Swallow Family Blog : June: Mesa

We had the opportunity to join Tyler's family in Arizona this year. Looking at these pictures, we did SO much in a week!

We wanted to rent a car for this trip, but the World Cup in DFW was really messing up rental car prices. We watched and watched and finally found a reasonable price! All the stuff in the piano room fit PERFECTLY! With lots of room to spare. Not sure why but the 13 hours to Arizona for this trip seemed like the worst road trip we've done yet. SOOOO long and boring

We found a few fun places to stop here and there. We especially enjoyed the transformer store

We rolled up to a VERY cool AirBnB. It had lots of room, everything was enclosed and there was so much for all the crazy people to do!

The people swam the most. The slides were a huge hit! I mean it was 106-108 degrees so the pool was a MUST!

There seriously were so many things to do! Children were everywhere and always playing some kind of game. Many of our Christmas present games came from this trip! Tommy sponsored a very fun game of traitors! We all had secret tasks to complete. The ending game of learning everyone's task was hilarious!

Lillie brought a cotton candy machine. It took more adults than we are comfortable admitting to get it to work, but cotton candy was had!

It also took a might group of adults to get the TV working with a laptop for the group gatherings. We still have yet to find a house with enough seats for everyone to sit!

It was definitely hot in Mesa, but we made do. We saw so many of the coolest cacti! Every night there scorpion and bug hunts. It was really cool to see a bird holed up in a cactus. Tyler went on early morning walks and found lots of cool things to show us!

Scorpions were found, very easily, in fact. It was very cool and very NOT cool at the same time.

We took the opportunity to take all the big kids to do Baptisms in the Mesa temple! It was beautiful and fun! The light in the house hit people JUST right in their church clothes!

While we were in side the other half of our group explored the grounds and visitors center! They looked like they really enjoyed it after getting inside out of the heat!

We took family pictures, and I think they turned out great! It was 106 outside when we took these Thank goodness there was a cool room right next to this spot. My job was to stay hydrated and not fall on the cacti as I was trying to get everyone in the frame!

This is the face of a child who is tired, hot and grumpy. from living her very best vacation life! We almost had to force some naps.

This house had no end! They even had a pickle ball court. Grayson and Nolan teamed up for the adult tournament and did GREAT! They really held their own against Tom and Emerie. They both really enjoyed this event! Tyler was great line judge when he wasn't playing.

The rest of the photos are pure shenanigans and pure fun! I hope the kids remember the amazing opportunity these trips are!

"I don't even want ya'll up there.."

In true Mitchell fashion, he fed the troops with flavor and grace!

Emma did bracelets and Beth did hair.

Lots of silly picture opportunities when we have this many personalities in this family. If you look closely you'll see Daisie with a cast. She hurt herself early on in the trip and spent the rest of waiting to go back home and get a real cast on!

Lillie put together two really cute ideas. Very Girl's Camp. You could write caught doing good notes about people and she would read them during breakfast. She also put together birthday cards for everyone as we are usually apart for birthdays during the year!