Saguaro National Park

Since Emily had to go to work on Wednesday, we decided to take a drive to visit her at Saguaro National Park. She was actually working in the fee booth that afternoon, so we got in for free!

We did not get out and hike, but took in most of the sights from the van. There is a one way loop that you can drive around with pullouts to see various viewpoints. Here are some of the fun sights that we saw while we were there:

Teddy-bear cholla. NOT soft and cuddly, no matter how soft and fuzzy they look.

This is a prickly pear cactus with orange spikes. Now you know why it is called prickly, right?

Of course our favorite part was looking at all the saguaros. The boys had a great time counting to see how many arms they had. We saw one saguaro that had 15 arms! That is pretty incredible when you consider that it can take them up to 75 years to develop an arm!

We also got to show the boys what happens when a saguaro dies:

I love saguaros. They are so iconic and are definitely one of my favorite features of the desert landscape.

Joe was kind enough to stop the van for me a few times so I could take pictures of the interesting landscapes and plants.

This is my favorite saguaro picture. There is a little cactus wren perched on top of the saguaro and you can see all of the holes that have been dug out of the saguaro.

The boys thought it was really fun to see Aunt Emily at work, even if it was only for a minute. Doesn't she look great in her uniform?

Later that evening we played a little Wii on Grandpa's TV. We had to take turns since we only have two controllers, but it was a lot of fun. Grandpa was holding Amelia, and she fell asleep on him! Poor, tired girl!

I had to snap a picture because it was so sweet. Amelia loves her Grandpas.

Speaking of which, here is a picture of Amelia with another Grandpa... her Great-Grandpa Sabey. This was taken one of the evenings that he came over to visit.

Even though we stayed at Grandpa Sabey's house, we spent most of our time at the Devereaux's so he had to come over to visit with us!