Arizona Pictures - March 2009

We went to Arizona in March, 2009. It was so nice to get away from the rain. I would seriously move there! It is sunny and beautiful.


We stayed in Pat's cousin's house in Anthem.

This is a jumping cactus in the yard. It seriously jumped onto my shoe. Ouch!

We visited the Capitol building - another one checked off.

Alex bought these really expensive cactus candies - they were awful.



On our second day, we visited a Native American castle.

This picture is funny, because Rachel was paranoid about seeing a rattlesnake during our whole trip until the last day. That's when our captain (?? - you'll see!) told her they were not out yet - it wasn't hot enough!

We also drove up to Sedona. I wanted to continue up to the Grand Canyon,
but everyone wimped out.








Our friends arrived on our 3rd day. While they were in Arizona,
we went to a Cubs game - they won! Since the friends are Mariners fans
they were not very happy.

Rachel was able to get an autograph from Jeff Samardzija. She gave her hat to cousin Brock - a Samardjiza fan.

After the game we went to Spinato's for pizza, and then mini-golfing at the Family Fun Center - I think in Mesa.

Our favorite meal of the trip was at El Encanto. This was the best Mexican food I have ever eaten. The only problem with it is I somehow convinced Alex to try the guacomole. Now he loves guacamole and wants to eat it constantly!

The best part of the trip, besides the sun, was a huge surprise. We woke the kids up at around 5:00AM, and bundled them into the car. We drove about a half hour and arrived at our destination. The kids still had no idea what we were doing. We gave them the choice to look or not. Alex decided to find out where we were, but Rachel chose to wait. We loaded on to a van and drove further out into the desert. We got Rachel off the van and revealed the surprise - a hot air balloon ride! It was amazing! We spent about an hour in the air and celebrated with a traditional champagne breakfast. We'll never forget the ride.