Wow - what a week!!
Well we had a great time with our daughter and were sad to take her to the airport this morning.  She went home to a lot of snow, but at least she had 7 days of good weather here.  And the first ones, although rainy, did not require any shovelling.
We did a lot of shopping, eating and sightseeing!

 These are from South Mountain overlooking Phoenix.

 There is a lot of hiking trails and a nature centre at the bottom of the mountain as well.  We walked around and looked at all the cactus and bushes and what not. There were a lot of gambles quails and finches and some kind of a large ground squirrel.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we all enjoyed ourselves.

This is the football stadium in Phoenix. It is in the same complex as the Tanger Outlets and Jobbing arena  where we went to shop, eat and later watch a NHL game.

It was absolutely beautiful in this complex.  Many places to stop and eat and even a hotel and movie theatre.

 We loved this restaurant, they had over 300 kinds of beer and an amazing menu.  Kylie and Don had the "mac and cheese" and loved it so much we went to another of these restaurants near Scottsdale a few days later.

 Kylie, shopping! She is good at it.

Trying on jeans, she tried on lots of jeans!  Also Sketcher shoes and scrubs.  She went home with a suitcase that weighed 46 pounds.

 We shopped all afternoon and then went over to the hockey arena and walked around looking at the people and the nice shops and lights

 Oh ya and we had some Baskin Robbins.

She was getting crabby at me taking so many pictures - it is payback after she called us old.   Just because I have a sun visor and put a blanket on the couch to keep it clean does not make me old.  OK - maybe it does . . .

 This is a Coyote fan.  the coyote hat was so funny and there was an oil can or something in his mouth.  I think I might like to cheer for the Coyotes because all the fans go awooooo  (like a coyote) when they cheer and it is pretty entertaining and probably really fun too.

 It was a great game, tied 1 to 1 and Edmonton scored in overtime.

 these kids come out during the commercials and give it a quick shovel especially in the corners where they tear up the ice.

Now that's what I call some excellent rink food.  Frozen cheesecake, chocolate covered fruit on a skewer and an apple drizzled with caramel and nuts.  mmmm

 We went on a tour of a dairy farm, there were 10000 cows on this farm.  There is a sign in the main building and every time a calf is born they put it up on a sign.  They do it daily, when we got there for our 1 o'clock tour 13 calves had already been born that day.  I did not realize how big Holstein cows are.

I have been using the milk from this dairy since we got here.  It comes in a container that has a screw top lid and it is skim milk fortified with calcium and it is creamy like 2% - I only use it on cereal or for cooking but I really like it.

 These next pictures are from the abandoned gold mine.  They have turned it into shops and tours.  It is just past Apache Junction and in the superstition mountains.  I could go into these mountains every day.  It is absolutely beautiful here.

Then we drove on to Tortilla flats. Look at the water still running over the road from the rains.  First time I have seen any running water anywhere!

 We took in the farmers market in Gilbert.  It is my favorite farmers market so far.  There is lots going on and a lot of really unique products and food.

 This cute family was entertaining us all with their wonderful music and singing.

 If I was Kylie I would write - I love big balls and I cannot lie.

Look at these amazing decorations.  They are assorted plates and dishes that are bolted together.  I have also seen a similar idea made into bird feeders.  Kylie and I want to try doing this in the summer.

 Look at the cute little hummingbird!  We went to this park in Gilbert while we were there and walked around for an hour or two and enjoyed the day and the sights.  We saw a lot of water birds and a turtle as well as a lot of egrets (which really excited me a lot!)  there was also a heron.

Then . . .  we came back to the park and had a nice cool swim. It was a great day.  So great we did it the next day too!

 After our swim on this day we went to this easement the power company has made into a great nature area.  Luckily we got to show Kylie the peach faced love birds along with a lot of other birds.

 Including this little hummer

and some bunnies.

This is at the Desert Ridge shopping centre in Phoenix.  What a beautiful place.  There is even a huge fire place in the middle if it is a cool day.  There are tons of stores, even big ones like Target and Kohls.  I got a great pair of Capri's and a bird book and Kylie got some more scrubs and some little gifty items to take back home.  Don liked the lunch, the shopping not so much.  He was a pretty good sport about chauffeuring us around. Seriously, why can't men just enjoy shopping??  It was a great visit!