Us in Arizona - It's Jill's Big Day

On the road and having a great time - for real, for the first part. Just look at 'em. I had new songs to listen to, and between that and naps, we got most of the way to Gary's brother's house in Arizona. A big dinner at Cracker Barrel and nightfall got us the rest of the way.  We stopped for lunch at a playground in Panguitch, UT, and saw a guy put an ENTIRE stalk of celery on a sandwich. Not a hoagie, a regular-bread-celery-severely-hanging-out sandwich. He looked like he was in heaven eating it, and Gary was highly entertained.

Our first stop on the trip was Arizona because our niece Jill got baptized! It was really great to see that and to spend a few days with her family and Gary's parents. Seeing them was even better than the cheesecake they fed us. Narrowly. Thank you, Jill, for being a great example to my boys and congratulations on an important step.

The cousins after the baptism - Leah, Josh, Noah, Jill, and Lissy.

The girls LOVED Lissy and played with her all weekend long. I know Lissy was excited not to be the only one for once.

Jill with Grandma, Grandpa, and cousin Lissy.

Andrew was so exhausted he fell asleep in the car on the way to the baptism, then slept through the entire thing. He woke up just in time to get the last scoop of ice cream, so I took a picture to prove he was there.

After the baptism, Christian and Candacy got everyone In N Out and had a swim/snowcone party. What more could kids want? The perfect celebration, for sure.

The kids were excited to get ready for swimming in their cousins' new pool, but Leah was a little camera shy. Josh teased the girls that someone had to kill a bear to make this big teddy.

Sydney, Jill, and their friend Daisy all wore pink swimsuits and all got really excited when Lissy got in the pool. Everywhere Lissy went was a swarm of pink.

Grandpa looking on at his little grand-fish.

Jill is about to jump out of the water and yell "peek-a-boo!"

Andrew was too afraid to get into the water at first, and spent a very long time yelling, "Go . . . fetch!" and throwing dive rings into the water.

He would get on the little shallow step and play with dive rings . . .

. . . splash with his sister . . .

 . . . and accept the rings back from the girls, who would bring them back to him every time. He and Leah played fetch for a very long time.

The great scorpion hunt. The boys loved this, and Uncle Christian was so great to make it fun for them. He told them they had to get a little poke from the hunting stick before they could be an official hunter and go out, and when they went inside unsuccessful this first night, Noah went up to him and asked, "So, when are you going to poke me with that stick again?"

The next night the full crew went out to the empty lot next door with two scorpion sticks. Must have been the trick, because they found two. (Of course the point was to get rid of them, so they did, no worries.)

Gary is holding a blacklight flashlight, and when it shines on a scorpion, it glows. It's the weirdest thing.

Josh and Noah wanted a picture of them being cowboys. Ok.

Josh wanted a picture of Andrew playing with his cousins' hexbugs. This is the pose he struck.

They also wanted one last picture of them in front of Sydney and Jill and Leah's pool. Noah may have a treasure map, while the others are power rangers.

Two great days with Christian, Candacy, and the girls, and off we went. The boys didn't want to leave so soon, but more adventures were to be had, more people's house to trash . . . thanks for everything Arizona family!