The Remainder of Our Trip to Arizona

As I mentioned at the end of the previous post, Ben and I went over to my brother Matt's house to go to the parade with them on July 3rd. We also stayed the night there with them that Saturday and Sunday night, and then came back to Utah on Monday the 5th. Here's what we did!

Saturday:

Ben and I got up early at our hotel, had breakfast there, and checked out so we could meet Matt at his house. We then followed Matt into Prescott to see the parade. Matt gave us strict instructions to follow him, no matter what! We took some back roads and even took a "closed road" to get to a parking lot near Matt's office. He directed us to a parking spot there, but it had a big sign infront of it saying "NO PARKING: by order of the Police of the City of Prescott" (or something like that). Ben and I chose not to park there, so Matt directed us to park in a non-spot at the end of the row, just like he did. He assured us that he had done it many times before and that the police had more things to worry about during the parade than where people park. Then we walked a short distance to where Trista's parents had reserved a spot along the street under a nice shade canopy. It was a lot of fun! Here are the pictures:

After the parade, we went back to the car before heading to the courthouse to walk around a little bit and look at what the vendors had to offer. When we got back to the car, however, we recieved a fun surprise: an $80 parking ticket!! What?! Matt promised we'd be fine! Haha. :) Whoops! :)

Well, after that shock, we did head back over to the courthouse. We walked around a little and then spent about 15 minutes deciding what to do for lunch. The courthouse vendors had a few selling food, but the lines were crazy long. We eventually chose to go to a sandwich shop that was a couple blocks away. We walked over there only to find that it was closed for the day! Okay, well, we looked around us and saw a sign that said "Deli". We decided to go eat there, but we were a little surprised by this particular deli. We walked in and found ourselves in a liquor store!

The "deli" was in the very back of the store. We looked over the menu to see if it was worth staying for, and chose to go ahead and just stay. There were some tables at the front of the store, but they were full. Finally, a group left and we took over their table. We sat and waited and waited. We kept seeing this girl run by all stressed out and she kept telling us she was so sorry and that she'd be right there. Again we waited, and waited. Finally, a manager or someone from the back came and took our order and explained that they were swamped with the crowds from the parade unexpectedly. Unexpectedly?! You are two blocks from the parade route and you're open!! What do you expect?! Ha! So then we waited, and waited, and waited some more while sitting amongst all the liquor and cigars.

It took longer to get our food than it took to place our order! Sheesh. But that poor girl that kept running around was their only "server" they even had working that day! She was so stressed...so we tried to be polite. :) When we finally did get our food, it was actually quite good and very filling. With our tummies happy, we finally left the strange deli and headed back. Ben and I stayed at the courthouse to look around some more, while Matt took his family over to Trista's parents' house to play and rest. Ben and I joined up with Trista's family for a BBQ that evening. It was very yummy! We spent some time there relaxing outside,

and playing games (rolling down the grassy hill and playing Sequence: States and Capitols) before going back to Matt's house.

See the intent look on this dog's face? She was so enthralled with something...but what was it??

The sunlight shining on the brick wall! What a funny dog! She just sat there for the longest time watching the light! Haha! I love dogs and the silly things they do sometimes. :)

Sunday:

We went to church with Matt's family and then enjoyed a delicious BBQ rib dinner (with homemade BBQ sauce, I might add). We also were able to go over to Trista's sister's house for a dessert buffet, playing games

(where we were first introduced to the game Ticket to Ride, which we now love), and we watched the city fireworks from the backyard.

Monday:

Trista treated us to another yummy meal by making a nice, hot breakfast of fried eggs, hashbrowns, and turkey bacon (which Ben and I also now enjoy).

*this is not an actual photo of our breakfast; it's from the internet*

It was so delicious! Ben and I then took our time getting ready and headed out to drive back to Utah. We listened to a book on CD that lasted almost our entire drive and made it go by so quickly! But because we took our time leaving, we didn't get home until after 11:00pm! Ha. That's okay though, because we are usually up that late anyway.

We had a really great trip and are thankful to Matt and Trista for letting us stay and hang out with them! So fun!