First Three days . . .

As I type, I am sitting out in the beautiful dark night of Arizona. (And I mean dark, they don't believe in lots of streets lights because it hinders your view of the stars. How cool!?! )The pool is to my right, the fireplace is sitting on my left and the dessert mountain is sitting directly in front of me. Life is good. Very good at the moment. :0)

Rick and I have had a wonderful trip so far. Let me start at the beginning -

We flew out of Charleston on Friday evening, had a small lay-over in Houston (my first time in Texas!)and finally landed in Phoenix around 11:30 local time. By the time we got our rental car, and discovered that even a McDonalds in Arizona serves unsweet tea with 10 splendas,drove 45 minutes to our family/friends home it was 1 am local - 3 am WV time! I was beat and not very with it!

Saturday we spent visiting and getting to know our host family. Raquel is the sister of Rick's Aunt April. I have never met her or her family - Rick had only meet her once. They have a gorgeous home! And are very friendly, love to talk and feed us!
:0)
We finally got motivated and left the house around 2 pm and went shopping at an outlet mall. Rick found some dress pants, I drank a yogurt/fruit smoothie and Rick had some pretzel bites.
From there we headed to the a place called Rawhide. It is a real life western town with cowboys, guns, burros and beer. It was free to enter the town and some of the activities cost money. We paid to see the Arizona Roughriders do a little gig and then just walked around. I bought some John Wayne magnets in the gift shop that I can't wait to put up on my fridge!
We meet Raquel and Maurell for dinner at a place called Flo's. It is VERY similar to P.F. Changs but a local place. It was real yummy food!
We came home and asked if we could light a fire and sit outside on the deck. We did and it was FREEZING! It was only 62 degrees but we had on our coats and toboggans! Deserts temps do not compare to WV temps!

Sunday we attended church with our host family and then headed to the Phoenix Zoo. Rick and I have never been to a zoo together so I was super excited! We saw lots of cool animals and walked a ton! I can't really say what was my favorite exhibit. They had a GIGANTIC tortuous that was pretty cool, but I also like the lions, giraffes, koalas, zebras, etc. :0)
Our host family's 14 year son has been in a play all weekend and we attended the afternoon performance. It was "Guys and Dolls Jr" and they did a great job! It was kids ages 7-14 only and I was very impressed.
Now we are just chilling out at the house. I am typing this and listening to my Jack Johnson songs while Rick takes a night hike up the mountain. This trip has been wonderful so far and I can't wait to see the Grand Canyon, Vegas, Hoover Dam, and Salt Lake City - all in the next 8 days!