The reason grandparents and grandkids get along so well...

...is because they share a common enemy. HA! Not quite, at least in our case, but that little thought gave me a laugh! Speaking of grandparents.... Ruby got to spend some great quality time with one of her grandparents: MIMI!

Ruby and I took our first every GIRLS ONLY trip, and when I do something, I don't do it small or half way... We flew to Phoenix, AZ for a week (without Brock!).

Phoenix is approximately a 4.5 hour flight. With a 2 year old. A pretty freshly potty trained two year old, who HATES being confined and sitting still (which, I suspect, accurately describes 99.99% of two year olds...) so I was a little apprehensive how the flight would go.

And how did it go? We survived. We used her iPad. And when she got bored of it after the first hour, we played, we ate, we colored, we used play dough, we tried napping (for 20 minutes...total fail), we listened to music... and we survived! No potty accidents, no toddler meltdowns, and no plane crash!

Once in Phoenix, we had a BLAST! We spend much of our time relaxing and enjoying our first official week of summer lounging in Mimi's beautiful pool.

We went on a tiny hike, on one of the "cooler" days (only 92 for the high...) on South Mountain.

We checked out the Children's Museum of Phoenix (awesome, by the way... definitely recommend a stop there!).

We ate yummy food, had lots of laughs, lots of Mimi hugs, and lots of Mama time.

My favorite part of this whole trip: spending some real quality time with Ruby. I didn't have to tutor, clean, cook, do laundry, take care of a husband, meal plan, grocery shop, etc. I had NO real "mom/wife" responsibilities, other than to play with my kid in a warm, sunny pool.

We so appreciate the time with our Mimi! Ruby loved spending the week with you, swimming, shopping, and looking for all sorts of cacti, and having adult discussions (my two year old correctly explained to her Mimi that the skunk is nocturnal, and nocturnal means coming out at night. She also explained the skunk was stinky because "it was mashed dead on the road by a car.")

THANK YOU for everything... we can't wait to do it again!!! Ruby is the luckiest little girl to have so many people loving her, especially strong, smart women setting a good example of how to live life.