member meant we didn’t have to schedule a time to go and could just walk right in and avoid the lines (if there were any, we typically only went during the week when it wasn’t as busy). We would spend a good few hours there, usually in the morning so we could really go at a leisurely pace. There was also one feature that we were able to do on our own instead of the tour if we got there before a certain time. So sometimes we would go right to that when we got there and then work our way back through the rest, or sometimes we would circle back to an exhibit multiple times simply because it was a favorite. There were many interactive exhibits that we would spend a lot of time at - one being the stingray area where you could reach in and touch the stingrays, Mr. Blue absolutely loved that and we would spend much of our time there.

Other fun things were: a big ‘lite brite’, a water table, foam building toys, and walking through the gift shop at the end to play with some of the toys.

One thing that was unique to the Aquarium was its revolving aquarium feature (which is the thing that we could walk through if we got there early enough). It truly is a very cool feature but can sometimes run a little long when you’ve got a couple of short attention span littles. It takes you on an adventure as if you’re on a submarine and then you sit in theater-like chairs as you revolve from window to window and learn about the sea life in each.

Because it can go a little long, that’s another reason we liked to go in the mornings so we could walk it - otherwise the only option was to ‘ride the submarine’ to be able to see those exhibits. To this day the boys still talk about it and love to look back at pictures from our many visits there. 

The neighborhood we lived in had so many places within walking distance that we took full advantage of. There were multiple parks, stores, cafes, trails, and of course our cousins’ place right across the street. We spent lots of time at our pool and the boys charmed the pants off some of the older women that lived in our apartment complex.

We continued our Saturday breakfast picnics and went to some really cool parks around the area. One of the coolest parks we went to was in the nearby city of Gilbert, it was the biggest and most well thought out and designed park I had ever been to. I think my husband and I had as much fun as the boys did. It was multilevel, which was tricky with a very fast and busy 2 year old, but so cool for him to experience really tall slides and higher rock walls.

We really tried to find a new park most weekends but sometimes we needed to stay closer to home and just went to some of our favorites nearby. Something Nic and I really picked up while we lived there was pickleball. We both had played while in PE in high school but hadn’t really done it since. There were multiple courts around but a couple right by our place at one of our favorite parks - which was very convenient. We would bring some trucks and other toys for Mr. Blue and lay Mr. Orange on a blanket and park the stroller in front of him to shield him from any potential balls and then Nic and I were able to play for a good hour or so.

Afterwards we would then let Mr. Blue go play at the park for a while for sitting and playing and letting us get a good workout in. It definitely got harder to go play as Mr. Orange got older and wasn’t as easily contained or entertained, and the tons of snow birds that flocked to Arizona in the winter months didn’t help either - those people are SERIOUS about their pickleball. But to be honest, we learned a lot from them, and I personally really admired their passion and activity level. I strive to still be playing pickleball at those ages and not be worried about throwing out a back or shoulder. We hit up a few splash pads around the area but our absolute favorite was at Fountain Park in Fountain Hills. The park has an iconic fountain in the small lake that goes off every hour and shoots so high that it can be seen from miles around.

There is a trail that goes all around the lake, a park with a side for little kids and a side for older kids, a music area in the middle of the two parks where kids can bang on drums, xylophones and others to their heart’s content. And then near the parking lot is the splash pad. We made many trips to this park as my aunt lives in Fountain Hills and because we just loved it so much. We would bring food for picnics, bikes and scooters to ride on the trail, swimsuits for the splash pad, and just camp out for the day. I really felt like I was really getting a hang of this stay at home mom life and just loved being able to experience life with the boys - of course there were plenty of hard days but I still felt like I was doing what God called me to do. I was gaining confidence in myself and my abilities as a mom all while making memories with the boys. One activity we enjoyed as a family was packing up a picnic lunch and going to the airport nearby to watch the planes fly out and land, it was something we did fairly often and was just so peaceful. Mr. Blue loved watching the planes and Mr. Orange was just content to be laid in his little pop up tent that went with us everywhere.

It was really nice to have so much family around, it helped us to not feel homesick because we were still being included for holidays, family dinners, birthday celebrations and get-togethers. We did the usual holidays together as well as Father’s day, afternoon swims, grill outs, birthdays - and they helped to introduce us to different restaurants, hangouts, etc.

This was at a cousins’ birthday party.

This was at my Aunt’s house for Easter.

One place that was such a treat for our music loving 2 year old was Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa. We went for a couple different occasions and it was always a good time. Family also introduced us to the church that we called our ‘church home’ while we were there - CCV, Christ’s Church of the Valley. We really enjoyed the kids ministry for our boys, the courtyard for before/after services, the music and message - just overall really felt at home there.

The courtyard at church.

One thing that was hard was that we chose to go to the early service because our kids wake up early so we figured why not, and most young families went to the later service, so we just didn’t have a great opportunity to meet others. But that was our choice and it worked for us. Slowly but surely we were finding our way, making our routines, making some friends along the way and getting settled. But as with all journeys, roads are never just fully smooth - there are going to be bumps, potholes, detours, and construction. And God’s next direction was sure a bump that we didn’t have in our sights.

XOXO, mischief managing momma

Oldest (1)- Mr. Blue

Middle (2) - Mr. Orange

Youngest (3) - Mr. Green