Arizona!

Ron and I got to go to Arizona without the kids. It was great weather and the company was fantastic. One of the first things we did was plan Brit's room makeover. It had been purple since we painted it back several years ago. She had already picked out the colors- seafoam green and cream. We took a trip to the second hand store to find some old pictures frames and I introduced Brittanee to the fine art of repurposing stuff. She bought some acrylic paint but I think I have converted her to SPRAY PAINT!!! (sorry the after pics are before the before pics!)

This is actually the before picture!! Notice the great purple floor? That was my doing- with a rag roller- some five or six years ago!! It beat the concrete but that was about all!

Allie's Dad took us Kart Racing at a F1 place. The karts top speed was around 70 mph. It was a bit scary, but I made it around the track 2 different times!

Of course we did a lot of shopping- one of the neatest stores was Forever 21. These great moldings were around the jewelry display. There was also a really neat upcycled dresser that was bright turquoise that I loved!

We went to the mall where Brittanee worked and shopped for awhile, and went and saw a movie another day: 17 miracles. It was a great movie, everybody was crying like babies when it was done!

The following day we had a family choir and sang an arrangement of "come, come ye saints". It turned out beautifully. I actually sang instead of playing the piano- that was a fun change. At one point, one of the ladies voices hit a very high beautiful note. One of the church members asked if I was the one who hit that note. I laughed as I noted that I did not have a high note anywhere in my vocal range!

These lighted palm trees lined the streets to the mall.

We had a family pedicure- even the boys were talked into going. Ron enjoyed it as much as I did!

one of our favorite places to go was to Bahama Bucks which sold shaved ice. It was fantastic! Not a shop that would do a lot of business in central Alberta, however!

One day, we went tubing down the Salt River. We didn't have a waterproof camera so we didn't get any pictures, but we saw a blue heron, flocks of vultures, red cardinals, AND a herd of WILD HORSES!!! They were beautiful and strong; they did not seem like what I expected wild horseds to look like.



Another day we went to the Phoenix Zoo. It opens at some strange hour like 7am because it gets so hot. Steven, Andrea, Brit, Taylor and Ron and I all got up to get there before the sun was scorching. It was a fun day- feeding and 'petting' the sting-ray....

feeding the giraffe...

By the end of it, there was sweat pouring down our backs and we cooled off in a fountain. We were done before lunch time!

We spent one day shopping at Arizona Mills, a huge outlet mall. After five hours, even Ron and I were shopped out! It was a great place- a one mile loop that we covered at least two times. This walking we did was probably why, despite the junk food I constantly ate, I didn't gain back all the weight I spent all spring losing. And was the sugar worth it? TOTALLY!!

Overall, it was a great vacation- we went swimming in the backyard pool at least once a day (Ron probably swam three times a day!), had fantastic company, watched movies, went shopping, and saw a lot of sites.

And the airline didn't charge us for our extra bag coming home- probably because they felt bad because our flight was delayed by almost 2 hours! But it saved us almost $50 so I didn't complain!

HAWAII could not have been better than this folks! Yes, it was THAT good!!