Phoenix

It may sound silly, but one of the reasons I was most excited to move back to Arizona is because Phoenix has some really great resale and consignment stores. This week’s outfit post is a perfect example of the best resale shops in Phoenix. Almost my entire look for the Gala I attended this past weekend came from resale and consignment shops.

The beauty of the sunrises and sunsets in Arizona is unlike anywhere else I’ve lived. When I first moved back to Phoenix, I was surprised that I hadn’t remembered just how breathtaking the Arizona sunsets and sunrises can be.

The idea for this store came about after attending a boutique opening in Phoenix a couple weeks ago. Initially, I planned to talk only about clothing boutique. After visiting a few Phoenix boutiques, I realized a lot of them carried things besides just clothing. I decided to extend my list to share what I believe are the four best boutiques in Phoenix.

Last week, our friends at Toyota invited us to the Phoenix Zoo to get a preview of ZooLights, and also check out a few of their new cars for 2015. During the day, Jade put a ton of miles on a sporty 2015 Camry. The kids and I joined him later to see ZooLights, pretty much by ourselves.

As I reflect on 2015, I realize it has been a year of a lot of transitions. We moved back to Phoenix and slowly settled back into our lives here. I reconnected with friends and former colleagues. We explored some of the fun things to do around the valley with toddlers and visited some of the great nature Arizona has to offer.

Last weekend we attended a Phoenix hot air balloon festival, the Out West Balloon Fest, in Glendale Arizona. I have never seen hot air balloons close-up, so we thought this would be a fun, family and kid friendly event, and a nice way to spend a Sunday morning.

Can peaches grow in Phoenix? That’s the question I asked myself when I heard about the Phoenix Peach Festival. It seemed unlikely to me that peaches could grow in such an arid climate, but apparently they can. My friend brought her kids last year, so I thought it would be a fun event to check out the Festival with my kids.

Summers in Phoenix are hot. Like really hot! We have a zoo membership, but it gets hardly any use in the summer because I assumed it would be too hot to visit. I was wrong. The zoo has a lot of cool summer activities, like snow in July! A couple weeks ago, we visited the zoo bright and early on a Saturday morning and our kids had the chance to experience their first snow at the Phoenix Zoo winter in July event.

Major news from the Freemans – we are moving to Boston! I can hardly believe it myself. I’m still in shock about it actually. If you didn’t get the title of this story – it’s a reference to this song and leaving the Valley of the Sun. I’m going to miss our chosen city, but Boston is calling.