Arizona

Ben has been wanting to go on a road trip ever since we got the van. His brother, Richard and family were gracious enough to let us bombard them so we spent last weekend in Arizona. Ben's sister, Kim, and her son, Nairne, flew in from Washington to spend the weekend, too. The kids did great on the drive. Miles had had enough for about the last 10 minutes but other than that I don't think he even made a sound. But the drive down still seemed like it took F-O-R-E-V-E-R.

*********************

Miles got to meet a bunch of new cousins, aunts, and uncle

w/ cousin Nairne

Aunt Kim

cousin Ryan

We stayed at a resort in Phoenix for two nights. Here's a picture of the water park. They had a fun water slide, a few pools, a lazy river, and a waterfall

Sara and Evan are getting a good start to swimming

The waterfall (the small one)

Hot tubbing

Yep, I guess there are still some crazies out there who want to get into a hot tub when it is over 100 degrees outside

The water slide

The Lazy river

Kam and Dad

Kim and Sara

Kim and Evan

(Evan never really learned to enjoy this part of the trip, but at least he has a smile in the picture)

The kids had to sleep in the same room (nothing new) and the same bed (totally new) for five days. They did fabulous. Ben and I, on the other hand, now know why we can't sleep in the same room as Miles.

Amazingly enough, this was the only Scrabble game played the whole weekend

Ben got to spend some time alone with his brother. Early Saturday morning they got up and went golfing. That night Ben got to experience a major league baseball game. He went to the Arizona Diamondbacks game along with his brother, sister, and two nephews.

Ben - Kim - Richard

Ben and Richard

Yes, folks on Sunday our car thermometer said outside temp was 117 degrees. It was HOT!!!And what did we decide to do........

spend some time outside visiting the Mesa temple. We stayed outside just long enough to get a picture. There was absolutely no way we were going to stay outside longer than necessary

Kamri warmed right up to her cousin James

On the way home we had to get a tire fixed. Our awesome car told us something was wrong with the tire pressure. So we pulled into a gas station to take a look. Ben found a screw in our tire. So we pulled over to a tire shop and they fixed it right up for us. We were on our way in 15 minutes and thank goodness we didn't have to deal with a blown out tire.

It was a great trip. It was fun to see family we don't get to see very often and a much needed break from mundane housework that never seems to get done. We had a blast. Thanks Candy and Richard for letting us come and Kim and Nairne for coming out too. We love you guys!!!