Visitors

Our good friends came to visit and stay with us, and I haven't laughed so hard and so often in a long time. I've missed them so much! I love their kids too, and we're sad their son couldn't come because he just started a post-college job and he has to be an adult. Their daughter chose to come see us for her college fall break, which makes me so happy. We've made lots of friends here in Arizona, but they're not the same as friends we have a long history with and lots in common, and who know and love our kids too. Their visit wasn't nearly long enough. Paige had to work lots, but Colby joined us for most of the activities.

We walked around downtown Phoenix.

I used to walk with Beth while our husbands played volleyball or pickleball, so of course we took longs walks around our neighborhood every morning while they were in town. Beth stopped often to examine the strange desert plants. She loved the saguaro cacti everywhere we went. Dan and Luke played pickleball. We let Kylie sleep in because it's her fall break from school. We went shopping and ate gelato.

We let them choose from many options of things to do, and they picked things they couldn't do anywhere else, like visit the Titan Missile Museum. 

Not far from the Titan Missile Museum, in the middle of nowhere, is an old iconic mission church called San Xavier. They really liked exploring this place and the southwest architecture that's so different from Minnesota.

We hiked a little for a good view of the valley. It's still very hot and in the 90s every day, which they couldn't believe. We tried not to be outside too much in the middle of the days.

They chose to see the Biosphere 2, and then we watched the bizarre documentary about it at our house after. We paid for an extra tour so we could see one of the "lungs" for the Biosphere 2. It was fascinating. 

We drove to the top of a mountain and it was 45 degrees, extremely windy, and absolutely freezing. We jumped out for pictures (Kylie was frozen) but ran back to the car fast and headed back down where it was a little warmer.

There's an amazing place halfway down the mountain where there are lots of rocks to run around and great views. It was beautiful watching the sunset and the moon come out in this spot. This was a favorite thing for everyone. We climbed all over taking pictures for a long time. I didn't get any with Beth in them, but I took lots of pictures with Kylie's phone, and Beth is in those. 

We stayed up late laughing and talking. Made lots of new memories. And then Kylie had to go back to school, and Luke and Beth hiked Camelback before they had to fly back to work. It was such a fun weekend and went too fast.