By The Time We Got to Phoenix,...

It's like this everyday in Phoenix.

Sun City. Did you know Phoenix has an average of 325 days of sunshine a year? It is also really, really hot in the summer, which should start any day now. Luckily, we went for Easter and it was super outside. We stayed at Sasha's Aunt Ruth's place which has a really great Brady Bunch kind of vibe, as did the whole neighborhood. Only all the folks walking around were absolutely NOT kiddos. Kinda more geriatric.

Greenest yard in the neighborhood.

This was Sergio's first trip to Arizona, and Sasha's second. We were easily impressed by things like the really cool cacti in Ruth's backyard, not to mention her amazing orange tree. Ruth even had an extra fridge set up with nothing but frozen fresh orange juice socked away. We even made orange juice popsickles! Yum.

Is "popsickle" spelled with a "k"?

Besides visiting Sasha's family, our main mission was shopping. Sasha's mom Kathe had already got the ball rolling with some excellent scouting work by finding the perfect perfectly-plain crib. Baby stuff in Mexico seems to range from "cheap and crummy" to "mad expensive (and crummy)." Since we're adding a new member to our household, we had the opportunity to take advantage of some free shipping courtesy of our employer so we stocked up while stateside. (In fact, the movers arrived at Ruth's place just today to pack it all up and the "layette" shipment should be here in a few weeks. Hooray for nesting!)

Anyway, we hit the ground running after landing in Phoenix and we were filling up shopping carts the very night we arrived. Within a span of about four hours that evening we loaded up Kathe's Corolla with stuff from IKEA, Babies R Us and Target -- and even managed to squeeze in a dinner break at In-n-Out Burger. God, we love America.

Naturally, we spent a lot of time in the car during this trip. And we never felt scared for our lives -- Sasha didn't hear Sergio curse at his fellow drivers even once!

Mom-to-be has quite the entourage.

The next day we test-drove strollers and cruised around Scottsdale's finest consignment stores. Sasha was in heaven, checking things off her list with glee.

Once the consumer binge was over, we decided to take in a few sights. On Sasha's last trip one of the highlights had been a tour of Taliesin West, the Frank Lloyd Wright residence. She also checked out the world-renowned Heard Museum of native american art and a very impressive desert botanical gardens.

Ooh, angular...

This trip, well, not so much on the learning. It was more big-box retailers, second-hand stores and this place called Mystery Castle, built south of the city by an eccentric transplanted Washingtonian. The dude built the entire place by hand over 15 years back in the 30s.

Seriously, check out that bump!
(and thanks to coworker Catalina for the hand-me-down pregnancy enhancing top!)

The original owner's daughter still lives in the place and likes to hang around while folks tour her pop's very kooky and inspiring house. She was like a hundred years old, making her only slightly older than the average tourist. The whole scene was very "outsider art-esque" with details ranging from windows fashioned out of old hubcap grills to a tea set that belonged to Winston Churchill's mother.

Not pictured: about one billion stuffed animals.

The view was great, and we loved the use of the discarded bricks that looked like caramels!

Downtown Phoenix over the left shoulder.

After poking around what Sasha's cousin Bryant described as his "dream house", we took a trip downtown to eat some pizza. After reading all about Pizzeria Bianco, we were keen to put its reputation as "the best pizza in the US" to the test. We arrived at 8 PM to a three hour wait. Yikes.


We toughed it out though and eventually we were all happily eating what truly was a delicious pizza pie. If you find yourself in Phoenix, definitely give this place a shot. It isn't your greasy take-out style pie (which is awesome too) but rather a super-thin chewy concoction where each element --sauce, cheese, crust---was perfectly fresh and perfectly delicious.



As for our other adventures, we didn't get in to the sold-out Cubs-White Sox Cactus League game, although there was a hilarious episode of Sergio and Bryant attempting to buy scalped tickets with a pregnant lady and two sexagenarians in the backseat. Instead we spent the rest of the time hanging out by the pool and had an Easter Day cookout.



It was a great trip, and it was super to have the chance to show-off Sasha's 7 months gone belly to her very excited Mom who had endless enthusiasm for talking about things like making your own baby food and the pros and cons of pacifiers. And if Sasha is any kind of responsible she will be drinking tons of milk and keeping her feet elevated -- that's the can't-fail advice passed along from her great Aunt Myrtle to Kathe and Ruth and look at the amazing kids they had!