Rest of Arizona trip

So as I mentioned in my first post, my phone was lost/stolen a couple of weeks ago so I lost nearly all of the photos I had taken on my phone.  Which is super sad.  Especially for the second half of the trip.  Because I took quite a few photos on my camera the first couple of days...and then after that nearly all of the photos were taken with my phone.  Michelle took a few on her phone and I had texted a few photos to Alfredo so I have those.  But that's about it.

On Friday, we left Flagstaff and headed toward Phoenix.  On the way, we stopped to visit Montezuma's Castle.  It's pretty cool, although it's not as grand as I remember it being as a child.  Probably because my kids and I have seen other cliff dwellings since then.  And you can't get very close and the whole national monument is pretty small.  But it is still pretty amazing and was worth the stop.

 After the stop at Montezuma's Castle, we continued on to Phoenix where we stopped at the Phoenix Temple and walked around the grounds.  It's beautiful!  And I loved seeing the saguaro cactus surrounding the grounds...there's something majestic about saguaros, I think.  Their ability to survive, even thrive, in harsh conditions and how they stretch toward the sky, reminding us to look up.  I had Michelle take a nice photo of me next to a saguaro, with the Phoenix Temple behind me...but alas the photo is gone.

 On Friday evening, my mom, my girls and I went to the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Temple.   Our seats weren't very good, but the pageant was wonderful.  The Mesa Temple is closing soon for renovations so they won't have the Easter pageant for at least a couple of years...and my parents are moving up to Utah in May, so this really might be our only chance to go.  I'm glad we did.  It's a beautiful rendition of the life of Christ.  I felt the spirit strongly at several points and feel such gratitude for my Savior.

On Saturday, we watched Saturday morning session of Conference.  That was very special to be part of the solemn assembly.   Then I met two of my high school friends, Kara and Kerie, for lunch.  We had a wonderful time eating lunch and visiting.  It's been several years since I have seen them, so I really enjoyed the opportunity to catch up.

Then I hurried home to see the afternoon session of conference.

Saturday night the girls and I drove to Gilbert.  We walked around the outside of the grounds of the Gilbert Temple, played at a park for awhile, and then met my friend/college roommate Jenny and her daughter Amie at Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert.  The food was yummy and the company was even better.  It was so fun to visit with Jenny and her daughter who is Michelle's age.  We talked for a couple of hours and I would have loved to stay longer.

On Sunday, we watched conference, spent time with my Mom and Mike, played many rounds of Boggle and several rounds of Tri-ominoes.  And just enjoyed our time together before we headed back to UT on Monday. It was a really lovely spring break!