Paradise Valley, AZ

Dennis and I went to Paradise Valley, Arizona (near Scottsdale area) for 4 days. We left Cora with Nana & Grandpa and she visited Honey & Papa Wolford while down there. It was a hard trip for us to take since we were leaving Cora, but we needed to do it and we had fun. I didn't sleep late, but I did get a massage on Saturday morning that was awesome....and it was almost 2 hours but felt like about 30 minutes. I could of had that all day long!
Here's some pictures of our room - it was gorgeous.

View from our room.

One of the views at the resort.

This was the mountain that was right by our resort.

Dennis needed a hat and we stopped at a store on the way to the desert...they didn't have your basic baseball caps...so this is what he ended up with. Everyone kept telling him that it was a nice hat and he looked so good in his new hat! He wore it the rest of the weekend! Ugh.

Heading out Sunday morning on our jeep excursion in the desert.

A jail for sale...

Our guide telling us everything we could ever want to know about cactus plants!

Pretty landscape pictures...it looks pretty, but it was HOT! I wasn't prepared to be hiking in the desert and had on my usual flip flops. Well the little ball cactus really likes my foam flip flops and I kept having to get the little things pryed out of my shoes!

Dennis in his goofy hat and his new walking stick from a dried up cactus.

I was playing with my camera...

Alicia texting in the shade of a cactus.

Speed Limit & No Shooting Sign

Richard broke the windshield before the trip barely started! He was folding up the seat so we could get out of the back and it hit just right and cracked the windshield! Oopsie.

The highways have neat decorations on the overpasses and such. We don't see TxDot doing anything like this around here!

View from the house where we had dinner on Sunday evening. It was spectacular!

Dennis and his goofy hat!

Sunday night sunset picture...

Sunday afternoon we went into town to pick up some souvenirs for the kids and stumbled upon a cute little rustic bar....Rusty Spur Saloon...we ended up buying stuff there! We also went back after dinner, it was a neat place. Music wasn't that great, but it was ok.

Dennis and I really liked it because they had shirts with our camping group name on it (All Jacked Up).

One of the many license plates on the wall....

We had a wonderful trip and Cora enjoyed staying with the grandparents. She started missing us by Sunday, but we called and talked to her so she perked up. She is struggling with a major case of separation anxiety with me, but other than that we all survived! She isn't much for letting me out of her sight. If I open the door she freaks out that I am leaving without her. I hope this doesn't last much longer....

UPDATE: Here are some pictures from Dennis's camera.

Dennis driving the 'purple minivan'. It was really almost dark pink or maroonish, but the guys were calling it purple.

Us on Saturday night - it was hot as hell, but this is the only red I brought and had to wear it to support my Red Raiders even though they lost.

Friday night we took a limo to the casino. It was interesting.