More Desert Beauty

We had such a great afternoon today! the Desert Botanical Gardens was a whole new place for us. I have come to love the desert the last three years we have been here. The spring is especially wondrous as the cactus bloom. We saw so many beautiful thing! This is a Palo Verde - green barked - tree. They are actually all over. I was so shocked the first time I saw these and their stunning green bark.

Wild flowers are rampant in the desert right now. We saw meadows of them as we drove to CA last week.

This is called a creeping devil cactus. The send runners out all over the ground and climb and creep on whatever is there.

These are sculpted willows. Aren't they neat!

Sweet tiny pink blooms in this stickily little plant.

Gigantic plants with huge blooms on top reaching into the sky.

A halo of pink on the prickles.

This one is hilarious! It looks all furry - Old Man of the Andes!

It is fascinating how the little bulbs grow on the end of the rounded pedals of the cactus, and then burst in the brilliance when the bloom.

Ocotillo reaching skyward. These have really beautiful, bright orange flowers on the ends. I took tons of pictures, and it was hard to decide which ones to post. There is so much beauty, and each plant unique. We will certainly return to this amazing place. And I hope to do a hike in the wild in the next couple of weeks when the cactus will really be putting on a show!

Happy Easter!

When we arrived home from Disneyland it was time to get ready to color Easter Eggs. Since we have no small people in our home anymore, we decided to have some over for the big egg coloring tradition. Eli and Elle were more than happy to come and enjoy coloring eggs with us!

Don't you just love her smile?

Jamie (the mom of these darling kids) made some wonderful enchiladas for dinner. She is one of Becca's Young Women leaders. Her husband, Jarret, is in our bishopric and loves to play Wii games. So everybody had something fun to do!

Becca came out and blew bubbles with Elle.

Once the eggs were done, the bubbles blown, and the dinner eaten, we all were so excited to sleep in our own beds! We did not like our motel during the weekend, but oh well ... it was still a great trip! But like Dorothy aways says, "There's no place like home!"

Disneyland - the Happiest Place on Earth!

Rod got a really nice bonus in his paycheck a couple of weeks ago, so we decided to take the kids somewhere special during Spring Break. We had the best time ever at Disneyland! We got Becca out of school at noon on Thursday to travel to Anaheim. Our Motel was close enough that we could walk into the park, no parking! We got there just before 8:00 AM when they opened up the gates. We had to wait in line to get our tickets, wait in line to get in, and then we RAN for Indiana Jones! We got right in - no waiting.

This interesting shot is on the ceiling in one of the chambers as you are walking to get into your vehicle for the Indiana Jones adventure. When we finished that ride, we RAN to Pirates of the Caribbean and walked right in - no waiting! We then RAN for the Haunted Mansion and walked right in - no waiting! We then RAN for Splash Mountain. We walked right in - no waiting! I'm not sure that was good because I did not have time to back out of that one. It was so much fun, and we all got wet! We then RAN for Thunder Mountain. We had a very short wait for that one.

Love these dinosaur bones at Thunder Mountain. It was always my favorite ride.

Waiting for our Thunder Mountain train ride. After this one we decided to hit a rest room. We did 5 rides and a pit stop by 9:30 AM. Wow! What a morning!

We then decided to go on the Matterhorn. Looks like the kids enjoyed this one. We only had to wait for about 25 minutes, and then we had to wait for a LONG time for every other ride we went on. Rod and Nick decided they wanted to go on the submarine (finding Nemo) so I went on the Tea Cups with Becca. They were still in line when we got done, so we went shopping on Main Street. They were still in line when we got done, so we walked around for a while. They were STILL in line so we just sat and waited. Becca and I could NOT believe how long they waited for this one, and when they were FINALLY done, we decided to go have some lunch, so we left and went to Quizzno's across the street from the park entrance for some yummy sandwiches.

