Spring Break

 So this post is about 2 months late in coming.  I'll blame it on Blogger's new look.  Darn Blogger.

Mike had a much needed Spring Break in March.  We were able to get a lot done (like finally getting our AZ drivers licenses and plates) and my family came down to visit for the last few days of it.

Literally 5 minutes before my parents pulled up to our apartment, Ellie dislocated her elbow while Mike was picking her up.  Poor thing was in a lot of pain!  So my parents walked in the door at the same time we were rushing out the door to take Ellie to Urgent Care.

They had to take x-rays and finally they just popped it back in.  As you can see, she was in a lot of pain.  But about 10 minutes after the fixed her up, she forgot the pain and was back to normal!

At the clinic.  Not even Dora & Boots could  cheer her up!

We drove over to Tempe to a Ramen Shop and had a delicious lunch!

And then we did a lot of tourist stuff, like the Superstition Mountain Museum & the Goldfield Ghost Town.

Riding the Train at the Ghost Town

 We also visited the Mystery Castle.  You can read it's Wikipedia article here, but the basics are it was built by a man dying of tuberculosis for his daughter that he abandoned after he found out his diagnosis.  He built it using whatever material he could find, and he was an eccentric man so you can imagine what the house is like.  

His daughter moved in a few years after he passed away, and lived there until 2010 when she died.  It's a pretty cool place to see!  Not only is it a house, it had a chapel, a guest house, and an underground bar.  

This is a little window he built to frame the city of Phoenix as it appeared back in the 40's.  

We also drove up South Mountain to Dobbins Point to get an incredible view of Phoenix.  You get a good idea of how huge Phoenix really is.  One thing I like about Phoenix is that it's the 6th largest city in the nation, but it's so spread out that it sure doesn't feel like a big city.  

And of course, since we're Higbees, we had to stop and get frozen yogurt.  It's no Menchies, but it comes pretty darn close!

No, that's not a drunk homeless man.  That's Jamie.  He hasn't shaved his beard since No-Shave November.

My Dad and Jamie drove out on Saturday morning, but my Mom stayed for an extra two days.  We visited the massive Asian market by our house.  

And we also visited the Japanese Friendship Gardens, built by Phoenix's sister city Himeji.  It's a beautiful, peaceful oasis in the middle of downtown.  Also, you can see that it was actually cloudy that day, a true rarity here!  So since it was a brisk 55 degrees, we were the only ones in the garden, making it even more peaceful.  

Feeding the Koi Fish

It was a short trip, and I wish they could've stayed longer, but we're grateful my family could make it down for a visit!

Our Little Twinkle Star

Ellie climbed up on the piano bench and gave us a little show! Our little musical prodigy!

Christmas & New Years

Merry Christmas!

Ellie wasn't quite used to the weather up in Salt Lake!

Ellie snatched my Mom's camera without us knowing and started snapping pictures. I always underestimate how tall she is and what she can grab.

We went to Temple Square with my family. Ellie got to ride Trax for the first time.

As you can see, she LOVED it!

We made sure she was all bundled up, but Mike actually grumbled more about the cold than anyone else! Poor guy! He says that Phoenix is where he's meant to live because he hates the cold!

Temple Square was beautiful, but to be honest... I was actually more impressed with the Mesa Temple Lights. It seemed like there were more lights in Mesa, even though there wasn't.

We had a great time with family and had lots of great food! It was a very wonderful Christmas. It was nice to have Zeke's family there from California too!

Tilly made a new friend! She loved hanging out with the other dogs, although I'm not sure they shared that same sentiment. She's still very much a puppy, and the older dogs weren't quite as energetic as she was.

Ellie got to see a little bit of snow, although there wasn't much.

Grandpa was nice enough to go outside and make a snowman, while the kiddos watched from the warmth of the living room!

We had a great trip, but it would've been better had we not been constantly sick. It was one cold after the other. We were in Utah for 5 weeks, and were sick for 4 1/2 of them. It was ridiculous!

We didn't do much for New Years, on account of me coming down with a cold/flu. We were able to carry on one Higbee tradition: Japanese food @ Kyoto.

Japanese food is so pretty! Too bad I was so congested that I couldn't taste any of it.

I spent New Years Eve and New Years Day laying on my parent's couch, wanting to die. What a way to bring in the new year! But I guess when you start the year so low, it's really easy to go uphill from there.

Viva Las Vegas

As part of a Christmas present to ourselves, we spent two nights in Vegas over the break. We met Stacy, Bryan, and Ada there and had a great time! We stayed in the Flamingo, and were upgraded to some awesome rooms! I wish I would've gotten better pictures of the room.

This is one of my favorite parts of Vegas: the Bellagio Fountains.

Part of our room package included the Buffet of Buffets: you can go to 6 different buffets within 24 hours, if you so choose. We only made it to 3 (Planet Hollywood, the Paris, & Caesars Palace) but it was great! We didn't have to worry about where we were going to eat, the food was great, and the desserts were even better!

One of the buffets even had cotton candy for dessert.

Since we were there 2 nights, we took turns watching the kids so the other couple could have a date night. Mike and I didn't know exactly what we wanted to do, but after walking around Vegas for 2 days we thought that an Aqua Massage would feel pretty nice. It did not disappoint!

We also got to try out their Oxygen Bar. Breathing flavored oxygen... sort of a hoax, in my opinion, but it came with the massage.

At least we can say we've tried it now!

We had a great time, and it was fun to see Vegas with all of its Christmas decorations up.