Aaaahhhh, the weekend!

We just had the nicest weekend. Dave had to work all day last Saturday, so his boss let him take a half-day Thursday, and he already had Friday off. Thursday we went to a huge nursery to get our landscaping plants for our backyard. I thought I was in heaven! I love plants and flowers, even if I'm not great at keeping them alive. We got a bunch of plants and two citrus trees. Thursday evening Dave started digging the tree holes and turning the dirt for the other planters. That's hard work in Arizona! We have this stuff called caliche that's basically clay and minerals that hardens into a rock-like substance. It's all over in the ground and extremely hard to dig. Dave hacked at the ground for an hour, got two huge blisters, and only dug about a foot in each tree hole. We'll finish that project this weekend. Friday morning we drove up to the Phoenix area. We had made arrangements to go to the temple but sadly it is closed for several weeks. Instead we went to a birthday party for some girls I used to nanny for when we lived in the Mesa area. It was great to catch up with their family and see how the kids are growing up. Than we drove to our old neighborhood to visit Stock, my good elderly friend across the street from where we used to live. Ellie and I used to visit with him almost every day while we were waiting for Dave to get home from school. It was great to catch up with him and he was really happy to see Ellie again. We spent that night with some of Dave's friends from school. Pete and his wife, Maria recently built a huge beautiful home right in front of the Superstition Mountains. We got the grand tour and enjoyed a great dinner and evening with them. Saturday we visited Dave's brother John and Rachel in Tempe. We got to go to this fantastic Thai restaurant with them which was great-we really miss having a Thai restaurant close by! After lunch we made the long drive home. Saturday night we all put out our Easter baskets. Early Sunday we opened our baskets and headed to church. Ellie looked so cute in her Easter dress and hat! Sunday afternoon we did an Easter egg hunt and dinner with some new friends here where we live. What a great weekend. I love spending time with friends and family!