We’re in Chandler, Arizona at the moment visiting with our daughter Jaelene and her family. Right now, Nina is teaching the three grandkids how to make balloon animals. They are having a very good time and lots of balloons are popping. Making these balloon animals takes a lot of patience during the learning phase for sure.

We’ll be here over the weekend, leaving on Tuesday morning (very early) to drive back north retracing out trip down.

We left Pocatello after Church on Sunday afternoon and drove down to Heather’s in North Salt Lake. It’s always a delightful visit at her house … except Danielle was definitely not feeling good while we were there. It seemed to be more of a cold than the flu, but who knows. So far Nina and I seem not to be infected (another balloon just popped and I jumped!). We did some shopping on Monday, that is after I drove back to Pocatello to pick up some meds I forgot to bring with me. That evening we attended the local high school’s presentation of West Side Story. Grandson Michael was in the chorus and he’s got some very smooth moves. They’re performing every night this week and the final presentation is next Monday evening. I’m sure he’ll be plenty tired when the musical is finally had it’s run!

Early Tuesday morning we headed south on I-15. It was almost a perfect day for driving. Absolutely no weather, partly sunny skies, and reasonably cool temperatures. Twelve and a half hours later we pulled into Jaelene’s driveway.

The Big Event … actually Two Big Events … are Colten’s 11th birthday next Monday (with a family party on Sunday afternoon) and Jaelene is running in a 5K race on Saturday morning. Hence the reason we’re here.

However, Arizona is still HOT. 97° today and warmer forecast for the next several days. Since it had already turned to winter in Pocatello, we’re finding the temperatures to be more than a bit uncomfortable. I think by the time we leave, we’ll find Pocatello to be plenty cold when we get home.

Today we spent a couple of hours at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. The native American exhibits were very interesting and I really enjoyed our time there. It would be worth a return visit for sure. We rode the light rail from Mesa to the museum and back. That was also a pleasant ride and there seemed to be good ridership as well.

Life is pretty dang good down here!