Saguaros and a Seventieth

When in Arizona...

...pose with a cactus (just like all the other tourists).

My dad (pictured below with his wife, Donna) recently reached the milestone age of 70:

(Not the best picture, I know, since his eyes are closed. Unfortunately, it's the only one I took of him this weekend. :( )

Most people consider the feat of reaching 70 quite commendable. My dad, however, doesn't. He is a former physics professor and a mathematician, and says that he was more proud of turning 64 because it is a "base 2" number and he's looking forward to turning 71 because it's a prime number. (Nerds find him highly amusing, myself included.)

Anyway, to celebrate him and his seven decades on earth, my sister, Suzanne, planned a weekend birthday extravaganza in which my family partook. It involved a lot of driving, a lot of food and a lot of cacti.

The first thing we did was almost run out of gas in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. That was great fun. There's no thrill quite like the one you feel when your "low fuel" light comes on and you haven't seen a man made structure for the past 70 miles. I'm still running on the adrenaline that my glands pumped out for that occurrence. A dentally challenged gas attendant never looked so beautiful to anyone, I'm sure, as Alvin looked to us as we happily forked over some cash for fuel.

Shortly afterward, we met up with my sister, her husband, Jai, and their twin boys, Jonathan and David:


Per my dad's request, we all went on a tour at the Frank Lloyd Wright museum of architecture. It wasn't as dull as you might think. It was actually quite interesting. Even the kids seemed to enjoy it...sort of.

Afterward, we lunched at a restaurant called, The Feed Bag. Yes, it was as charming as it sounds. :)

Next, we drove the Apache Trail up to the Roosevelt Dam. Arizona has an unusual beauty that is not quite captured in the following pictures:





We stopped in Tortilla Flats for some prickly pear ice cream. When we see a couple of suspended toilet seats, our first instinct is to tell our kids to go stick their faces in them for a photo shoot:


(We're classy like that.)

That night, Suzanne convinced Tobias to try on her new pink Snuggie. Thinking I'd horrify him at the sight of me with my camera in hand, I snuck up and aimed it at him. However, I was the surprised one, though I shouldn't have been. In true Tobias-form, he relished the moment and cheerfully posed his goofily bedecked body:


The next morning, we caught up over breakfast with our friends Smedly, Janet and their lovely quiver-full. An hour wasn't quite long enough, but it was better than nothing.


In Phoenix there are some amazing botanical gardens. Some of those crazy looking plants are quite fun to examine up close...but not too close:


Delaney and the twins found this cactus to be rather huggable:


This King Snake was somewhat cuddly as well:


We lunched on grilled veggies and hummus, though we weren't sure what about half of the veggies actually were. It's been 24 hours and none of us has sickened or dropped dead yet, so apparently they were edible:


(See what I mean?)

Jeff and the kids were determined to climb some rock formations like the one below:


I started feeling vertiginous about half way up. Uncontrollable leaning to the left or right while ascending one of these things is hardly advisable, so I watched (with clenched teeth) while the rest of my precious family reached the clouds. (I was very glad when that was over.)

Before we knew it, it was time to head home from our delightful desert getaway. Happy birthday, Dad. Welcome to the septuagenarian club!

In the car on the way home, Delaney learned how to tie her shoes...


...courtesy of the Colonel himself:


(Just kidding.)