phoenix fun

so you guys are probably wondering how we're adjusting to living in the desert, right? well it's been pretty great so far... june has been unseasonably cool (low 90's) so it's been very nice as far as weather goes. it still gets hot, but it's not unbearable. luckily, there are tons of splash pads here... the first time kai encountered one, she wasn't quite sure what to think


but as you can see from this photo, it didn't take long for her to figure out what you were supposed to do... get wet!


mom came out for a visit a couple of weeks ago and took kai swimming (she's a total water baby by the way... watch out michael phelps!)


and we spent an evening up in scottsdale... the fancy pants mall has a fancy pants play area for the kiddoes - seriously, the coolest playhouses i've ever seen!


and mom came with me to a MOPS playdate at another splash pad/park


kai's favorite word for a while was hot... which she kept saying as i pushed her in the swing


we've also been blessed to have an old friend from FBC Irving close by... Karen has watched Kai a few times (and even now as i'm updating the blog - much easier without a 16 month old climbing in and out of my lap!) her son Nicholas loves Kai and is so good with her!


she snapped this great pic of kai in the swing one evening when we had just moved here


we're so thankful for karen and brad and nick for their kindness... and it's nice to have someone to talk "texas" with!

last weekend we didn't have much to do, so we decided to go for a little road trip. Payson is a town about 75 miles north of our apartment... it's up in the mountains, so it's about 20 degrees cooler and one of shawn's coworkers actually commutes from there so we wanted to see what it was all about. it was a nice drive, but i can't imagine doing it twice a day!

here is red mountain... seriously about 5 minutes from shawn's office


about 15 minutes into the drive


and about 30 minutes


most of the drive is through Tonto Nat'l Forest and along the way is Saguaro Lake... we're planning on getting an annual pass so that we can go offroading and camping and boating and stuff of that nature...

when we arrived in payson, we were a little disappointed... wasn't much to it. we ate lunch at a little cafe


and turned around to head back to mesa, i did my best to get some good snap-shots of the mountains through the window in our moving vehicle...


can you believe this is like 45 minutes from my front door?


and this is even closer, although it does look a little more like it belongs in the desert


it was a nice alternative to house hunting and car shopping which has taken up much of our free time since we've been here.

well, that's all for now folks. consider this blog up to date! kai and i are heading to dallas tonight... and i'm going to the beach with the girls... so photos of that to come.

maybe if i'm bored (yeah right!) i'll post one about what a 16 month old is like through her mother's eyes. :-)