If you ask our kids, they can all tell you that we are really good at doing nothing for spring break. The neighbors may go to Europe and DisneyWorld, but we stay home and do nothing while Mom stresses out. 🙂

But THIS year, Josh saved us all from the traditional boredom and we went on a super fun trip to Arizona!

This grand adventure began with a simple, honest love … of cactus! In February, we went to St. George to visit my brother Tanner and his wife Becca and we saw some cool cactus specimens that Josh really enjoyed. And then he came home and found a book about cactus and other desert plants at the library. (Have I ever mentioned to you how much I LOVE being part of the Salt Lake County Library system?! It is seriously the best!) Anyway, the real cacti, plus the pictures in the book sparked in Josh the need to get out and see a BUNCH of cacti. So he started dreaming up this spring break trip to Arizona. I must confess that I find it really cool that Josh was/is so excited about cacti, and that now all our kids are equally excited and much more educated about cacti!

We headed out on our adventure on Sunday, right after church. We drove as far as Las Vegas that night and stopped to eat and sleep (also to drive through the exciting lights on The Strip). The next morning, we headed out again and drove all the way to Scottsdale. The kids made sure we had some fun along the way, like taking advantage of this western sculpture situation at a gas station. ⬆️

Before we could check in to our AirBnB, we hit up hole-in-the-rock. Josh assured me that he and I had gone there before when we were in Arizona in 2021 for a couple’s trip, but I had absolutely no recollection of doing it. Then when we arrived and especially as we started up the trail I remembered everything and admitted that I was way wrong. This time, I made sure to get photographic evidence so I could remember. 🙂

I love Helen’s face in this one! 😂

When we did check in, the kids all knew EXACTLY what they wanted to do. Our place had a pool in the back yard and, despite the fact that the water was FREEZING and it wasn’t all that warm of a day, the kids spent 3 solid hours swimming their hearts out!

And they spent just about every free minute we would allow them in that pool!

The next day we spent all in Scottsdale. We started the day at the Railroad Park. Everyone enjoyed the themed playgrounds, the carousel, the mini train ride, the big retired 1930s train, and the model train museum! After that we went home for lunch and (you guessed it) swimming. This time only 2 hours. Once everybody had been persuaded to vacate the water, we got dressed and went to “The Boardwalk.” There were some cool things we might have done there–like the aquarium or alien experience thingy–but we didn’t have a ton of time, so mostly we just looked at stuff and got some unique candies from the fun candy store. There was also this rad Cinderella carriage we had to document!

The reason that we didn’t have a ton of time to spend at the Boardwalk was because we had very exciting dinner plans!

We went to Medieval Times! I had heard about this place in the past, but didn’t know much. But when Josh was perusing available attractions in Scottsdale and this one came up, I was super excited to try it out! It was spontaneous and unlike anything we usually do on vacation (or at home, for that matter)! And, it didn’t disappoint!

I don’t know how much anybody reading this knows about Medieval Times, but here’s the gist: You buy a ticket for a banquet and competition. When you enter, you are seated in stadium style banquet tables according to the color of crown you are wearing (we were red). Then you get introduced to a King and Queen who have invited you to this banquet as a celebration of their newly made alliance between six distinct groups (not quite kingdoms, I think, but a lot of the “plot” went over my head). Our server informed us that as red-crown-wearers in the red section, we would be rooting for the Red Knight. We were also somewhat instructed on how to cheer on our knight and his comrades (Yellow Knight and Black and White Knight) and to “Boo!!” our knight’s major opponents (Blue Knight, Red and Yellow Knight, and Green Knight). Then we got to see all the knights march around with their squires, practice throwing their lances, etc. We also saw a remarkably trained horse doing some really cool things, as well as a beautiful falcon. All this was in conjunction with our feast! We had soup and bread, followed by half a chicken, corn on the cob, and a seasoned baked potato, and then an eclair for dessert!

Then the tournament began where different combinations of two knights would joust against each other (my personal favorite part) followed by some exciting sword combat. It worked elimination style until only two knights remained. We cheered on our Red Knight with all our hearts through the whole tournament and were elated when he turned out to be the ultimate victor of it all! I know that us being put in the red section was completely arbitrary, but I still felt immense pride when “we” won the whole tournament!

And then, as if our delight at the experience needed any help, we got another very exciting honor! After the Red Knight triumphed over all his foes, he had the choice of all the fair maidens in the red section to select as his “Queen of Love and Beauty.” Josh worked hard to make sure that the knight could see Helen standing on his lap when the search began. The knight came right up to our row and saw Helen along with Portia right next to her and said “Let’s do both of them!” It was such a memorable moment for our two little queens!

I told the kids, as we left, that our experience that night was too perfect to be just chance. I feel like we were blessed (for who knows why) to have had such a fantastic time!

Sorry that was long. But I want to remember the whole thing!

The next day, Wednesday, was our long awaited trip to Saguaro National Park! We had a bit of a drive over to the east side of Tuscon, but the kids were so excited to see cactus that they were honestly quite well behaved for the extra driving.

We went on a mile-ish long hike where we met the several types of cactus that frequent the Sonoran Desert. We saw saguaros, prickly-pears, teddy-bears (Do. Not. Touch.), barrel cactus, jumping cholla, Ocatillo (I know them as “the ones with the orange blossoms”, and Staghorn Cholla (what Fay called “strawberry cactus).” Those are at least the ones I really took note of. And it was really fun to have learned about them on the hike, because for the rest of our time driving and hiking through the park we kept seeing the same ones and recognizing them, almost as old cactus friends!

