desert botanical gardens

All you have to do is listen to the words coming out of my mouth these days to prove that I am, in fact, an insane person. 

I casually say things like, "Want to come sit on the porch with me tonight? It's only 88 degrees out."

"Let's go on a hike now that we're down to 103 in the afternoons."

"It's finally cool enough to take Claire to the playground first thing in the morning without the playground equipment burning her skin!"

"Doesn't it feel so nice this morning? Only 90 degrees, and it's not even 8:00am yet!"

We took advantage of these "comparatively cool temperatures" to sneak in a quick trip to the Desert Botanical Gardens over the weekend. Lately, if we go somewhere as a family, all the stars have to perfectly align. Naptimes, school schedules, church meeting schedules, and group projects have to be timed perfectly. We almost didn't make it there this weekend, but I'm sure glad we did, because the gardens were so gorgeous. These might just be my new favorite pictures.

We opted to skip the official entrance (and the official entrance fee) and just walked around the groomed gardens surrounding the area.

^^"When you say come be in a picture with you, you really mean giggle and squirm away from you, right mom?"

^^Lately, Claire makes this really sad face and tries not to cry whenever daddy leaves in the mornings. It's halfway cute and halfway the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen.

^^Remember the flowering cactus I was trying to make in this post? This is what it was supposed to look like. Can you see the resemblance now? Just say yes.

^^Now I'm convinced that I need a succulent wall in my future home. A succulent wall and a swimming pool and a huge photography staging room and my own personal large balcony. I don't think that's too much to ask. 

^^I love this little face, so much.

A tip for my local friends: At almost all of the Phoenix-area libraries, you can check out a cultural pass to get admission to the main garden for free! Two adults free, all children free under the age of 3, and you can use it any time within a week of checking it out. I just checked with my local library today, and they currently have 5 passes checked in, so now I'm trying to convince my new mom friends to bring their kids and make it a playdate.

It was 102 degrees when we went, and we made it a good 15 minutes before we started feeling like we needed to find an air-conditioned room immediately, so I'm taking that as a good sign! That or a sign that I truly am one of those insane Arizona people. ;)