Phoenix parties

We had a quick trip to Phoenix two weeks ago. It was especially quick for me; we booked my ticket before my work schedule changed, so it turned out that I could have gone earlier. I actually went to the airport early to see if I could get on an earlier flight. Apparently U.S. Air would have let me standby and possibly go early for free IF the earlier flight had been sold out. However, since there were available seats, making it convenient for everyone, they wanted to charge me for changing. I said no thanks.
We had two events while we were in Phoenix. Saturday was our friend Nicole's wedding. She and her husband Brian picked an interesting spot for the ceremony: we stood in a cave on the side of Camelback Mountain. We followed it up with food, games and dancing in her family's backyard. Good times.
The next day was our niece's second birthday party. There were lots more backyard games and a fiesta/southwest theme. Chelsey made the cake in the shape of a saguaro cactus. Lily got her own little smash cake in the shape of a barrel cactus. Chelsey used raw sugar to make it look like sand surrounded the cactus. Lily took to that and mostly ate the frosting and the sugar, ignoring the cake part. The joy of birthdays.
-Jason