Organ Pipe Cactus Nation Monument...

Lloyd and I had  a really hard time leaving Arizona.  The weather was so nice and the company was even better.  We decided to stay a few more days.  Ben took us to go hiking.  We stopped at this national monument on our way.  Ben taught us about all the different kinds of cacti.  There are so many.  I had no idea!  Organ pipe is one of the rarest and it only grows in select places.  

This is the Organ Pipe Cactus.

This was at the trail head to hike up to the arch.  Ben is Teaching Lloyd about some more cactus.  While we were hiking ben filled us in on what it is like to be on the Border Patrol.  He had some crazy stories.  He caught 20 plus immigrants by him self once.  Picture tracking and hiking at dusk.  Suddenly you looking up and seeing shadows of people surrounding you... Sounds intense!  Ben loves his job!

The beautiful arch.

Ben cut open one of the fruit from one of the cactus.  He said they are good when they are ripe, but this one wasn't ready to be eaten.

One more interesting fact.  Cactus have wood inside of them as their support structure.  They aren't all just mush inside.  when they die you can see.  They all have a different bone structure. some have long poles others have little holes...  

We decided not to take the girls and Ang with us.  It was a good thing, the trail got pretty rocky.  I fell three times.  :(

Lloyd on top of one of the arches.

The view from the top.

Jack was fearless!  He was not afraid to climb and go right to the edge.  He made me nervous.  He impress me with his mountain goat skills. :)  Sadie was also quite the climber.  She is still afraid of heights though.  She wouldn't go near the edge.  If she got close she would crawl close to the ground and whine.  poor thing.

Here is the king of the saguaro Cactus.  So pretty.  These are a lot more common.  They only grow a little taller a year.  This one could be hundreds of years old.

Our First Anniversary!!! Rocky Point Mexico

On the actual day of our anniversary (Jan. 3)  It was a Sunday.  I wanted to do something special for Lloyd since he planned our Honeymoon, this year it was my turn.  I tried to think of something that he loves... Boy stuff came to mind. Camping, four wheeling, fire... So I sneakily set up a tent on sunday morning (with his sister RaDaun's help)  ha ha I didn't know how to set up a tent.  I had gotten fire wood the night before, and also cooked hobo dinners... After church I told Lloyd that we should go on a four wheeler ride.  He agreed, and we drove right out to our tent.  Lloyd didn't know it was for us and drove right past it not recognizing it, saying, "someone is camping.?? Weird..."   I had to convince him to go back to the tent because it was for us.  He finally drove back over after four wheeling for a bit.  We had some nice hobo dinners and a fire (first time making those to).  I hear they are a big hit at boy scouts camp... :)  Lloyd was surprised, but felt bad he didn't do anything.  Next year we are just going to plan it together.    We didn't actually camp because it started to get pretty cold.

Lloyd Hugging a cactus he wanted to see what they felt like.   ha ha.  This was on our way down to Mexico.  We decided That we should go somewhere to celebrate our Anniversary.  I had never been to Mexico, except on our honeymoon... Where we stopped in Cozumel on our Caribbean cruise.  Lloyd said that wasn't real mexico and that I needed to experience it.  

Here we are crossing the border...

We stopped at the Friendly Dolphin Restaurant.  It was fun to speak spanish again.  

I ordered the house special, friendly dolphin style fish... ha ha i don't remember what it was called.

After eating at the Friendly Dolphin Restaurant we met a guy from inner Mexico.  He owned a bunch of businesses there.  He was very friendly.  He wanted to show us around.  Kind of weird, but he seemed harmless.  He took us to the richest neighborhood Las Conchas.  The houses were amazing!!!!

This store sums up mexico in one shot :)

This must be the reason that it is called "Rocky Point" :) so pretty! While we were there all the vendors kept trying to sell us bracelets and necklaces.  The average was about every 5 mins.  I assume it was because they don't get very much business in the winter... we were it.  We gave in and bought a few things.

We finally made it to the beach.  It was a little windy, but it didn't stop us from having fun.  In the summer this beach is jam packed, but we had it almost all to ourselves.

Lloyd braving it.  The water was pretty cold.  We didn't actually swim just got into about our hips.  Lloyd dared me to get in.  I didn't really think he would do it.

SO COLD!

We stayed there on the beach until sunset.

As the sun went down we walked a few feet to a condo and jumped in the pool.  The water was much warmer.  It felt like 90 degrees after being in the ocean.  :)

Halle was born!!! Arizona Fun!

Lloyd and I had the opportunity to go and stay with Ben and Angelina for two and a half weeks.  Halle was born on the 28th of December.  We went down to Ajo on January 4th.  We went down to help them out with the girls, and also to enjoy the amazing weather!!! It was almost in the 80's the whole time we were there.  I took this picture of Halle a week after we arrived down there.

 

Ben, Angelina and the Girls... Such a cute family.  I search all over town to find the right scenery and the right props.  I found this truck down the street from Ben and Ang's house.  I finally found the owner, he agreed to let me use his truck for the picture.  I had him drive it 10 miles out of town to the perfect scenery.  What a nice guy!

We passed Hoover Dam on our way to Arizona.  We were amazed at the bridge that they are building.  It is almost finished!

We went in to Phoenix for Ang's doctor appointment and Bens orthodontist appointment.  We made a day out of it.  We went to the movie Sherlock Holmes...  

After the movie we went to the park.  Lloyd thought he was so funny trying to get me wet.  You should have saw what happened after the picture was taken.  wha ha ha

Ben and Angelina at the park in Pheonix

Nya and Paisley walking some guys dog at the park.  They are not shy at all.

Once again Lloyd playing in the water.  He was teasing Paisley by getting really close and backing away.  She was giggeling, I can't say the same for me.

What a small world!!!!  The sister that trained me on the mission has a sister that lives in little AJO!  Jessy is from Uruguay.  She was a wonderful trainer.  I learned so much from her.  I knew her sister lived in the states, but I didn't know she lived in Ajo.  I ran into her mother in law at church and she mentioned Jessy after I told her that I served my mission in Chile.  We both got excited and then I met Cyndi Jessy's sister.  They are one in the same.  What a neat family.

Paisley had her second birthday while we were there.  She would say, "I'm TWO."  after a little coaching.  She is a little sunshine girl.  always smiling and laughing.  oh I miss her!!!

We had so much fun spending time with them.  Ang healed very quickly.  She is super women.  Nya is darling!  She is also quite the handful.  She loves going to school.  She is so smart! We were all on our toes.  Ben spent most of his time off working on his house.  He was able to get a lot done.  Lloyd helped him quite a bit.  They had some good male bonding time.  Halle is so sweet.  She slept through the night while we were there.  She is a really good baby.  Lloyd even held her a little bit.  We also spoke and sang in Church while we were down there.  Lloyd did a really good job.  I spoke a little to long.  ha ha.  The meeting went over by about 10 mins.  No one seemed to mind.  ha ha Whoopsie.