Arizona

This past weekend Robert and I went to Arizona for his mission president's homecoming.  It was a super long drive.  We broke it up, otherwise it would have been about 11 straight hours of driving.  We left Thursday after we both got off of work and headed down to St. George.  We stayed over at his aunt & uncle's house, then continued driving the rest of the way down to Scottsdale, where we stayed at a house (Robert's mission buddy's parent's house).

 A lot of Joshua Trees.

 An orchard (?) of Joshua Trees.  There was even a sign for it.

 Las Vegas on the way to Arizona.

 Lake Mead

 A pretty river going through dead mountains

 Lots of cacti

 A forest of cacti

 Weird skinny, long palm trees that remind me of trees in Dr. Seuss books lining the streets of I think Phoenix.

 Cardinals football stadium.

We finally arrived!  Friday night Robert and I, along with three of his mission buddies, ate at a Thai restaurant.  So good.  Then we rented "We Bought a Zoo" at RedBox.  I wasn't interested in watching it based on the previews, but I actually enjoyed it.  It was a pretty good movie.  And Matt Damon... he's getting old!  The next day, we got up and got ready to go to the Mesa temple.  It was a cool temple.  Don't mind the scaffolding.

 At the Mesa temple

After the temple, we went to the Big Surf water park.  7 Peaks is better, but Big Surf's wave pool was better than 7 Peaks'.  Plus, Big Surf wasn't as crowded.  So in their wave pool, tubes aren't allowed, but they have these raft/body boards, and every so often, a HUGE wave comes crashing out, so body surfing was the bomb diggity.  They didn't have a time period with constant little waves like 7 Peaks, just one huge one.  It was a little dangerous, but it was fun.  I was mowing over people as I washed out to shore.  One time I went right up over this little girl, and another time I went right up over this bigger man, and that one hurt.  Usually I couldn't feel as people went under me, but that time I could.  It was still fun though.  After we swam, we went to Golden Corral so everyone could get whatever they wanted.  I happily got 2 sticks of cotton candy (after my meal of course).  Mmm... I lub cotton candy :)  We went to a pre-homecoming party at the church after dinner.  Then, we went home and went to sleep.  We had to get up super early cuz their church was at 8:30.  After church, we headed back home to Utah.

 Robert kept pointing out the black pyramid, but I couldn't see it for the life of me.  I finally did.  There it is.  Barely noticeable.

 Las Vegas on the way back.

 Does this remind you of anything?... Provo maybe?  On the way up the canyon?  Ding ding ding!! You got it!  The fake tree!  Except in Las Vegas instead of Provo.

And look!  A fake Palm tree too!

We stayed overnight in St. George again, but this time at my cousin's house.  We ate dinner first at my aunt & uncle's house, and made some ice cream.  My uncle also gave us some tart apples growing in their backyard.  It was fun to see my cousin's babies all growing up too.  Brigham wanted us to leave at first (he kept saying: "Tell them not to look at me!  When are they going home?  I want them to go home."), but he got over it really fast and made Robert and me our own train tracks.  Leland walks now, and he is constantly eating.  This past weekend has been a fun one.  And this weekend will also be a good one.  I only work two days this week, then I'm off to Beaver to go camping for a family reunion on Thursday.  Yay!