After a lovely afternoon at the Grand Canyon, we continued down to Phoenix, Arizona, where we stayed with my mom's sister, Evelyn, and her family. They have the most beautiful home I've ever seen! It was even better than staying in a fancy hotel! We got there a little bit early on Friday night, so it was nice to just lounge around and talk for awhile. It's really warm in Arizona, so we were happy that Ashton finally got to wear his board shorts...they never fit him until now, when of course it's freezing in Utah... (Thanks Juline!)
Saturday was our big day. We spent the morning in downtown Phoenix, just exploring. We went and saw some ancient Indian ruins that were really cool! And they're right in the middle of downtown, so it was kind of wierd!
We've decided we really like all the neat cactuses (cactai?) that just grow in the wild. We've never seen them like that before!
After the ruins, we found out it was "free admission" day at the Science Center, so that was fun to explore. They had a weather simulator so that you could imagine you were in tornados and hurricanes and earthquakes and volcanos erupting...it was cool.
We also walked through some old Victorian houses that were very pretty. Tyler wanted to have lunch at one of the houses that was converted into an old-fashioned tea room, but we were sad to find it was closed for some work or something. Sad! That's okay, though, because we met up with Tyler's cousin Melissa at a really cool place called "My Big Fat Greek Restaurant." It was soooooo good!
Then it was time for...the surprise! I had no idea what it was, only that we needed to go back and change first because it required "cocktail attire." I was so confused, because I've never been to a cocktail party--I've never even had a cocktail--and I didn't know why we would drive all the way down to Arizona to go to one when we don't even drink alcohol! Once we were ready, we got in the car and drove...and this is where we ended up:
The Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts was just renovated and was having a big, fancy reopening gala. Many people far richer than us were already there, because they had paid thousands of dollars to attend the fundraising dinner beforehand. Obviously, we didn't! :) We did, however, eat at a very fancy "modern latin" restaurant called The Mission. It was SOOO good and SOOO fancy! We wanted to take a picture of our fancy food, but we figured that we would look like insane wackos.
Anyway, back to the gala...since we didn't attend the dinner, we got there just before the actual ceremony started. I was still wondering why we would come here for this random thing, but then we went in and I discovered that we were there to see none other than...
Now, many of you may have just said, "Huh?" So let me just sum it up by saying that she is a very famous Broadway performer, who also does TV and movies, and of whom Tyler and I are HUGE fans. So this was a GREAT surprise!!! She sang a whole concert, and even though she said she was sick, it was amazing! She's quite talented, to say the least. After the concert, we went to the stage door to try and meet her, but apparently she really was sick and didn't want to meet anyone...her car was pulled right up to the door, and there were security guards at the entrance to the alley so that nobody could sneak back and pester her and she could just make a quick getaway. Darn. But oh well, we just went back inside to enjoy the cocktail-cigar-dessert reception...and since we don't smoke or drink we made sure to eat our money's worth of fancy, delicious desserts! Yum!
As fast as it began, it was over, and we were on our way back home. We drove the entire way in one shot, which was not nearly so nice as splitting it up on the way down. But we did stop for a late dinner in Beaver, UT at a restaurant that was AMAZING--recommended by one of Tyler's coworkers. It was so so so yummy, so if you ever find yourself headed toward or through Beaver, let me know, and I'll tell you where it is! Even Ashton was amazed by the food.
Ha ha ha. Thanks for the great surprise, Tyler! (And thanks for joining us, Mom!)
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