How I spent my spring vacation

Just back from Rio Verde, Ariz., where I visited sister Mary Catherine "Chats" Miller Northrup and her husband, Michael Northrup. The desert was in glorious bloom. A few snapshots, many of them taken at the really cool Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. (More photos from the Arizona trip are in subsequent posts.)

At the entrance to the botanical garden. We visited at the perfect time. The desert blooms in April and early May, and it's not yet unbearably hot, just nice and hot.

This one was in the butterfly garden area, scaring the children.

But seriously ... the cacti were gorgeously abloom. Here's a kind of prickly pear cactus.

This, too, is a kind of bloom.

More prickly pear, this one with yellow blooms.

Barrel cacti. I tried to get Chats to sit on one for a photo, but as always, she was too smart for me.

A pink bloom. I think this was a beaver-tail cactus.

A blooming cactus with fishhook spines. They'll keep the riffraff away.

Who knew there were so many kinds of cactus?

Pastor Cathy liked the organ pipe cacti.

Cathy thought this windy-bindy cactus was creepy, but I liked it.

A very cool sundial in the park's courtyard.

Not cacti at all, but Dale Chihuly sculptures. At night, they light the place up, and these glass artworks glow beautifully.

Lots of little lizards in the garden. This one posed nicely for us.

Beep beep! A roadrunner.

 Hello! Do you like my hat? I do! I do like that hat!

Also visited old friends (and former Minnesotans) David Bowers and Jeff Rezab, who live in Sun Lakes, south of Phoenix. They're as wonderful as ever.

A visit to Taliesin West

While I was visiting sister Chats and her hubby, Michael, in Rio Verde, Ariz., we toured nearby Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's haven in the desert.

Sistahs Cathy and Pam before our tour.

Frank created Taliesin West to be "organic" with the desert, which is to say he used natural materials and tried to build in harmony with the desert mountain he loved. Architectural students still live and study there.

We loved what he'd done with the place.

By the pool, which Frank used not to swim in but to soak the canvases he used for roof segments.

One of Wright's famous sprites outside his living room. Chats and I got to sit in the chairs he designed in that room, but no photos were allowed inside.

Our tour group contained one baby, who I thought was very sweet. But when he burbled, some in our group frowned, so his mother took him outside. I think Frank would have been charmed at the beautiful image she and he presented as they rested in the shade.

One of Frank's students sculpted this cool maid. Chats whispered rather loudly that she was "probably his lover." The tour guide referred to Frank as "Mr. Wright" throughout, which made us roll our eyes.

Another cool sculpture on the grounds.

Frank got it right. It was a pretty cool place. Visit if you get a chance, those of you cousins who get to the Phoenix area occasionally.

Desert wind

The wind in the palm trees near Cathy and Michael's house in Rio Verde, Ariz.

Chats' church in Rio Verde, Ariz.

Cathy is pastor of Community Church of the Verdes near their new home in Rio Verde, Ariz. Some snapshots from the church:

The front of the church. There is also a beautiful small chapel and memorial garden nearby.

Chats in her church. (Looking toward the front of the church.)

Chats in her church. (Looking toward the back of the church.)

The Rev. Dr. Mary Catherine Miller Northrup, Esq., in her church office. She'll always be "Chats" to us!

Among Cathy's duties are fire chaplain. Here's' part of the outfit!

Really, really nice stained glass in the church.

The burning bush is an apt image for a church set in the fiery desert.

A church member carved this beautiful Noah's ark.

Chats and Michael's new home in Rio Verde, Ariz.

A few photos of Cathy and Michael's home in the northern Phoenix area community of Rio Verde, Ariz., for those cousins who may not get a chance to go visit them. Beautiful place, with a golf course and many wilderness areas nearby.

The front entrance to their two-bedroom, two-bathroom home on Poco Rio Drive. No lawn mowing in Arizona!

Chats, Michael and Sophie in their back yard, which Michael beautifully restored. They have two very large saguaro cacti, which were in bloom during my visit.

Part of their back yard.

Chats with her very sweet dogs, Knoxie and Sophie.

Knoxie may look intimidating, but she's the world's sweetest dog. A tad arthritic at age 14. Like every dog Chats and Michael have ever had, she's a rescue dog. Her sweet personality bears no echo of her brutalization as a puppy.

Chats on their back patio with the puppers.

The living room.

Inside the front entrance.

Looking from the living room toward the kitchen and master bedroom.

Noah, the working man

My No. 1 son, Noah Miller Johnson, who graduated from the University of Minnesota last May and now lives and works full-time in south Minneapolis, has traded Jerry Garcia (of the Grateful Dead)  for Don Draper (of "Mad Men") when it comes to cultural fashion influences. A few recent photos of the handsome young fella:

Those scamps, the Miller kids

Chris and Mary recently took the kids on a Caribbean cruise, the lucky scamps. Elizabeth accepted a kiss from a seal in Mexico, but Avamarie made it clear she was having none of that!

Happy Birthday to Avamarie Miller, who turned 4 on April 9! This was before she and siblings Zack, Moriah, Hannah and Elizabeth dived into a delicious cake.

Some sweet photos we stole from Cindy's Facebook page

Cindy with darlin' baby LaMont "Monty" Leiser.

Tanya and Monty with their glamorous mom in the 1980s.

Tanya and Monty with their great-grandparents, Edwin and Margaret LaMont.