We just spent four wonderful days in Scottsdale, Arizona. Jordan and I came along as Benji attended the annual ASDA conference. Benji spent most of his time in meetings, but had a few breaks where he got the chance to enjoy the pool with us.
When Jordan and I weren't at the pool we explored the resort, played in the hotel room, and rode on the elevators. The resort was huge, and offered plenty of things to do, but most of them cost money. Not to worry, Jordan thoroughly enjoyed looking out windows and chasing lizards - both of which were absolutely free!
Since it was so hot and sunny it was pretty tough to stay away from the pool. Especially one that had an awesome lazy river like this:
Funny story - when we first arrived at the hotel Benji brought our luggage in while Jordan and I unpacked. Benji walked in with all the bags and said, "Did you just pack your clothes in Jordan's bag?" I told him no, and that my bag was in the trunk. Benji then informed me he had all of the bags from the trunk with him, and unfortunately my bag was not one of them. It turns out I left my bag in Loma Linda. Luckily, I packed my toiletries in a separate bag, so I did have my own deodorant, toothbrush, makeup, etc. We came up with a few options of what we could do to solve the problem. Since I had no desire to go all the way back to Loma Linda for my bag, we figured out how much it would cost us to go home and back (about $80) and set that as my clothing budget.
I found the nearest Walmart, and for $50 I picked out new clothes for the trip. I was able to buy a swimming suit (which is hard to find at the end of summer, I had to mix and match different suits), three shirts, and a pair of shorts. I had to wash my underwear in the sink each day and let it dry while we were at the pool. Everything worked out fine, and I had more fun because my hair stuff was also left in my bag in LL so I didn't have to do my hair the whole weekend!
I guess this time of year is know as the Monsoon season in Arizona and we witnessed some pretty spectacular lightning storms at night. It made it pretty humid during the day, but at least it was sunny.
On one of the nights Dr. Goodacre, the Dean of the dental school, took all of the Loma Linda students, and families out to P.F. Changs for dinner, and then to Cold Stone for dessert. It was so nice of him, we enjoyed the good food and company. Jordan loved the food and was eating with a fork, but as soon as he saw me use chopsticks he refused anything given to him with a fork.
The first night we stayed we were put in a room without a working AC. We didn't discover this until about 10:00 PM and decided it wasn't worth the hassle that night. It wasn't bad at night, but sure was miserable the next day. The maintenance people came, and determined it would take a few days to fix, so we had to pack up and move to a different room. Jordan sure missed having a room on the first level because this is what was right outside our door
:
(I think we have more pictures of this kid sifting his hands through dirt than we have of him smiling).
Anyway, they were so nice about helping us move, and I thought they did a great job under the circumstances. In fact, I was a little relieved to be moved to a new room because the first room was next to the lobby and a bar, so we had loud, drunk people passing by our door until after
3 am.As we were settling in to our new room there was a knock on the door
and a hotel worker gave us a big gift basket full of treats, drinks, and even a little toy for Jordan. There was a card from the front desk with an apology for the inconvenience. Pretty sweet. The snacks came in handy when I had to put Jordan down for a nap - which entails me sitting on the bathroom floor and reading for a couple hours so that he can be alone in his dark and quiet room.
Benji had a pretty good time as well. He thinks it will be too boring for me to fill you in on the details of his meetings, but check
his blog to find out more about them, if you are interested. One of the nights Benji had to go to an exhibitors fair and came away with bags full of toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss, mouthwash, and even three shirts. It was like Halloween for nerds.
I managed to snap a picture of Benji before he headed off to his meetings. Here he is looking handsome in his fancy duds...
Since the pool was our favorite part of the resort, I saved a slew of pictures for the end of this post, so here they are:
Jordan and Benji chillin on the lazy river.
Jordan's favorite part of the pool was the fountains.
The Drayson center is a gym that all of the Loma Linda students and their families can use for free. Unfortunately, they don't like kids. The pool is only open for families a few months out of the year. We took full advantage of those few months though. We have been quite a bit this summer. Tomorrow is the last family day, but today was the last day we were able to enjoy the pool with Benji. Jordan loves going to the pool with his dad. He loves getting thrown in the air, blowing bubbles, and splashing with dad. Today they let Benji take Jordan down the water slide (shhh...don't tell). Jordan called it a waterfall the whole time.
