Arizona Vacation

In celebration of the end of finals and a quick break before work resumes again, Kyle and I were able to snag some cheap airfare (almost unheard of these days!) for a flight to Phoenix to visit Kyle's family! We arrived late last Friday night and promptly stayed up till 2:15 (our time) chatting. I was exhausted, but then woke up with the Arizona sun at 5 am! Sheesh! I think I might be a morning person if I didn't live in a basement and could see the light each morning.

Saturday was filled with work and play. In preparation for sod, Kyle and his dad worked on the sprinkler system and leveling the dirt while Melissa, Jerolyn, and I attacked the boxes in the garage left from their initial move. We dejunked and reorganized finally clearing space out and giving my Mother in law a sense of sanity again! After so much dirty work, it was time to jump into the pool for relaxation (did I mention how much I have missed summer weather since it is perpetually chilly in Logan?). That afternoon, Kyle and I took off on a mini double date with his parents to the Wrigley mansion, one of the five homes of the Wrigley's (the family that owns the chewing gum corporation). We had an interesting tour and learned a lot of random facts (did you know that the Phillip's head screwdriver is named after the Wrigley's son who thought that there had to be an easier way to deal with screws? Jeopardy here I come!). We ate dinner in Phoenix at P.F. Changs (anyone have any copycat recipes? YUM!) and then took off for the Open House of Kyle's cousin (one of the weddings we attended the week before!). I know that I married into the right family.... they take the food home with them just like I do!

Sunday was full of relaxing, Monday was full of errands and landscape planning (I love the tropical plants you can grow with virtually NO WATER!). We celebrated Cinco de Mayo with authentic Mexican soup and homemade ice cream. Tuesday, we picked oranges, laid sod, swam, and then went to the Phoenix zoo! It was nice to have a fun activity after the dirty sod work (Kyle and I did all of the lifting and hauling because Bruce had a rib injury... good thing we were able to go help!).

We were a little disappointed that the Lions and Tigers were already gone for the day to their night time areas, but in all, I was very impressed with the landscapes and full exhibits. You could walk into their habitat and watch them swinging from the trees! Very cool! Watch the slideshow below to see all of our photos or click on it to see the gallery (including the graduation ones... sorry I didn't separate them!) They had a Squirrel Monkey exhibit where yIt was like an amusement park all full of animals (you can tell I have only ever been to really tiny zoos!). The very best moment of the zoo activity however was celebrity sight seeing. We ran into Scott Hamilton (the amazing figure skater)... no joke! I didn't get the nerve up to ask him, but everything fits... the voice, the height (he is actually only 5'2.. no joke!) the age of his son... it was definitely him. I should have taken a picture, but we enjoyed the elephants and the gift shop with him and his son.... very nice guy and a good dad. I was impressed! For our final evening, we had a BBQ with the Ipson family who live in Mesa and loved playing with their adorable little boys. I was sad to leave, but it was a wonderful vacation get away! Thanks Mom and Dad H!