Operation: Snowbird

We had a great time this past week and a half in Arizona. Even though I started off the trip quite ill, I recovered quickly- praise God!
We started our visit with Jon, Amie, and Haylie in Phoenix...

"Step, step, step!"

The girls- Jaime, Lori, Miriam, Haylie, and Amie
(Thanks for the great pics, Amie!)

...then we picked up Miriam (my sister-in-law) and headed to Safford on Friday. It was a beautiful 3 and 1/2 hour drive- desert fields, cacti, and towering rocks. A little over halfway we took a break in Miami (yep, in Arizona) and could feel a definite drop in temperature from Phoenix (which was about 60 degrees).

It was pretty chilly all week, but Gr'pa Jeff & Gr'ma Claudia's house was plenty warm with all the weekend's festivities and food... did I mention food? Sam's brothers (Gabe & Peter), sister (Miriam), sister-in-law (Atsuko), Gr'pa and Gr'ma Coons, Gr'ma McNeely, Uncle Tim and Aunt Jennie came down for an early Christmas get together. It was fun to see Lori interact with everyone- she seemed to really enjoy all the attention. Here's a video of her newest cute-ism:

Auntie M and Great Aunt Jennie helping Lori with her dinner. Lori kept blowing through her bites and flinging her food onto those within range, causing both Aunties to delay the process due to histarics!

Lori has learned to sit much more consistently over this past week
"Sit up, Big Girl!"

On Monday, Peter and Miriam left at 12am for the airport. When Grandpa and Sam returned from the drive, they rested up a bit then we then headed out to Tombstone to experience the wild west...

Okay, so maybe not so wild anymore.

Daddy is teaching the important things to Lori, like eating Pizza.

At dusk, we took a stroll through the local graveyard (Boothill)...

and I met up with an old relative (?)

We took a drive up Mount Graham, by Sam's parents' house, on Christmas morning. It was quite chilly up there! Sam and Grandpa got a little stuck in the snow, so we turned around and headed back home. Later that day the thermometer dropped in Safford to 33F and it started to snow! So much for escaping the winter weather! The next morning there was about a half an inch on the ground, but the roads were nice and clear. Gabe and Atsuko drove us back to Phoenix for our flight home.
We had a great time and will miss everyone. Thank you for a wonderful and relaxing trip!