AZ Cousins

I am a fairly spontaneous person by nature. I can't say that I play on this characteristic a lot, but I do have a history of making sudden plans.  So, it was no surprise to my brother when I sent him the text saying, "I'm coming down in 2 weeks. K?" He took a few days off work and we got to just hang out and enjoy the AZ lifestyle. And it lived up to it's HOT HOT HOT stereotype. OOo-Whee.

We escaped the heat by heading over to their community swimming pool most days. Cameron was really timid around the splash pad at first, this being his first time. But, before long he was walking right through the shooting water like a toddler. Oh be still my mother's heart; it was darling! I still can't get him to love the swimming pool, but he sure loved that splash pad. He learned the word swimming while we were visiting - and that was beyond darling when he would repeat it back to us when we told him that is what we were doing.

 Lesley did great and planned several things for us to do during our visit.  I suggested that we go to the newest Arizona construction site. To my surprise, they are almost done, so there wasn't much to see other than the missing landscaping. But, we took a short gander, giving a little personal thanks for the blessing of having temples on the earth today. (to learn more about LDS temples, click here)

 I was really lovin' that Cameron got to hang out with his cousins. He and his cousin Spencer are only a few days apart, so the closeness in their relationship is really important to me. It took Cameron a couple days to get comfortable playing with the boys, but by the end of our trip, he loved chasing around the house with them and playing without my immediate supervision. Glorious.

 Lesley did a great job satisfying my History loving heart. She planned a whole day in Phoenix to visit a few museums and just enjoy the city. Sadly, the first museum/old house was closed for the annual refurbishment. (boo) so we headed over to the second stop - the Arizona State History Museum; free of charge-bonus! Sadly, we got there just as it was closing so only got to run through a few of the exhibits. Some highlights included a piece of the USS Arizona from  Pearl Harbor, items from the French Peace Train, and a replicated Senate house where the Arizona constitution was drafted. The boys ran around like children would in a museum, which was a damper on the read-every-plaque part of me. That and my son is a whopping 30 lbs, so carrying him around is a bit of a work out. Whew!

 I loved that I got to go and see my brother. He and I have always had a great relationship, and I'm lucky to have him in my family. The boys are darling, and I must capitalize on their newfound friendship while it is still fresh - I guess that means another trip very soon.

P.S. Dear Lesley - I suppose you'll be wanting some of these photos. I'll need to be getting them to you right quick so you can scrapbook them away with your renewed scrapping skills! Done and done.