After we ate lunch, we decided to try for Space Mountain. This is just a small piece of the winding and rewinding line that was an 80 minute wait to go on this ride. We loved the ride, though, and it is my new favorite for sure! But our feet and legs hurt so much from standing in line that we went back to the Motel and took a nap. We all crashed for an hour. We then had a wonderful dinner at Mimi's and were so geared up for the evening at Disneyland.

Becca and I decided this was definitely the MOST people we had ever seen at Disneyland. We were so LUCKY to go on so many of the most popular rides during the morning. Wow! We really could not go on any other rides unless we waited for 80 minutes. We did go on Star Tours - it was about a 60 minute wait. We did get a really great spot to see the incredible fire works show - it was the BEST I have ever seen! That will certainly be long remembered. Becca and Nick wanted to go on Indiana Jones again, so Rod and I found a seat and just waited for them. They had such a blast. We stayed in the park till 11:30. We were exhausted.

As is tradition, we gave the kids money for their choice of souvenir. Nick picked this Captain Jack Sparrow hat.

Becca went for the darling and comfy Mickey slippers.

This was such a fun adventure with our family. I will long treasure this special week and all the great things we were able to do!

Mesa Arizona Easter Pagent

Last night, we loaded our kids into the new car and went to Mesa for the Easter Pageant. They did not want to go, but I gently let them know we were going to participate in "ONE Christ Centered Activity for Easter!" So they knew they better cooperate.

I know, cheesy grins.

They actually had a good time!

Guess who? . . . If you guessed John the Baptist, you are right!

Roman Soldiers in front of the temple?

These two characters are the Apostle Matthew and a Rabbi in the temple.

This is the largest outdoor Easter Pageant in the world. There were 450 in the cast and over 100 in the crew. The costumes were so beautiful, and the story was taken straight from the scriptures. It was a beautiful depiction of the plan of salvation, and the life of the Savior. The music and dancing were incredible, the sound was terrific, and the players were all choreographed to perfection. What a marvelous production! And, of course, the message was timeless and the most important in the world: Christ lives! He came to earth to organize his church, show us how to live, atone for our sins, then gave his life, and was resurrected. Because of this sublime gift, we shall also be resurrected, and if we use the gift of the atonement as it was intended, we will realize our divine potential and live with God again.

One of the wise men, and a little wise lady.

There were actors of all ages. The cast came out before the show and wandered through the crowd, stopping to chit chat, show off their fabulous costumes, pose for pictures, and set the tone for the show. I even can't imagine how cool it would be to participate in such a huge and beautiful musical! And now for the final comment: If you decide to come and visit us in AZ during the spring, let's make sure it is during the pageant. It is now a new family tradition and we WILL be going every year! I can't believe we have lived here for 3 years and this is the first year we have taken advantage of going!

Grandkids are here!

Last weekend, Julie and Ava were here. It was so much fun to have those two visit. And now the Robinsons are here! I can't believe I get to see all my grandkids! I am lovin' it. Here are some shots of my trip to the park with Savannah and Cooper. We tried to fly a kite, but the tail kept getting caught in the trees. The wind was quite brisk, but they enjoyed the slides, swings and other playground equipment.

Just look at that smile! Cooper had so much fun sliding and playing at the park.

Savannah is the best poser for pictures. She can always give a brilliant smile no matter what she is doing!

Vannah climbed the little rock wall and was proud of herself cause she did it with her flip-flops on. Cooper stopped what he was doing every few minutes to get the sand out of his toes. He just can't stand the feel of the gritty stuff on his feet. Quite unusual for a little boy...

Savannah was determined to do the monkey bars herself (with no help). She started to swing those little legs and moved her arms quickly. She did it! She was so excited - she could hardly wait to tell her mom and dad.

Becca sure enjoys her sleepy little nephew. She loves the baby and he loves her. He is now smiling all the time, and tries so hard to talk. When he is awake, you can hear him cooing and gooing. What a sweet and good natured baby Luka is!