arizona trip, part 1.

so right after phil returned home from his big test (we just heard three days ago that he passed! praise the Lord!) we packed up and hit the open road for our much-anticipated family vacation.

eight-ish hours later…

we ended up in a vacation house in scottsdale, arizona!

i originally wanted to do an rv trip, but phil decided it’d be too much work at this stage in our lives.  (and i kinda have to agree.)

then i suggested a cabin in a forest somewhere.  phil didn’t think that would feel like much of a vacation, what with ‘roughing it with the mosquitoes’ and all.  (he did have a point there, too.)

so then he threw out the idea of renting a vacation house where we’d all be comfortable for about the same price as my suggestions would have been. (see?  this is why i leave all the planning of fun family stuff and date nights to him.  why mess with a good thing?)

he found a place big enough to have epic nerf gun wars everyday.

and even outfitted each member of the family with his or her own gun for the daily battles.

but the best part of the vacation house?  the pool out back.  hands down.

we actually didn’t go out and do too much else in arizona because nothing felt better than being in the pool during the upper 90/100 degree days.  which worked out perfectly in letting the younger kiddos get their naps in while everyone else got lots of water time.

mikey even got brave enough to jump off the diving board into the water.

as long as daddy was there to catch him.  and he always did.

he even got pretty close to learning how to swim, too.  as long as daddy was within arm’s reach.

they wanted nothing more than to spend every waking minute in that pool.

this one got brave enough to float around by herself and loved it.

it was this one’s first time in the pool but found it a bit too cold for his liking.  he much preferred hanging out on the king-sized bed inside the air-conditioned house.  hmm, where have i heard that before?

remember being a kid and spending countless hours in a pool just playing and playing?  yeah, i’m glad we got to give our kids that experience.

they also got to experience the pure awesomeness known as…

cannonball!

and when the pool got just a bit too cold, there was always the spa to warm up in!

we also picked up a slip ‘n slide on clearance at target for seven bucks. 

another tsai kid favorite.

and when they were finally ready to come back inside, there were movies to enjoy on the big tv.

and grilled meaty goodness, too.

and that, my friends, is vacation housing, done the tsai family way.  🙂