Spring Break Part 1: Welcome to Tucson

I'm FINALLY getting around to posting about the rest of our Spring Break trip to Arizona. It took me a while to organize all my pictures and decide which ones I wanted to post! :)

On Thursday (April 16--has it really been two weeks?) we drove to Tucson and met up with Grandpa Trout (Lee's dad) and Grammy Lo (Lee's step-mom). We had dinner at a beautiful restaurant (tried to eat outside, but Morgan wasn't having it with the bees...) and then listened to a musical group perform. I can't remember what their style of music is called (help me out, Lo?), but it was a western ho-down type music. I had been worried how the girls would do because it was a new style of music for them, it was unbelievably cold (are you sure we're in Arizona?), and it was WAY past their bedtime; but they actually did quite well. We had to leave at intermission, but that worked out okay because then Trout and Lo treated us to Gelatos (which I had never before heard of, but LOVED!) before we headed home to their house to call it a night.

Trout and Lo just finished building a beautiful house about 20 minutes outside of Tucson. You'll want to take a minute and check out the blog Lo kept as they built the home. I can't believe how much I loved it! And their view is amazing. Somehow I didn't realize there would be mountains in southern Arizona. Here is Morgan posing on their roof patio -- love the view!

Brynne somehow got it in her head that she was a little birdy. I kept waiting for her to hold still so I could take a picture of her on the patio; but, thankfully, Lo realized there were some great picture opportunities with her "flying" around and caught some fun in-action photos.

Perhaps one of the funniest things I saw while I was down there (look in Part 3 for another something funny...) was a boat Trout and Lo's neighbor was building. You have to click on this picture to get the full affect. Here I was in southern Arizona (where it finally warmed up to the 90s the day we left) and I find a huge boat. Is a flood coming?
Oh wait, yep...here's the flood... Quick -- everyone on the boat!

Spring Break Part 2: Desert Museum

On Friday, Lo took us to the Desert Museum. It was actually really more like a zoo. I kept being amazed at the animals we'd see because you don't even realize the exhibits are out there when you look -- it's all in natural habitat. Very amazing! Here is a picture of Morgan and Brynne with the javelina statues in front of the museum (admittedly taken on the way back out; hence, the souvenirs -- thanks Lo!)
Here's Morgan posing to show off the view from the museum. Beautiful! (The view and the girl!)

We got a picture of Brynne with the view also. Believe it or not the museum is behind her. All you can see is the desert with various plants, but there are all kinds of animals out there in enclosed natural habitats (see some pictures below).

The museum had brochures that the kids could take around with them. The brochures had pages on which you could get stamps of footprints from various animals as you walked around the museum The girls were very happy to discover a section on dinosaurs. They spent a good 15 minutes digging for dinosaur bones.

I got some pretty good pictures (in my own opinion) of some of the animals. I've included a few for you to see. The first one of the hummingbird in the nest was actually taken by Lo because I couldn't figure out how to turn off my flash.

We were at the museum for more than six hours (including a delicious lunch break) and still didn't see everything. The girls really wanted to go see the rest (and Brynne wanted to get all the prints in her book that she could), but I was having to take turns carrying them by then so we decided it was time to head home. I was very surprised that we had been there as long as we had. I really enjoyed the day there!

Spring Break Part 3: Tombstone and The O.K. Corral

Lee flew in really late Friday night. He was supposed to get in around dinnertime, but the winter storm in Denver held him up until almost midnight. Even with the major lack of sleep, he joined us for our fun activities on Saturday. We spent the day in Tombstone, which is popular for the shootout at the O.K. Corral. I will admit that I was not familiar with this part of history, but I am now quite fascinated with it after visiting the town.

The girls had lots of fun pretending to ride in the buggies.

Brynne even convinced Mommy and Daddy to join her for a quick picture on a buggy. :)Brynne also discovered a pony and discovered that Grammy Lo was willing to put in a few quarters for her to ride it.

It turns out Tombstone has other neat things (in addition to being known for the gun fight), including the world's largest rose bush. You can see it in the background of this picture -- Lee, Brynne, Lo, Morgan, and Trout.

We got a chance to ride on a stagecoach ride through town, which the girls loved. Here are Lee and Brynne peaking out the window of the stagecoach.

And here's another one of the stagecoach. If you look closely, you can see Morgan, Hilary & Lee.

We walked around the town a bit and found some fancy decorating. Too bad this potty wasn't available for public use...

...but never fear, we found Lee another place to go potty! :)

We had a really fun time in Tucson. We got to see lots of things and get to know a little about the area. Turns out I was pretty clueless (surprising, I know)! We're very grateful to Trout and Lo for taking us to all the fun places. Next time we'll have to make our visit a bit longer...

Lee was able to drive home to Utah with us on Sunday and Monday. We stayed the night on Sunday with my long-lost-friend Christine Shroeder Jensen. I really enjoyed visiting with her again! And it was lots of fun to get home and see some progress on our yard (see previous posts). It was a long trip, but one we definitely enjoyed. Now the only thing left is to get our bodies back on a regular schedule...