The Grand Canyon...from Ben's phone

These are their favorite shirts and it made it super easy to spot them!

In the month we've lived here, I've driven to Phoenix 3 times (and going again next week!) and I learned very quickly the cardinal rule of this route: If there is a rest stop, TAKE IT. If there's a gas station, FILL UP ON GAS.  If there is a restaurant, EAT.  You get the idea; traveling through the desert equals NOTHING and there are literally 2 stops in between Yuma and Phoenix.  Not sure you have to pee?  Doesn't matter.  You stop.  Ben snapped these while I was trying to get a puppy to pee that would.not.pee.

Staking out the perfect trail to hike in Sedona:

love my Eli's smile...

Selfie:

I love this one because it takes you a minute to realize that there's a dog on Eli's head.

"You have something on your nose"

Our boys have a thing with hoods...if there is a hood on what they're wearing, they have to have it on their head.

Just to keep it real:

Since being home, I just want to go back.

You may have noticed in these pictures a difference in Alison and Eli's hair.  It's a sad story for this momma.  It all started the day before our trip.  Eli's hair tends to get a "three stooges" look when his bangs get too long.  I decided I would make them a little shorter; just a little trim.  I don't know what happened, maybe I wasn't paying attention to the guard I put on, but his hair got real short, real fast.  Eli started saying, "I don't like it!  I want my bangs back!  I can't be batman without my bangs!  I really don't like it!"  Yep, it was bad.  So, I did what any mom would do, and I just started making  stuff up to make it all okay.  In my "you look awesome" pep talk, I told him that it was perfect Grand Canyon hair.  Big mistake.  Alison heard me say that and decided that she too, needed Grand Canyon hair.  Well, it is about to be a zillion degrees here in the desert, so I agreed to cutting her hair short for the summer.  I thought I was being smart and took her to Walmart that afternoon, since it was a more substantial cut.  Not smart.  Not smart at all.  We got a young girl, which I thought would be a bonus (again wrong) and told her we wanted a shoulder length cut.  All was fine and dandy until she started adding "layers".  I thought I was going to have a heart attack and kept telling her "that's enough" but she would just say "let me just fix this one thing..."  I really, truly have not been that stressed in a long time.  When she finally stopped mascaraing Alison's hair, it took all my mommy strength to smile and tell her she looked beautiful...because that's the truth...she's beautiful no matter what her hair looks like.  She gave my girl a "mom" haircut and we will not be going back there.  Alison handled with such grace; I was so proud of my beautiful girl.