Scottsdale, Arizona

driving west

New Mexico

 Kaden taking in the scenery

When Stephenie & Dustin rolled through Amarillo this spring with her giant moving truck, we all decided that we needed to get together.  After all, the house that she & Jason bought was only 11.2 miles from Ben's aunt (Mary).

** And great/upscale golfing around Scottsdale is ridiculously cheap this time of year.

driving to Arizona

(my) pictures never truly capture how beautiful the scenery is

I absolutely love driving out west!

 saguaro cactus close to Phoenix

Before arriving to our final destination, our last stop was in the mountains, somewhere around Payson, AZ where the temperature was in the low 70°s. I knew it was going to be hot, but it was still shocking to meet the 100°F oven blast under the cover of night.

discovering the Legos in the box of toys that Mary pulled out 

 Mary knows that Kaden loves puzzles so there were several waiting for him as we came over our first morning.  SO thoughtful!

Out to dinner with Mary & Doug at out favorite mexican restaurant: Frank & Lupe's

 Visiting the Tempe aquarium with Mary.

A fun thing about being 2 time zones ahead is that it didn't FEEL like I was getting up at 4:45 a.m. when Stephenie suggested that we all go for a hike; it felt like I was getting up at my normal time.

If you're going to hike in Phoenix... in July, you'd better get up pretty darn early! 

 Our group: Stephenie, Jason, (uncle) Steve, Kristin, Rhiannon and Dustin
before our climb up Camelback Mountain

We started our hike on the back side; a.k.a. the harder side

panoramic view

 me taking a picture of Jason, taking a picture of us

Dustin & Rhiannon

family photo at the TOP

 and Steve at the highest tip on the top

 

Kaden's favoite part about going to Stephenie & Jason's house (besides harassing their min-pin, Tyson) was getting to swim in their pool.

Steve & Kaden going for a swim

 We were quite proud of Kaden and his swimming on this trip.  He started putting his face in the water and liked to blow bubbles.  He also began swimming (with assistance from the frog floatie) the length of the pool without asking for help.

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