The limousine ride

First off, Jake only has one week of chemo left!!!

He has done remarkably well with the medicine and was out playing basketball at the church last night. He is tired and food doesn't sound that good, and I tell him that his symptoms remind me of how I feel during the first trimester of pregnancy.

However, he is almost there and will then have the month of May off before he starts the 5 pills a month regimen at the beginning of June.

So, back to the limo story...

A couple months ago we asked the girls to tell us one thing that they'd like to do in the near future.

An item on their bucket list.

Ada said she wanted to ride a horse.

Ellie said she wanted to ride in a limo.

Lauren said she wanted to go camping.

Over spring break, we were able to make two of those dreams come true.

On Friday of that week I'd arranged a 3 hour limo rental for our family. Jacob and I kept it a surprise from the girls and were just hanging out in the yard when the limo drove by. It had to circle around and as it did Ellie said, "Mom, I thought we were goign to ride in a limo sometime," to which I replied, "Well, today's the day!"



I thought they'd jump around and scream with excitement, but they were just kind of in shock that the limo ride was actually happening. Lauren kept asking, "Is this for real?" with a huge smile on her face. We all jumped in immediately into the car and started exploring.



The limo had a large rounded bench and a back bench near the trunk. There were lights, a mirror, a corded phone, and a drink bar with soda and water. The girls loved pouring their water bottles into fancy glasses and spreading out all over the limo. We'd brought a movie and the driver had it playing on all 3 screens in the car.  Once we'd scoped everything out we headed to our first destination- a horse ranch.




There is a great place in Scottsdale that gives pony rides for $5 so we had the limo take us off roading through the sagebrush to let Ada have her horse ride.


















She was in heaven. She wasn't scared at all to climb up there, and her smiles throughout her walk around the circle were priceless. It was the perfect first horse riding experience for this 4 year old girl, and the bigs enjoyed their time in the saddle too.

After the horse ride, we decided to stop back at the house to get Jake's dinner and for Ellie to change into fancy clothes. She emerged in her white dress from my brother's wedding and her high heeled church shoes. She looked the part for sure.

 

The girls main wish the whole time was to actually stay in the limo, so we had the driver take us to the other end of town to get some dinner at Cafe Rio. We called ahead and placed our order so that we could eat our dinner in the car, per Ellie's request.




As we were driving, somehow we decided to stop at the Last Chance to get the girls each a "new" pair of shoes. That may be the first time a limo has rolled up in front of the LC with a family of 6 piling out. :)





They each got a pair of shoes, and then we picked up our dinner. We had 30 minutes left, and it worked out perfectly that our drive home was through Paradise Valley as the sun started to set.



By the time we got home, everyone was full of food and happiness and we watched our limo drive off into the sunset.  It was a wonderful family experience for sure.