Living in Arizona – Hot and Cold in the Desert
Living in Arizona has its pros and cons, as does any place. When I moved away from Arizona after college, I swore I’d never move back. Thirteen years of life in the desert was enough for me. I wanted cooler weather and a new adventure. But nearly two decades after I departed, I moved back. Are you wondering if a move to Arizona is right for you? I hope sharing my family’s struggles and joys of adjusting to life in Arizona will help you decide.
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My Family’s Move to Arizona
After years of clinging to a California dream, my husband and I finally decided that maybe something better awaited us elsewhere. That’s when we took the plunge and made the move to Arizona with our two kids.
When we lived in San Diego, I equated our family’s happiness with our big house, fun-loving neighbors, the neighborhood grassy park, and the temperate weather of our beloved adopted hometown.
In our dream home, I’d had the ceilings in our kids’ rooms painted with blue skies and puffy white clouds. I even consulted with four different mural artists to select the very best painter for the project.
I paid thousands of dollars for custom-sewn curtains for the master bedroom and bath, selected with the help of an expensive interior decorator.
Now our walls and ceilings are white. The costly curtains are in a box in the garage. Are they missed? Not much.
Growing Up in Arizona
I miss my San Diego friends, of course. But we have forged a new life for ourselves in Arizona. Sometimes you need to go away to see what you are missing. And sometimes everything has to change while you’re gone, too.
When I grew up in what was then the northern edge of Scottsdale, there wasn’t a whole lot of here, here. My parents’ house was 30 minutes from the nearest grocery store. They still live in the same home but now they have a choice of several grocery options within a few minutes’ drive, along with a multitude of restaurants and a wide variety of shops.
As a kid, there were barely any museums or family-friendly attractions of any sort in the Phoenix area. For fun, my mom used to drop me off at the drugstore, where for hours I’d consider the merits of silver nail polish versus pink.
My family of origin moved to Scottsdale from Minnesota a couple of months before my fourth-grade year. During that first summer, my big brother and I would take our bikes out for a ride every afternoon looking for other kids. All Arizona children, however, were smartly swimming in backyard pools or sitting inside watching TV in the cool air conditioning.
Big excitement came the following year when a car wash opened a few miles from our house. My brother and I rode our banana-seated bicycles to this new wondrous establishment. There we discovered a vending machine stocked with candies and salty snacks.
We rode home to plunder spare change from our mom’s coin stash before returning to the car wash. We bought chocolate bars and munched on them while staring at cars being doused with suds and jostled by whirling giant scrub brushes.
Rediscovering Arizona
Re-experiencing old favorites here in Scottsdale brings back happy Arizona childhood memories. I get to eat the best-ever chicken taco salad at Ajo Al’s Mexican Café, order mint chocolate chip hot fudge sundaes at the Sugar Bowl, and enjoy other favorite restaurants.
Plus, it’s a joy to bring our kids to MacDonald’s Ranch, where I first discovered my enduring love of horses, and the Scottsdale Civic Center, which I loved to visit as a teen.
Our family has uncovered new treasures like Butterfly Wonderland, filled with hundreds of fluttering beauties. Then there’s the Musical Instrument Museum and its noisy, playful Experience Gallery. Sweetest of all is the Sweet Republic ice cream shop with its astonishingly good frozen treats like brownie ice cream topped with a freshly toasted handmade marshmallow. (Yes, I really like ice cream!)
Sibling Challenges
I was surprised by how much I fell in love with Arizona after my move back. Our kids, however, struggled with the change.
It started even before we arrived in Scottsdale. A week prior to our departure, with our lives scattered among boxes, our 6-year-old asked his big sister to play “puppies.” Uptight about the move, our then 9-year-old refused and stormed off to her room.
I said I’d love to play with him instead. Pretending to be a dog as best I could, I panted, wagged my tail, and barked. But, as a grown person, a few minutes of this play seemed like enough.
