Rise From the Ashes

We made it to Phoenix! About 900 miles and many, many, many hour is the car, we are here. My wonderful mom flew to Denver just to help me and the kids and our little blue car make it the whole way while Christian drove the truck. The kids had so much fun with Grandma and were pretty devastated to tell her goodbye this morning. We have now lived here a full day and it's been a pretty good day. We've even already had our first visitors, my cousin and his cute family passing through from Yuma. I'm planning on posting some picture of our trip, but right I can't find the right cord, so for now you're just going to get 10 interesting facts about Phoenix and Arizona. Enjoy.

1. According to legend, Phoenix gets its name from Cambridge-educated pioneer Darrell Duppa, who saw the ruins and prehistoric canals of the Hohokam and believed another civilization would rise from the ashes. Isn't that beautiful? Harry Potter fans, don't you love that?

2. Phoenix's elevation is 1,117 feet. Denver's is 5430. The kids have a bunch of 'ball pit' balls that we like to throw in the pack-and-play. They all imploded on the decent and look a little more like cubes than balls.

 3. The highest low temperature recorded in Phoenix was 96 °F (36 °C), which occurred on July 15, 2003.

4.  Phoenix does not observe daylight saving time, as decided by Arizona Governor Jack Williams in 1973. Thank you Jack!!!

5. It's not unusual to have 100 days in a row with temperatures over 100 degrees. At least for the first time the last 4 years we have an air conditioner where we live!

6. From Phoenix, you only have to drive 4 hours West to get to a beach or 4 hours North for skiing.

7. It is illegal to hunt camels in the state of Arizona. The story behind this is really interesting. Apparently in 1856, the U.S. army imported camels with the intent of forming a Camel Corps. In the beginning it was a success, but the Civil war put them out of business. After the war, many were used for mining, but caused a lot of trouble, so many people tried to eliminate them.

8. Arizona has more boats per capita than any other state in the nation.

9. Arizona became a state in 1912, and is known as the “Nation’s Valentine”, because it joined the union on February 14th. It was the 48th state, followed only by Hawaii and Alaska.

10. The bola tie is the official state neckwear. I'm curious how many other states have 'state neckwear'.