Trip to Arizona

It has been a long while since I posted.  Many, many things have happened and I have been very busy.  We spent part of last week in Arizona where we played with Cyndi, Jeremy and family and most importantly, Andrew was baptized.  We are so blessed to be with each of our grandchildren as they are baptized.  We started the visit with a quick trip to McDonalds and a really big play around and then we were able to go to the Mesa Temple and view the wonderful lights and nativities.  My highlight  of this night (it sounds funny)was to hear Pres. Hinckley voice when we were standing by the nativity with Mary and Joseph and the baby.  No, I am not going crazy, I know he is dead but it was a recording and while it was wonderful to hear his voice again, I do miss him.

How many kids can fit into a tube?  No one knows but we keep trying. 

 

 

We took Nathan’s camera with us – it is smaller and he actually took this picture of the Temple reflected in a pool of water.

 

 

Michael enjoying the lights.

A mass of greenery with colorful red lights.

 

 

Mary and Joseph on their journey.                              The three musketeers

 

All of us in front of the Mesa Temple

 

 

The statute ‘Christus” in the Mesa Visitors Center.

 

 

 

             The next day we went down to Picacho Peak and did some climbing.  Nathan and Mandy had not experienced cactus or the desert and so we went “experiencing”.  We stopped and ate at a hamburger chain called In and Out Burgers.  Here we are enjoying our lunch.  Yes, Mandy is talker than Andrew.

Picacho Peak in the background from the play area.

 

Heading up the trail.  We soon gave up on the stroller  for Michael and he was carried or walked the rest of the way.

 

I thought this was neat.  It is the inside of a Saguaro cactus.  The long sticks are the inside and the way the water travels up the cactus.

 

The path led to the children’s cave although it wasn’t much of a cave but it was fun.

 

 

 

 

The saguaro cactus are very large and live for a long time.

There isn’t a lot that grow is the desert but this lichen which was a brighter green than appears was growing on some of the rocks.

Mandy and I did a little off the trail exploring.  She has a stick she used and we had a great little hike.

 

 

 

I thought the above cactus was cool as it was green and red.  Below, I wanted to show how long the barbs were.

 

 

 

 

 

I will close this post and put the baptism pictures on the next one. We enjoyed seeing a part of the country the kids hadn’t experienced.

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