Visiting Arizona

This is a guest post by Sarah Walter.

Aleah and Charlotte were best friends when both our families were stationed in DC. We have managed to maintain the friendship over miles and years. We currently live in Arizona, so we were happy to host the Blomshields as they pass through our beautiful adopted state.

Charlotte has been working on her sales pitch for Arizona so that we can be neighbors again. I kept telling her that it would never work because Chris certainly isn’t looking to live in the desert. But he did manage to locate a place to wingfoil! Lake Pleasant was very windy that day, and he got to practice his jumps all morning. I don’t think Charlotte sold him on moving here, but at least he got to see that visiting us wouldn’t be so bad.

The way into Regan’s heart was through the wild burro. We got to see a few of them roaming the park while Chris was out on the water. She and I got to take lots of long walks here, enjoying Arizona’s mild November temperatures and all the scenery.

The wild burro in Arizona are the offspring of abandoned burros that worked in the mines in the late 1800s. Our family has been eager to catch sight of them since moving here this summer, and we lucked out on the side of the road near Lake Pleasant.

The second biggest laugh was when Sarah tried to take a shortcut through a field of giant sticker burrs on the Agua Fria Trail in New River, AZ.

The kids had fun being silly, just like the good old days back in DC. The girls had lots of laughs, way too many s’mores, and — as always — matching outfits.