Arizona part 1

Our trip to Arizona has been in the works since we bought plane tickets last November.  We picked a good year to go since it has been such a cold spring.  Timothy was very pleased with the thought of shorts everyday!  Troy's Aunt Donna lives near Phoenix and was gracious enough to put up with our crew for a week.  It was fun to be in an actual house and neighborhood instead a hotel.  The kids had a yard to play in, a golf cart to cruise around in, and we even had dinner cooked for us!  And hopefully the life and energy we brought gave Troy's aunt a few days of entertainment!!

Teresa takes after me a bit and loves her sweatshirt.  I finally had to force her to take it off as she was getting hot.

Timothy and Teresa explore Donna's front yard--seeing cactus for the first time was fun.  A yard full of rocks was a whole new sight too.

We had some great weather for Arizona in May.  The first part of the week I think it was in the upper 80s to lower 90s which is nice and cool for their standards.  We spent our first morning at a park.  Playing on the play ground and watching birds and ducks.

We had hoped to go to a splash park in the afternoon, but none were open yet.  Summer season (which equals water stuff, does not begin until the end of May!)  So we found our way to another sort of playground in the afternoon.  It was pretty hot there, but the kids had fun climbing around.

To cool off we walked around the arcade a bit.  The kids did not actually play any games but they were rather amused by pretending to play.

After our dinner, we got into the habit of borrowing Donna's golf cart to ride around her neighborhood.  The kids loved it--especially the few times Troy drove us through some sprinklers on the golf course.  We drove around and checked out every one's landscaping and looked for cool cactus.

Timothy playing outside of Aunt Donna's house.  The kids both took to Donna very well.  To her she was just like another Grandma--and they love Grandmas!!

Another day we went to the zoo.  The kids were still a little tired from our late plane ride, but the zoo was still fun.

Timothy got to go on a camel ride.

There was a little splash area at the zoo that we stopped at.  Teresa really enjoyed splashing in the puddles.

And of course no trip to the zoo is complete without a ride on the carousel.

We took a drive up into the Superstition mountains to the town of Tortilla Flats.  It is called the smallest town with a population of 6...otherwise known as an old west tourist attraction!  The saloon had saddles for seats, but we had to go to the little store next door to get our ice cream. 

The drive up was very pretty with lots of winding roads for Troy to navigate.  We stopped at one overlook to get a view of a lake and the surrounding mountains.