Boyce Thomps Burritos

Jordan crossed off a bucket list item Saturday with his first ever visit to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum (which McKinley calls Boyce Thomps Burritos). The Arboretum is right off the road between the valley and his hometown and he always talks about unsuccessfully begging his Mom to stop on their many trips down here as a kid. He was totally deprived as a child ;) I haven't really been any more inclined to let him live out his childhood dream since it's an hour away and the whole desert landscape scene is still not my favorite. But, I was asked to speak at our stake youth conference this year (which was TOTALLY awesome and humbling and scary haha!), which was held just down the road from the Arboretum on a Saturday morning. So I rode up with another leader and Jordan and the kids picked me up after my presentation for an afternoon at the Arboretum.

I have to eat crow on this one because we loved it!!! It was beautiful, not at all what I was expecting! There was so much to see and such an incredible variety. The trails were great and it was just the perfect way to spend a beautiful day!! We loved it so much we bought an annual membership! I think we'll be spending many fall and spring days up here, much to Jordan's delight :)

A rare family photo

An Ocotillo tree. There was so much variety we decided to take pictures of all our favorite plants. Everyone liked this one

This is my favorite type of cacti (who would've EVER thought I would have a favorite type of cacti?!) I discovered this beauty last year while hiking in the San Tan Mountains and I think it's so cool. It looks so fuzzy and inviting but I can tell you from experience that it is anything but fuzzy and inviting! Those quills are sharp and long! I just think it's such an interesting adaptation that it looks so harmless but in reality is really dangerous. I think there's a gospel lesson somewhere in there ...

We brought the stroller not knowing what to expect but this boy did great hiking the trails

We all agreed this cactus looked like a person

The trail with a natural tree arch

There was a whole section devoted to plants and trees from Australia! How random is that?!

This is a gum tree, and it is AMAZING! It's tough to tell from this picture but you'll see in the next one that these things are HUUUUUUUGE!!

I kinda love this boy. He's very into kisses lately

I also love this guy ... he's a rockstar Dad!!

A close-up of my furry cactus!! Each of those little "hairs" is actually a very sharp needle!

We all thought this one looked like Mickey Mouse

A Bonzi tree

They had a fun children's section devoted to the five senses. This one was all about all the colors you can see in nature. By this point we were all pretty worn out so we didn't spend much time here but I think this will be our first stop next time!