I tried to encourage my puppy friend to come get his teeth brushed. My son exhaled a deep, sad sigh and got up from all fours. He said, “I just need to go outside and think a bit.”
I followed our son and found him with his head buried in crossed arms, leaning on the stucco of our balcony. I rubbed his back and said, “What’s going on, bubba, what are you thinking about?”
He said, “I was just thinking about when Sissy and I used to be best friends.”
That marked the end of it. The end of these two kids being the best advocates, friends, and playmates.
Our first year following our move involved more sass, more backtalk, more arguing, and more tears than we’d ever experienced. And there were a lot more arguments between two children who used to love to play puppies and build forts from sofa cushions.
Friends told me, “It’s a lot of change. It takes time. It’s just a phase.”
Both children have adjusted and now feel at home in Arizona. But honestly, their relationship has never been the same. Maybe it was inevitable they would grow apart as they aged. Maybe not.
New Schools
Anyone who has ever switched schools knows what a challenge this can be. For our daughter, the first few months in Arizona were particularly tough. She did not pay attention in class and seemed depressed to her teacher.
Thankfully, she pulled out of her funk when she made friends with a few other classmates who were also new to Scottsdale. Getting involved in school choir and a community theater program also helped quite a bit.
As for our son, he was so little that it seemed easier for him to make friends and adjust to first grade in a new school. Then a boy in his class began bullying him. Our normally enthusiastic kid who regularly claimed every day was the “best day of his life” became sullen.
It helped when I began regularly volunteering in his classroom. Plus, a big boon in his self-confidence came when he joined Little League baseball, with his dad as coach and grandpa as assistant coach. It’s so important for kids to feel they have somewhere they belong, especially when they don’t feel accepted at school.
Living in Arizona
Several years have passed and we still live in Arizona. We have all settled in and everyone is happy with our decision to make the move. Honestly, our son doesn’t really remember ever living anywhere else.
Despite Southern California’s near-perfect weather, we actually feel more connected to nature in Arizona. That’s due in large part to the state’s abundance of hiking trails and biking paths. I run or hike on these almost daily, finding a desert beauty to which I was immune growing up here.
When the weather in Scottsdale is hot, the whole family loves to splash in our backyard pool. This is a luxury nearly every house and apartment complex shares in the Phoenix area. Plus, we can always escape to Flagstaff in northern Arizona for a dose of green trees and cooler temperatures.
Thankfully, our family no longer feels overwhelmed by the high cost of California living. We enjoy freedom from constant worry about too-high electricity bills and a mortgage we could no longer afford.
In fact, we’ve purchased a house in Scottsdale that we love even more than our former dream home. It’s similar in size and neighborhood to our San Diego house and we bought it for half the price.
Our kids have lots of friends here, and my husband and I have made a few, too. But for us, living near family has been the biggest benefit of life in Arizona. We didn’t realize how lonely it was raising children without the support of our extended family until we made the move.
We’re closer in proximity and relationship with my Arizona-dwelling parents and brother than ever. My brother and I had grown apart after years of living in different states and we rarely spoke. But now, we live just around the corner from him and his wife, and they’ve become our best friends. In fact, my husband was my brother’s best man at their wedding a few years ago.
The benefits of life in Arizona far outweigh any cons for our family. We only wish we would have made the move a few years earlier!
Learn More About Arizona
If you’re considering visiting or living in Arizona, then take a look at the best kid-friendly activities in Scottsdale and Phoenix!
Concerned about Arizona’s summer heat? Soothe your worries with this list of things to do in Scottsdale in summer.
For cooler weather and small-town vibes, take a look at this array of things to do in Prescott.
Those seeking a quirky desert destination should check out this guide to Jerome, Arizona’s biggest ghost town.
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Are you thinking about moving to Arizona? Let me know your questions and concerns in the comments below. I’m happy to share my tips and thoughts about living in Arizona!
