Hot Town, Summer in the City (or AZ)

Because it's been so hot here, Lucy and I decided to beat the heat and head to Arizona for the weekend! While I sound sarcastic, there's actual truth to my words. I felt more cool all weekend in the AZ airconditioning and swimming pools than I've felt all week in our hot California apartment. Go figure?
My cousin Rachael and her little family moved to Gilbert, AZ recently and so it was time for a housewarming party. Woohoo! Parties are fun. Rachael and Brennan had everyone over for the weekend and were the best hosts. We had cozy rooms to sleep in, all sorts of great food, and they were kind enough to make a million trips to the airport to pick up everyone.
Here they are with Meredith and Adrian (and little Savanna).
Rachael did a fabulous job decorating their house. It looks so great. I love all the colors. And it makes me want to live in our house :) (which is the exact same floor plan as theirs).
The colors are a little off in my pics from the indoor lighting/flash. But you get the picture. Here's the family room: The kitchen (with the cute green bar stools)
Our favorite, Savanna's cute bedroom. Adorable wallpaper:
Now don't get me wrong, it was definitely hot there. So we had to go swimming and they took us to the best pool in Chandler! It was like a mini Raging Waters with all sorts of slides, water fountains, swings, a whirlpool, and a lazy river. Here we are being lazy in the river.
Meredith was a water mule
That night, we partied it up and had a yummy bbq with burgers, salads, fruit, and all the other good stuff. Lucy discovered that empty soda cans make for great toys. Thankfully they were Dr. Pepper cans. She's learning early, the drink of choice.Some of the food spread
Here are Camille and Karis at the bbq. We also went to a little party over at Karis' house for Kate's birthday on Friday. It was a room full of 6 year old girls getting pedicures and dancing to "High School Musical 2" songs. And Lucy jumped right in the mix. I don't have any pictures, but she was dancing right along with all of them. Really cute. On Sunday, we went to church at Rachael/Brennan's ward, which starts at 8am. Yikes, that's early. And then Uncle Craig and Dawna had everyone over to their house for Sunday dinner. Check out this room of people. There's another table of people behind my camera too. And this is just half of the family that will be at Craig's for Thanksgiving dinner. The family is growing!
The hosts of the dinner, and Karen getting credit as "kitchen help".
Mmmmmm. Pot Roast, potatoes, gravy, and homemade rolls. It almost was like Thanksgiving (only the bowl of potatoes would be twice that size, if you can imagine).
And I just love this picture of the little kids in the backyard. All the blonde hair reminds me of many pictures we have from when we were all kids, hanging out at Granner's for the summer.

It was a very fun weekend. And best of all, we chose to fly! So our little getaway was even more enjoyable. It was Lucy's first time on a plane and she did great. Of course, it's such a short flight that I can't imagine her getting too crazy. The airline lost my bag on the way home, but it wasn't too much of a hassle. They found it a couple hours later and since we were headed in that direction, we picked it up ourselves at Burbank airport and got a $50 voucher to use on my next flight. Woohoo!
Casey stayed home for the weekend and hung out with all his guy friends for their Fantasy Football draft. Yes, football is upon us. So he had boys weekend in LA, playing golf, football on the sand, and eating at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. So it was a fun Labor Day for eveyrone.

We hope you had a great one too!