First Days in the Desert

I can hardly believe that an entire week has lapsed since I last blogged! Makes me miss the internet so very much when I don't have it at my beck and call (and the iPhone just does not do blogging any justice). Instead of "relaxing" on our laptops each night while the kids slept, Joseph and I watched season 1 of Modern Family on DVD and now we have many silly lines we keep quoting from it. Funny show.

Anyway, we are safely home and excited to document our adventures. We left town Friday in the late afternoon and drove to my parents St George house for a good night's sleep. We hit the road again around 9:30 the next morning and were down in Phoenix before dinner time. I was amazed at how good my kids were in the car--especially my toddler but it helped that we had tons of snacks and fun candy and entertaining prizes all packed up to keep everyone happy. When we arrived we unpacked, wandered around the resort, grabbed an early dinner at the poolside restaurant and went for an evening swim to get all our wiggles out before bed.

On Sunday, we attended sacrament meeting at our old ward in Arcadia and found many familiar faces even though we haven't been back for almost 7 years.

Outside our old ward building just before church started.
Love the classic Phoenix orange tree blossoming in the green grass.

After church we drove east to the lovely Mesa Temple. It was an overcast day but the air was so warm and filled with the fresh smell of blossoms. I loved seeing the bright, colorful flowers and felt so very ready for spring.















And then we spent the afternoon at my brother's house in Gilbert. He and Stacey made us a tasty lunch, the kids played endlessly with all of Mason's fun toys, and while Livs napped we watched Megamind. It was so refreshing to hang out at their home, spread out a little and enjoy good company (and a washer and dryer!)




We ate at Joe's Farm Grill for dinner before driving back to our hotel. It was the perfect place for our energetic kids who loved roaming the grass, finding rocks, and skipping and running all around outside. How we have missed playing outside these past winter months!

All ready for bed back at the hotel.
Livs climbed in with the kids each night for snuggles and prayers and loved being in the big kid bed so much. Luckily, she sweetly let us pop her into the pack-n-play for sleeping. And after a failed attempt at letting all 3 kids fall asleep in the same room (too many giggles at Livvies' jabbering and singing) the babe got to sleep in the bathroom each night.