Phoenix

Jared goes to Phoenix a couple of times a year to moonlight this time we decided to make it a family trip and we came along. We got in Friday morning early and just hung out that day. I wanted to go to this candy store that I have seen other bloggers talk about and it sounded magical and fun. Yea it was totally lame. It is basically a kiosk in a mall and yes it did have some cool candy that you can't by at normal stores but besides that it was so dumb. We did let Kai pick out one treat. She picked out this blue sucker. She shared some with Kean, he clearly really liked it!! That night we met up with our dear friends from New York Kris and Jamie West and their 6 kids. We left the kiddos with their oldest and went to dinner and a movie. Dinner was awesome, Oregano's. We ordered their guacatony for an appetizer and that it pretty much all I ate. It was sooo cute!!! I have been craving it ever since. Then we went to a movie. It was pretty late and we were on Texas time and I had not slept well the two nights previous so I was exhausted and took a nice nap for the first 20 minutes of the movie. Thank fully the kids slept in the next morning so we were all able to get some good sleep!

The next day we headed up to Sedona with the West family. It was so beautiful and felt like a Moab and Park City combined!! First stop was to see Bell rock and see who can walk across the railing!

Kean practiced on the big part first!!

Kris and Kai take a break half way through!

Here goes Jamie!

The kiddos, all 3 of them with Bell rock in the back. I guess I just don't have the vision because it looks nothing like a bell to me!

Then we headed up to church rock or chapel rock? I can't remember the name but it was a church that was built into a rock. It was cool, the scenery around it was beautiful.

The West Clan: Samantha, Mariah, Gabriella( who Kai called Abby and quickly became he good friend), Jamie, Olivia, Joshua, Jacob and Kris!

We seem really small compared to the Wests.

Kean walking with Daddy down the hill!

Then we headed over to this fun place that had a rock slide. It was fun but it was later in the day and starting to get cold and the water temp was in the 50's so it was really cold. Of course that didn't stop this crazy girl from getting wet and playing!

The river goes right by this awesome natural seating area. It was cool!

Jared and Kai were the first to brave the cold water and rock slide.

I still can't believe she didn't cry or freak out since it was so cold. She is definitely more her Daddy's daughter!

Brrrr!!

It is too bad it was so cold because it would have  been so fun to do it and being able to play more!

This kid was freezing, even without getting wet so I grabbed Daddy's shirt and wrapped him up in it, he was much happier!!

Olivia wanted to go. Jamie thought for sure Kris would not do it because he hates cold water but he did it!!

Their faces pretty much sum up everything!!

Oh Poor Olivia, she will probably never want to get in there again!

Samantha and Mariah are such good helpers with the little ones.

Jared and Kris trying to cross the river!

Happy Boy!

The girls sit in the sun to warm up!

Jared, Kris and Josh contemplate going down.

Kai and Bre had so much fun together. Kai kept asking to go to her new friends house whenever we weren't around them! She was sad that she didn't get to say goodbye to her.

The boys decide to brave it!!

Here we go!

Kris and Jared's faces are hilarious!

Meanwhile Kean practiced his rock climbing skills!

And his dancing skills!

Then we went to get some dinner. We settled on the food court, the view was awesome. We love these guys so much and miss seeing them! They just signed into a practice in St. George and have been trying to talk us into going there as well.

 Sunday Morning we went to see the temple before heading to church. It had such beautiful grounds and flowers all around it. We got a good laugh from see these flowers since they are the exact same ones we had randomly growing in our front flower bed. Jared didn't like them but I thought they were pretty, apparently so does the gardener of the temple grounds!!

Of course we had to take our photos for Kai's temple wall. It is growing every year!

Two Cuties!

This piece of wood was really cool. I can't remember the story behind it but it was a cool story!

Kean just wanted to walk and climb all over everything!

He loves to practice walking up and down stairs!

The flowers were all so beautiful!!

These Cactus were crazy!!! It was fun to see such big cacti. Pretty sure Kai had never seen a cactus before!!

The front of the temple!

Let me in!!

Kean was enthralled by the duck swimming in the water!

I love his cute little body!!

Sunday night we hung out with the West's at their house. It was fun to just hang out with friends all day long!!

Monday, Jared had to work in the morning. I went to visit two of my friends. My dear friend Megann from high school. It was so fun to meet her two cute little kiddos. One she is adopting and one she birthed they are only a few months apart! She is one busy momma but she is so happy. My other friend Natalie was my roommate at Utah Sate and at in SLC she is a riot and so much fun. It was awesome to see her and her kiddos and husband. 

That night we went to this awesome train park. It had a really fun playground and a train and other stuff but those were all closed by the time we got there. It was just so nice to go to park. I miss that so much.

The sea saw was a big hit for Kai until she went too far forward and hit her face.

McKean was loving it and running so fast I couldn't even get a non blurry photo of him!!

Playing around with different setting on my camera!

The next day we were going to go the this awesome children's art museum but I woke up that night super sick. So annoying because I had just had the flu two weeks earlier and then I got it again two weeks after this trip. So strange!!

The kids and I flew home that day so we cold go help Andrea with her new little baby Bradley that was born that afternoon. I was so not excited to fly by myself with the two kiddos being sick but I took some Zofran and felt so much better immediately!!

All in all in was an awesome trip, I was sad to leave and I loved Phoenix, I was expecting it to be ugly and hot but it was beautiful and not too hot.