Spring Break -- Surprise, AZ

Our Spring Break trip actually started the afternoon of Tuesday, April 14. The moment Morgan got home from school, we hopped in the car and started driving. We got to Mesquite, NV (where they have $25 hotel rooms) in plenty of time to watch "The Biggest Loser." Then we woke up the next morning and continued on our journey toward Arizona.


When I googled the directions to Arizona, I didn't realize our path would take us over the Hoover Dam. I was quite surprised. We found a spot to pull off and ask some unsuspecting stranger to take our picture with the dam. As amazing as the dam is, however, I'm perhaps more impressed by a bridge they are building above it so traffic can bypass the dam. You can see one side of it being built just above our heads -- it is super high in the air. I think I'd be too scared to drive on it! But I'm glad we got to drive on the dam while we had a chance. :)

The first real stop on our journey was to spend a day with my best friend from high school, Misty. (We actually became friends in 3rd grade.) Misty and her husband, Doug, adopted four children almost five years ago; and all our kids had a good time playing together Wednesday night (not to mention squirting water all over in the house and breaking one of Misty's lamps -- did I mention she's a very understanding friend?) Misty is an attorney for the city of Surprise, AZ; but she took Thursday off to entertain us while her kids were in school. Actually, she went a step above and beyond and took us to the local zoo. The girls loved it! Here's a picture of Misty and me at the zoo:

The best part of the zoo trip was seeing the lion. I wish I'd had my video camera available. We got to the lion right when he woke up. He yawned and stretched, took a few steps away from the fence, then turned back around and roared as he lunged toward the fence. It was quite intimidating, and I found myself hoping the fence was in good repair. The lion proceeded to do it a few more times -- turn away like you see in the picture, then turn around and lunge as he roared really loud (you can see Brynne covering her ears). :)

The super special treat of the day was feeding the giraffes. They have really long tongues and they stretch them out so people can put the treats on them. In this picture, Morgan had just deposited the treats, and the giraffe was getting ready to move that big long tongue back into his mouth just long enough to free his tongue for more goodies.

I think the thing the girls liked best, though, was the petting zoo. They had goats, lambs, ducks, etc. for the kids to pet. Brynne loved petting the animals and snuggling up to them (she literally hugged a few).

We really enjoyed our time in Surprise, AZ. (This one is for you, Dad -- Misty also showed us where the Angels have their baseball training camp!) We were sad we didn't have more time, but we were glad for the nice visit.

Stay tuned for information on our visit to Tucson to see Trout and Lo... :)

A Trip to the Zoo

I was trying to decide the best way to write about our summer adventures, and I decided to separate it into several different blogs. I figure it will be easier for people to sift through that way too. Our really long trip to/from Seattle was only a two week ordeal, but we were gone from home for five weeks, so it was really nice to get home. I had TONS of fun, but now I get to relax a bit (well, after I get my huge "to-do" list completed anyway...).

I really should have written this blog when I was at my mom's last month, but I didn't think of it. Before heading to Wyoming, we stopped at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City where we met up with my sister and her family. Then we stayed one night with her and went to the Ogden Tree House Museum the next day before actually driving to Rawlins. Now all of that seems so long ago, but here's a few cute pictures anyway. The first one is of Morgan with some of the giraffes.

And here are my girls with an elephant.
And finally, here's Brynne with a white alligator. Aren't you so glad I was here to identify all the animals for you! :)
Once we got to Rawlins, we were able to do some relaxing. The one adventure we did have was going on a one-night camp out to Martin's Cove with my parent's ward from church. It was really, really, really windy that night but the girls and I opted to sleep in the tent anyway. Thankfully the girls slept okay, but I hardly slept at all with the flapping of the tent walls. I kept waiting to blow away. The next morning I woke up to discover a tent that had actually started to come unstaked. There were three people in it and it was half blown over. I still can't figure out how they all stayed asleep in there... Anyway, I'm bummed we forgot a camera, but it was a fun time.

We were there for about three weeks before the real adventure began...

P.S. You'll have to click on "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page to see the rest of the posts about our vacation. :)