::phoenix::

Just a quick rundown of Phoenix activities.
Kris did lots of learning all day and Max and I got to play.
We swam and swam. In fact I was too busy swimming to get any good swimming pictures. When it's 110 outside, you've got to stay cool somehow, and swimming worked out well for us. In fact Max made huge strides in his swimming while we were there. The pool didn't have much shallow end, so I was keeping a tight eye on him. He was following Kris around the pool on a floaty. Then Kris took off fast across the deep end and Max, wearing his mask and snorkel, took off after him. He was completely without any flotation! I was stressed out but he swam perfectly and made it to the edge without even realizing he was really swimming on his own. After that it was like something clicked and he was all over the pool. By the time we were done he was swimming so confidently. It was amazing.
So that was the swimming.

In the afternoon Max and I went to a huge outlet mall in Tempe. Phoenix basically has anyplace you could ever dream of shopping--that's a chain.
Of course Max had to ride the carousel immediately.

He got the weird cool mer-horse. He's also wearing the sunglasses they gave out at the hotel pool. He wore them everywhere that day and felt very awesome.
We went to the Disney Store for some PJs and a cool shirt or two. (We don't have a Disney Store in Santa Fe!)

We went to the Carters Outlet and Max very cutely helped me pick out a bunch of baby clothes. We tried to go neutral, but I have to say we did pick out a couple of things that weren't neutral at all. We'll have to just see what needs to be taken back! (We don't have any Carters in NM at all. Boo Hoo.)
We went to Gap and got Kris work shirts.
Then we were tired tired. Max spied the Rainforest Cafe, and since I knew he would love it we stopped in for some (yucky tasting)ice water and to share a dessert. Who knew that the dessert would be bigger than Max. We barely made it halfway through.

It didn't really matter about the food though, because we were enjoying the animatronics and the fake thunder storms too much.

We had In-N-Out Burger for lunch both days, mmmmmmm.
We had a big Rainforest Cafe dinner on saturday night, to please the Max. Max and I went to a movie.
We went to sacrament meeting in Gilbert in our friends' humongous ward. We had dinner with the same friends that night. So fun!

I'm going to leave out the part about how I scratched somebody's car in the parking lot. I'm also not going to post pictures of my feet swollen up to the size of Montana. I'm not posting about the air conditioner in the hotel that barely worked, even though I had the thermostat put down to 50 degrees.
But really those were the only bummers.
We had lots of fun otherwise, besides the CRAZY HEAT!
At least we got to get away from the responsibilities and just hang out.
There you go, there's the report. Good thing I had my phone along to take photos since I didn't break out the big camera once!

(oh, and these are our new monkeys for the office. They scream when you squeeze their bellies. Yes they're very cute, and yes the kids love them. Including Max!)