My lovely sister

My cute younger sister, Sarah, came to stay with us the past few days - She gets major props for driving with me all the way from Utah on Saturday so that I wouldn't have to make the trek alone. Thank you!! She then stayed through Wednesday afternoon and flew back home. We were very busy while she was here and had a lot of fun! She also did all the dishes during her entire stay... now that she's gone I guess I'll have to do my own dishes... bummer. In addition to the pics below, we also watched a couple movies (New Moon - out on DVD- yay! and Fantastic Mr. Fox), played Rock Band, celebrated Jake's birthday, and ate lots of food. :)

After being gone in Utah for a week, Ben (and I) were glad to be back together again... these are our welcome home flowers :)
Walk and Park














Hiking






Desert Botanical Garden

They had a great butterfly exhibit going on so we were sure to check it out. We loved it!




















They had a "desert detective" activity for kids to do, so as we traveled through the many gardens, Emma was keeping her eyes peeled for things to mark off on her list... at the end she got to pick out a little toy


We came across this huge snake as we turned the corner on one of the paths... it seriously freaked me out as it slithered across in front of us! Sarah was the brave one and got a bit closer to check it out... eek! This is real desert out here folks and sometimes it freaks me out! ;)



The Egg Tree...




Decorating Easter Eggs






Grillin'

Sarah cooked us some seriously delicious steak and vegetable kebabs one evening. mmmm. There's nothing better than eating a yummy dinner that somebody else made :)
Our favorite store...


The kids definitely love their Aunt Sarah and we were sad to to have to say goodbye at the aiport.... we hope to see her again soon!