Always a season behind here, but hey! Spring Break 2026! But before I get to the roll of pics featuring me and Juliette gallavanting around Arizona, a note on why Shane and Isaac are not featured in said pics… Isaac came down with a light cough two days before we were all meant to leave, but I largely set it aside and figured it was nothing worth changing plans over. We’ve seen so many coughs come and go in our house. And then the day before our flight, I noticed how rapid his breathing was as he napped on the couch. This was…different. It seemed worth heading to Urgent Care, just in case we needed to scoop up an antibiotic prescription before our trip. An hour after walking through the doors of our neighborhood Urgent Care, we were being rushed to the Emergency Room at Seattle Children’s by ambulance.
Honestly, the call for the ambulance may have been overly cautious on the part of the clinic doctor, but still, Isaac’s breathing was labored and he needed more help than they were primed to offer. Buddy was incredibly brave (braver than me!) through a barrage of breathing treatments and chest x-rays and vitals checks.
It was a long, long night, but he improved with each passing hour, eventually giggling over his ET-like oxygen sensor while using his bed controls to fake-phone his friends. We were discharged shortly after midnight with a diagnosis of pre-pneumonia. He was stable, but in no shape to board a plane in several hours.
So…what to do? Gosh, I wanted this trip. I felt like I needed this trip. Work had been running me ragged and I missed hanging with my kids and I was counting on that sun-break. Shane wanted this trip, too, but more than that, he wanted me to take a break, and so as we pulled into our driveway at nearly 1:00 am, Isaac snoozing in the backseat, he urged me to go. Take Juliette and GO.
So we did. Early the next morning, with just a couple of tears, we said goodbye to our guys and got on a plane to Phoenix.
Upon landing, first things first.
We settled into our cutie AirBNB in Tempe and then grabbed dinner in Old Town Scottsdale.
The evening was warm, the sky was brilliant, word from home was that Isaac was in good spirits, and Juliette and I were officially on vay-cay.
We caught up over tacos and margaritas (Jarritos for Juliette) and while this wasn’t the vacation we’d pictured, we both agreed we were going to make the most of it.
Making the most of a Mama-Jules trip meant binge-watching This Is Us late into the night and then sleeping in. It was nearly lunchtime by the time we’d breakfasted and dressed on Monday. Shane and I had planned this first leg of our Arizona trip as a total lay-low, where we’d enjoy the pool at the house, kick back, and eat in. Juliette and I carried forth with that plan, but with a little bonus shopping and a nice meal at The Canal Club.
Tuesday was similarly lazy – I finished my book, we worked on our tans and streamed Gilmore Girls on the patio TV. I took a nap. It was glorious.
Still though, I was antsy by mid-afternoon, so we put on real clothes and headed into Phoenix for coffee and pizza.
And then we drove over to the Desert Botanical Garden for an evening stroll among the cacti.
This place was beautiful – local flora at its finest.
Late night hangs with my girl back at the house…
But not TOO late, because we were getting an early start on Wednesday! This was the point in the trip at which “making the most of it just being the two of us” transitioned from vegging to adventuring. I’ve been wanting to visit the Antelope Slot Canyons for years but figured it wasn’t in the cards for us, given the four-hour drive time from Tempe. Then again, if it was just me and my best co-pilot…I booked us an 11am tour. We were doing it.
We made great time on the long drive north and stopped by Horseshoe Canyon on the way to Antelope. The path from the parking lot was flat and dusty and I wondered if we were in the right place, but then you get a little closer…
…and see this:
Turns out Arizona has a few tricks up her sleeves!
We hopped back in the car for a short drive through more lifeless landscapes…
Followed our guide down another flat, dusty trail…
And then began our descent into a magical underworld of flowing red rocks.
I cannot overstate how surreal this place was, sculpted by the natural forces of wind and water. I’ve never seen anything like it.
We stuck with our group but had plenty of time throughout to stop to ooh and ahh.
While I’d seen plenty of pictures of the slot canyons (they inspired my architectural thesis project!), Juliette had no context for what to expect, so it was fun to watch her discover it with completely fresh eyes.
Core memory.
Eventually we emerged from below with the sense that we’d just traversed an alternate universe. Totally worth the trip. Next stop: Sedona!
