WOW, was it HOT!

If you thought southern California was hot, you ought to visit Arizona! We spent all of last week in Scottsdale, where the daily high was over 100. That was at least 10-15 degrees warmed than back home! We learned to tolerate it and spent almost all of our time by the pool.

R-E-L-A-X-I-N-G...

Perhaps the best part of the trip was the girls learning how to swim! By the end of the week, both girls were able to swim at least 15-20 feet by themselves. Mika learned how to take breaths in between but Marika refused to learn - so she learned how to hold her breath instead. Hey, whatever works, I guess!

This is "Goggle Girl". =) Neither girl will "look" in the water without their trusty goggles on.

Daddy Dude also participated in a cannonball contest at the pool. We are very pleased to report that he won a free marguerita as one of the top 5. =) I also got to show off my entomology smarts by capturing a tortured blue mud dauber and earning the awe of some terrified pool staff... =)

All in all, it was a very good vacation - we did a lot of relaxing! I spent the first 36 frantically scrapping for a Cropchocolate.com Chocolatier crop and managed to finish 5 challenges (out of 10 challenges). Did I win anything? Well, kind of. There was ONE challenge without a cash prize (credit at cropchocolate.com) and wouldn't you know it? I won THAT one (for my Iao Needle layout)! Once a month, they'll be featuring a Chocolatier on the CC blog and I'll be the FIRST. I was so pleased that I'd won and then I started to feel some panic. Such attention! What will I do?! *gulp*