Arizona

We just got back from 11 days in Arizona, 9 of which we shared with Brooke, who was on Spring Break. We had perfect weather: about 82 to 92 degrees during the day.
We had Easter dinner with our friends, Jeri and Steve. The Easter bunny was very busy hiding color coded eggs for each of the girls (what a clever bunny!) Of course, when dinner and eating jellybeans was done, the girls were eager to play with the water guns. Poor Nemo never had a chance.

Brooke didn't get much rest since the girls adore her and were so excited to spend time with her that they tried to be next to her everywhere. Every time she sat down, the girls sat on top of her and she had to read them books at bedtime every night as well. She did take one day off to lay by the pool when I visited with my friend, Susan. We took walks in the evening for the first few nights but after that we were just too tired. Brooke and the girls were often in bed by 8:30 and I made it past 10 only once. Vacationing is so exhausting!

One day Brooke and I dropped the girls off just past 6:30 am with Jeri and Steve (what awesome friends) so we could go hiking in the Tonto National Forest. This time of year was just perfect since the weather wasn't too hot and many of the cactus were in bloom. We got to see two crested Saguaro cactus which are quite rare - only about 1 in 70,000 Saguaro are of this mutation.







































The day before Brooke left, we trekked down to Scottsdale to the Culinary Arts Festival. Unfortunately, this was one of the hottest days we had - over 90 - and we were all pretty peaked after an hour of walking around. After a sampling of gelato in the shade, we headed back home to the pool.