It's a Dry Heat

Emma, Mom and I returned from Phoenix yesterday.  The primary purpose of our visit was for my brother, Rob's,  Deacon Ordination Service at his church (Desert Palms Pres.) on Sunday (we're so proud of you Rob!)  Pretty much all our family made the trip for the event (unfortunately, Jason had to stay home and work).  Which also means there was some serious "redneckness" flying the friendly skies.  If only the Clampetts had ever boarded an airplane...

We left the church quickly--but here is what some of us looked like 

back at the house before lunch:

Other than the service, we had a great time in the Arizona "dry heat..."  and Emma played lots: 

To culture ourselves, we toured the Desert Botanical Gardens (I know, shocking) where they had a special exhibit by this guy:

That looked like this:

and this:

and then there were these: 

(dubbed "senior boobs" by Aunt Fifi):

and finally, "The Utters" (my name, not his...)

Besides the glass, there were lots of Cacti...

  

Tall ones:

Flowering ones:

And these:

Despite the inviting name, if approached these cacti shoot out their thorns.  OUCH!

Emma fit right in with all the other Asians touring the gardens that day:

Later that night, we ate at this place: (this is NOT a joke)

Finally, it wouldn't be a trip without a bargain, right?  Sunday night we (and I mean the entire family, sans Dad who boarded a flight earlier that day) headed to Sears to use my Aunt's friends and family discount.  Now, I haven't shopped at Sears for much other than appliances and electronics in years, but I was super impressed with their shoe department and mens' clothing.  They had some great sales--so head on over and check it out!  

I scored these New Balances, regularly priced for $54.99 for only $23.56!

Post Script:

A note about flying with Toddlers.  Many of you wonderful friends helped me so much with great ideas to entertain Emma on the plane.  Thank you Alexa for all your sweet goodies, stickers and DVD and thanks to Scarlett for the portable DVD player.  All were well used and a HUGE help.  

That said, I will NEVER attempt such long travel with a child that cannot sit still and cannot talk.  During the flight out there, I thought we must be stopping over in Gitmo where I was going to get a break.  But alas, we forged ahead.  I am, however, especially thankful to the Pilot who landed safely in Phoenix because had we crashed, I'm fairly certain no one else on the plane would have helped us to safety.  The return flight, albeit better (at least for 40 minutes of the 4 hours when Emma feel asleep on my right leg, causing my entire right side to go numb since I refused to move a muscle for fear she would wake up), was topped off when Emma stood up in her chair, leaned forward and pulled the woman's hair in the seat in front of her.  

No kidding.