prescott trip

At the beginning of October, Tim had an ingredients expo in Las Vegas for work, which meant that it was the perfect time to drive the rest of the way down to Arizona to see my family.

At least, that's what it meant to me.

Tim, Ellie, and I drove down the weekend before his expo, and then Tim drove back up to Las Vegas on Monday morning.  At the end of the week, my dad drove me back to Vegas to meet up with Tim.  I have a nice dad.

Magically, the week of the expo was also my mom's fall break.  Ellie and I got to do all kinds of things with her that we wouldn't have been able to do on any other week.  It was fantastic.  We still got to go on walks and soda runs with my dad and brothers, but we got to spend all day with my mom.  Or "Gwamma," as she is affectionately known by Ellie.

As long as we're talking about names, let's go ahead and make a name key for my entire family:

Grandma - "Gwamma"
Grandpa - "Papa"
Jeff - "Eff"
Eric - "Ick"

[Side note: In the last couple of weeks, she has also taken to switching between names for Tim and me, as well.  Sometimes we are "Mommy" and "Daddy" and sometimes we are "Keedy" and "Teemy."]

Here's a three-generation picture:

Let's just talk about my mom for a second.  She has the energy of a toddler, but it's drastically more focused.  She gets more done in one hour than I usually get done in an entire day.  She's pretty incredible.  I'm 34 years younger than she is, and it takes a lot of work on my part to keep up with her at any given moment.  And she's one of my best friends.  Ergo, we got a lot done, and we had a lot of fun doing it.  [And I needed lots of naps.]

Towards the end of the trip, my mom, Ellie, and I went to the zoo.  Highlights of the trip for Ellie included: chickens, goats, and the park.  Go figure.  The three things widely available outside a zoo.

I love how serious my little biker chick looks in this next picture:

It was an amazing trip, and I may have cried a little when we finally headed back to Utah.