Phoenix Fun

Dave and I flew to Phoenix to visit Steph, Jared and Shad.  We didn't see much of Jared as he was in the middle of a 13 days straight surgery rotation. 

But we had a blast with Steph and Shad.  Their apartment complex has two beautiful pools.  With temps in the 100s, it felt nice to take a dip.

 

 

Their church has very unique architecture.

This kid loves, loves, loves to play ball.

But when his mommy reads to him, he will stop throwing the ball for a minute.

Don't judge.  Steph and I tried to go on a run as soon as it got light one morning.  We only made it three miles and we were dying, it was so hot already.  It never really cools off during the night.

We ran past this building that was calling out for me to take a picture of it.  Beautiful.

Here's ball boy again.

We drove over to the Gilbert LDS Temple on our way to take Dave back to the airport.  He had to go back to work.  I got to stay four more days.

 

We went to the zoo.  On our way in, I spotted this little guy.

Erika and Von came with us.  Such cute cousins!

I really liked the enclosure where the monkeys were just running all around us, not in cages.

I have never seen a bear in a tree until this zoo.  I guess Peruvian bears do this.

While we were eating lunch the rain hit.

Shad and the baboon were having a stare down.

The big cats didn't mind the rain.

Finally the rain got so heavy that we had to take shelter under a little bowery with the few other people who were at the zoo that day.

The minute Shad touches his blankie, his fingers go in his mouth and he zones out.

I know this looks like I'm a horrible grandma, but Shad didn't want to be under the umbrella and it was just barely sprinkling at this point.  Seriously.

Steph made this healthy soup, from the ingredients below, in her blender for dinner that night.

More throwing and catching going on here.

He wanted to wear my sun glasses.

We drove over to Old Town Scottsdale.

I'm not trying to be a hater, but the lady who took this of us eating lunch doesn't know how to work a phone camera.  Lol.  But lunch was delicious.  It was called the Cider Mill.  They make their own soda there in the huge vats in the background.  We had a strawberry cream soda type drink with our amazing sandwiches.

This area of Scottsdale is very artsy.

I'm as bad at taking photos as the lady I was just trashing.  I totally cut off Shad's head in this one.

On our way to take me to the airport we stopped at Papago Park.

Shad was ticked because we wanted him to stop throwing rocks while we took his picture.

Lunch was in Mesa at a yummy Italian deli, complete with gelato.

Our flight changed planes three times before taking off.  The second time, the pilot slammed on the brakes halfway down the runway.  We sat on the tarmac, boiling in the Arizona sun, for a long time before heading back to the gate and changing planes.  But I am so happy I got to visit with the Smedley bunch for a week!  Thanks for your hospitality, guys!