As we looked out over the desert from the car, I was struck by just how ALIVE the whole place is! It was almost like woods, but instead of trees, it was cacti of all varieties and sizes.

We loved seeing how tall the saguaros got! When we were climbing over the Javelina Rocks and Fay was way on top of a big mountain of rocks, she noted that she was still not as tall as the saguaro right next to her rock stack! Those things are seriously SO big!!!

Another fun thing about going to Saguaro National Park was that Portia got us in for free! When we pulled up to the gate, ready to pay, the guy asked if we had anybody with life long disabilities. I had heard that diabetes qualified you for a lifelong National Parks pass, but we hadn’t brought anything from the girls’ doctor to “prove” their condition, so we thought we would be out of luck. But when we (probably too excitedly) informed him that we had two Type 1 Diabetics, he just handed us a sheet for Portia to sign saying that she COULD have a doctor provide documents citing that she does indeed have a lifelong disability. Portia signed her paper, and then signed her very own card that will let her into any National Park for free for the rest of her life! Thanks for saving us $25, Portia!

I think it will be fun for Portia to take her own family to national parks for free some day and show them her sweet little 9-year-old signature on her official card.

After enjoying the cactus wonderland, we headed back into Tuscon to visit their zoo! We only made it for the last hour, but we still got to see a lot because it was not busy. I guess it wasn’t spring break for people in Arizona.

Something I really loved about this zoo was that most of the animals were awake and active. I don’t know if it was because this zoo is way different from others, or because we didn’t go in the morning like we usually do for zoos, or maybe because the zoo was closing and that means they were all about to be fed; but whatever the reason, it was super fun to see the animals moving around and doing stuff.

I don’t know what was in this exhibit, but this picture had all my favorite people in it. 🙂

How do rhinos lift their heads?! They are SO BIG!

Despite that peacock’s best efforts, those peahens were NOT impressed.

After the zoo, we went over to a place in Tuscon called “The Garden of Gethsemane.” We read that it was a statue garden depicting scenes of the Savior. I was expecting it to be something like the life of Christ statue garden at Ashton Gardens (which is majestic and beautiful, by the way) and I thought it would be a special thing to go see, especially since it’s Eastertime. We were disappointed that it was so small (and I personally was disappointed that one statue showed Jesus still lying in the tomb, rather than being resurrected), but it wasn’t a bad experience. I think it’s always good to think about Jesus.

Apparently Bianca felt like this picture needed some attitude. 😬

Then we called it a day, and went home to eat and go to bed. The kids didn’t swim this day. But they survived.

Our last full day was Thursday. We started the morning with a trip to The Idea Museum in Mesa. It is a children’s museum that has a strong focus on arts and crafts, and all around creativity. Our kids LOVED it! We spent 3 hours there and they could have very happily stayed another hour. Our family does quite a lot of arts and crafts type stuff, but this place had so many fun things that I have never thought or heard of before. It was a highlight of the trip for me! If any of you are ever taking a young family to the Phoenix area, I would HIGHLY recommend this be one of your stops!

Carter worked so hard on that car! And he was apparently rewarded for his efforts; because he reported that a lady stopped to get photographic evidence of his impressive masterpiece to show her family, because otherwise they would never believe he actually made something that sophisticated on his own.

After that, we went back to the house for lunch and, of course, some more swimming! I finally ventured into the water on this last day. But only the hot-tub! The frigid pool did not appeal to me.

After swimming, we hung out in Old Town Scottsdale for a while. I think it would have been more fun if we had been there earlier in the day. By that time–around 6:00–most of the kid friendly gift shop places had closed and there was mostly “adult” entertainment available. So, we didn’t spend long.

Josh’s sister, Lacey sent us an Instagram reel about yummy food in Scottsdale. (Thanks Lacey!!) We had mostly made our own food at the house during the trip, but we wanted to try one more thing we couldn’t get in Riverton before we left. So we went to a place called Lamp Pizza for dinner. It was fancy wood fired personal size pizza, and everybody got happily full there!

But there was another place from the reel that we wanted to try, so we went there too! It was called Jo Jo’s Shake Bar. Scottsdale isn’t the only place you can get this, but Riverton is NOT a place you can get it, so we’re happy we went! It was delicious, but the presentation was my personal favorite thing about it. Also, it is in this super swanky part of town that made me feel fancy (and maybe a little like an imposter) just walking there. Maybe someday when I’m rich and famous I’ll frequent places like that and feel exclusively fancy and NOT like an imposter.

Look at that thing! Isn’t it just so beautiful?!

And then, with our stomachs aching merrily, we went home for our last sleep in Scottsdale.

Friday, we had thought to stop in St. George at Tanner and Becca’s for the night (they were very kind and had agreed to let us stay again), but we changed our minds and decided to just go straight home. It turns out that 10+ hours in the car is hard on everybody, not just the kids, and by the time we got home I was So. Done. and didn’t say a word to Josh all night. (Sorry, Babe! I really do love you!) But waking up at home on Saturday morning with nowhere to drive was really really nice. So, it was worth it!

We had such a dream of a time on this trip! Thank goodness for Josh and cactus-dreams come true!