Spring Break 2014...

Arizona must be one of our favorite places because every chance we get, we head there.   My sister's family also went to Arizona for spring break and we were able to plan it so we overlapped a few days.  Vacations are always more fun with the cousins right??  We planned lots of fun activities and had a great time.  Here are a few highlights....Right off the plane, we hit the ground running.  Grandma and Gina had gone ahead to San Tan Flats to save seats and they sent Grandpa and Matt to pick us up.  It's funny we never knew about this little gem of a place while we lived there.  Grandma and Grandpa discovered it awhile back and so glad they did.  It's basically like camping but they prepare all the food for you and its super yummy and there's live entertainment.  Each table has it's own little fire pit to roast marshmallows, etc.  Really fun stuff...

The next day we visited another little great place....the Basha pool.  This is seriously an amazing place....partly because it only costs like $1 to get in?  What?!?!  That's crazy right??  But so awesome too.  We didn't have nearly enough time here.  Right as we got there a little boy threw up in the pool so they had to shock the pool for 35 mins.  We were short on time anyway but they played hard and tried to make up for the lost time.  There were waterslides, a playground, a lazy river, a real whirlpool, and lots of pools.

We decided it would be fun to hike Camelback Mountain.  Grandpa had taken Josh and Abi years ago and we thought it was time to do it again.  Beautiful views of Arizona.

After the hike we stopped at a nearby McDonald's and ate and let the kids play.  As we were getting ready to head back home, Grandpa said that he was going to take the grandkids home and didn't want to see us girls (including Abi) until much later that day.  He sent us shopping and we didn't put up a fight.  We may have sprinted to the parking lot.  Thank you Grandpa!!!

Some of us even wrote letters to Dad because we missed him so much.  He eventually came down halfway through the trip but Meili wanted him to know how much we wished he could've been with us the whole time.   I bet you didn't know Russel had purple hair :)

Probably the coolest thing a few of the kids got to experience was going to do Baptisms for the Dead at the new Gilbert Temple.  It's my current favorite temple and it was an AWESOME experience to take these 3 cute kids in to do baptisms for our own relatives.  It was Nick's first time and really special to him.  It was also extra special to have Grandpa be the one baptizing.  It was a beautiful morning.  

And of course we did some relaxing and lounging by the pool in Grandma's neighborhood.  The kids played hard and soaked up as much of that Arizona sun as they could...hoping to take some back to Utah with us.  

Love my girls!  They make everything more fun!

And of course we had to visit Bahama Bucks.  They make the BEST shaved ice.  It seriously rivals Hawaii's shaved ice.   It is heaven in a cup.....mmm

I think we tired them out real good!  We tried to talk Tam and Jared into coming down but they were thinking there was nowhere else to sleep.  Whatever.....there were plenty of spots...... ;)

 (P.S. Brookie didn't really sleep on a chair.  We just found her that way one morning when she got up a little too early!)

We were also able to do a big picnic in the park with a bunch of our friends and their families.  It was so fun to see everyone and see how much all the kids have grown.  I can't believe we didn't take any pictures that night but the kids sure had fun and it was great catching up with everyone.  

You also may have noticed not seeing any pictures of cute Joshie.  We missed him lots but going on a senior trip won out and he and his friends (with parent chaperones of course) went on a cruise and had a great time.  Hoping to eventually retrieve some pictures from someone to post but who knows how long that might take :)