Arizona Trip January 2009

I am so far behind, and I know it! Things have been crazy since I got home, going from one thing to the next! Kaylee and I flew to Phoenix on January 15 to see all my siblings, except one. January 17 was the third anniversary of our mom's death, and I had a free ticket that needed to be used, so it seemed a good time to go. Traveling with Kaylee is a real trip, in more ways than one! She is a handful when having to be confined for a few hours. I got to the point where I just did what she said to avoid hurting her or disturbing the people around us. Well, at least I TRIED not to disturb the people around us! So, gummy worms and silly faces it was! What did we do before digital cameras? They are SO entertaining for small children and larger ones too! We have about a hundred of these pictures! We were met at the airport by my brother, Bob, and his new child, Coco. Coco was about 10 weeks old and had only been with them a couple of weeks. While we were in Phoenix, we did a LOT of shopping! Bob's wife, Renee' knows how to get us around town! I grew up in Phoenix, and one day while we were out I suddenly realized that I knew where we were. I started giving orders to Renee' and soon we were in front of the house where I grew up. Renee' warned me that we were not in a good part of town, and when I got out to take the picture made me leave the car door opened for a quick escape if we heard gun shots or anything. I only saw one police car in the 2 minutes we were in the neighborhood!There is now a garage where we once had a car port, but other than that, it hadn't changed too much. I also found my school where I went from about 4th grade-6th. I really can't even describe my feelings, these places were a part of my history, and Kaylee got to see them, but the memories were not good memories, but ones of a lot of pain and hard times. Before I could even recover, we were just down the road at the church where I grew up and was baptized. That brought memories of many people that loved us through some pretty rough days, and again I was reminded that the church is not a building, but people. On Sunday, all four of us that were in town went to church at my brother's church. I am pretty sure that God opened a window in Heaven and let mom look down. We had a great time together and loved being together. Kaylee flew home from Phoenix after the weekend, alone, and I stayed on. I prayed for the people on the plane with Kaylee! I wasn't there to keep her entertained! After a few more days there, Bob drove me to meet Donna, where I spent a few days in Kingman, just relaxing, and then flew home from Vegas. You already know THAT story!!!