For Katie's 30th birthday, Jeff offered to fly Aiden and I out to help celebrate. We jumped at the offer! We haven't visited them in Arizona and haven't seen them since they got engaged back in June.

I was a little nervous considering I was flying across the country solo with a toddler. Check out all of this stuff I had to lug in by myself!

Trying to wear her out before we get locked on a plane for four hours.

BINGO. Want to know how to keep a toddler occupied? Trap yourself in the lavatory... with a lot of sanitizing wipes. We killed a lot of time playing with the sink and toilet paper rolls. Of course, we cleaned up after ourselves and made sure we weren't holding up a line or anything.

I also packed a backpack full of snacks and new toys from the Dollar Store (sure, throw them down the aisle - they will not be missed!). Finally, we made it to Arizona! It was a long and exhausting four hours, but overall she did great. 

Uncle Jefe picked us up and after a quick stop at Jack in the Box (obviously), we headed to their house. Jeff is kind of (read: a total) neat freak and the maids were just finishing up when we arrived. It took Aiden all of two minutes to flip the dog's water bowl upside down and leave a trail of bananas. I laughed as Jeff followed her around with a rag. 

Jeff and Katie leave this door open a lot, but it only took Aiden a couple hours to walk right through it thinking it was a window. Poor thing fell flat on her face! But being the trooper she is, it didn't slow her down.

Katie and Jeff live just outside of Scottsdale in Cave Creek. It was so beautiful and so different from what we're used to.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and planned to go see the Baker fam on Thursday morning. I was so excited it worked out for us to see Grandma and Grandpa Baker, along with Liz, Tom, Monica, Joe and Carter. I hadn't met Carter before and Aiden was so excited to play with her cousin!

Afterward, Adam thanked me for making the time to visit with his family. My first reaction was "what?" I honestly forgot it was his family we were hanging out with! We love the Bakers and are so glad we were able to get together.

Aunt Liz was so fun!

Cheeeeese!

Loved getting to spend some time with Monica! She's pregnant with baby #2 and is due March 12. My vote is girl! (They're finding out at Christmas.)

They gave each other a hug! So cute.

After a fun morning with the Bakers, we headed to the grocery store to pick up some essentials. It was Aiden's first time riding in one of these and she loved it. It was hilarious.

Beep, beep!

Friday was Katie's actual birthday and we headed across the street to celebrate with neighbors.

Aiden and Jeff quickly became besties on the trip. It was so fun to watch them together.

Monica and Carter were able to join us for the celebration! Jeff and Katie have such a fun group of friends - we had a blast.

Playing games... with props, of course.

Saturday morning, we headed to the park where Jeff schooled everyone on the rock climbing wall.

Then we headed to see the Discount Tire hangar and chill out in the planes Jeff flies. 

Captain Aiden!

After a fun afternoon at the hangar and exploring Scottsdale, we headed to Harold's in Cave Creek.

Fun zip around the neighborhood in the rhino before we headed out on Sunday.

Aiden didn't want to leave! We had such a great time and can't wait to see them again for Thanksgiving. We were bummed Adam couldn't join us, but he's out of vacation days for the year. Boooo.

My Deal

Adam and I participated in a five-week small group at our church called Foundations. The point was to get us more familiar with the foundations of StoneBridge Church (what a relevant name!). Ultimately, our church believes in empowering their congregation to "do their deal". Everyone has a "deal" that they're called to, and StoneBridge wants to help everyone figure out what that is and help them grow in it to bring glory to God. For example, your deal may be racial tension and you want to help a typically separated community grow closer together by creating a small group with the historically black church down the street. Or maybe your deal is hospitality and you love hosting people in your home and making them feel the warm and fuzzies. Everyone has a deal.

On the final week, we went around the room and all had to share our deal. It didn't have to be your end-all-be-all deal that you did for the rest of your life and your deal can always change, but you had to say something. (I'm pretty sure Jeremy just wanted to make sure we all comprehended the past five weeks.) I thought about it and decided that my deal was finding a way to reach the unreached without shoving scripture down their throat. Maybe that's a harsh way of saying it, but it's what resonates best with me.

As I've mentioned before, I did not become a Christian because of a church service or because someone read a piece of scripture to me. There are many times when those things happened that I rolled my eyes because everything just sounded a little ridiculous. Scripture made no sense to me before I was a believer. It seemed like a lot of confusing words that people twisted to fit their agenda. I had to be reached another way. So God put specific people in my life at specific moments to bring me closer to him. And it was nowhere near a church that my heart really started changing for Jesus. Adam has a friend who believes that Jesus wants us to drink beer because it gives us the opportunity to saddle up next to someone at a bar and strike up a conversation that could potentially lead back to Jesus. These moments happen every day and my goal is to be "Jesus with skin on". (Creepy visualization, but I'm a visual person.) I don't need to be preaching scripture to someone to show them Jesus, I will just try to be a reflection of Jesus - of his love and grace - and maybe it will be an appropriate time for their hearts to start opening for Him.

Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out this whole "deal", but I do believe that God gave me my personality and this specific path to bring others to Him in unconventional ways. And I'm excited to see how it all pans out! Just trying to help save lives over here, people.

Aiden's Wild One

We celebrated Aiden's "Wild One" birthday on August 20 with a little safari party. I am overwhelmed by all of the love that surrounds our little girl. It kind of hit me when we were singing her happy birthday how lucky we are to have such an amazing tribe around us who love our girl so, so well. They're the greatest.

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. (It only took me two months to finally upload these. Oops.)

Baby's first Kate Spade! (Thanks Aunties Kelly and Vann!)

I got her invites from Etsy, and thought they turned out so cute! The back of them said "Born to be wild". (What did people do before Etsy?? Not spend a ton of money on a birthday party, I guess.)

While I didn't want to do the pink and gold theme, I knew she had to have a tutu! Meagan was originally going to make it, but I found one on Etsy for $27 that also came with an adorable hair clip. STEAL!

Meagan did make this adorable sign! I love how it turned out.

I made the rest of the decor - kudos to Pinterest for all of the ideas.

Adam made her cake, and it was a hit! This was her first "sweet" - a day her grandparents have been waiting for! The seal has officially been broken.

Here are a few snippets from the day....

Happy Birthday! https://vimeo.com/179923692

Her first cake! https://vimeo.com/179923692

It was such a beautiful day celebrating our babe! I know I said it before, but I can't say it enough - we have the most amazing support system who love our girl. (Might I add, Anna flew in from Houston, Kalyn flew in from LA and Maggie drove up from Florida to celebrate! Seriously, this chick is spoiled with love.)