la posada

This visit to this restored hotel along the western train route was an unexpected treat. They have really done a great job of restoring it and making it interesting to look around. The owners have art everywhere and that huge chess set was a treat for the boys. Those metal bunny stands (bottom right) were an original design of the architect Mary Colter and were so surprisingly modern! The petrified fountain (bottom left) is really beautiful.

winslow

Here we are standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight to see.... sing it!

walnut creek

There were such drastic changes in the foliage from desert to evergreen forest as we drove in Northern Arizona and changed altitude. Just a bit south there was an area called Walnut Creek Canyon with many cliff dwellings tucked into the cliffs.These guys are big fans of visitor's centers and especially the stuffie puppets, like that big fluffy raven.

wupatki

This may have been one of the more interesting National Park visits since so much of it has been restored. The coolest feature was the blowhole, which is very cool air coming up from a cave below (some of the year it is sucking air in). It really feels like an air conditioner blasting you (you can see the hole Keaton is standing over in the bottom right). They have discovered a whole schlew of these athletic courts throughout the region and they think teams traveled to play each other.

sunset crater volcano

It's not every day that you walk on a lava rock field. Sunset Crater was an interesting spot to see the changes in the terrain caused by the volcano so, so many years ago.

sedona

We had a chance to visit my parents college friends who wisely moved from Ohio to the Sedona area a couple years ago. The statues and fountains at Tlaquepaque are fun to see.

montezuma castle

We had a nice visit to the popular Montezuma's Castle on the way up to Sedona. All these cliff dwellings are really interesting.

bens bells

Visiting Ben's Bells studio almost 15 years after I'd meet my friends on the plaza every Friday after work to make bells.  It has really grown and expanded since then!

campus

These wildcats enjoyed walking around campus and getting some new A gear.

culinary dropout

We are big fans of this restaurant spot where we love being early birds before it gets crowded...then we play games as the sun sets.  I actually hooked the ring we thought was impossible three times!

bubbles

Real bubbles and bubbly cheese with cousin buddies - yay!

pima air 1

Pretty much can't get enough of this place and thanks to our membership we keep going back. This time it was fun to show the cousin buddies all the favorite spots to actually climb in the planes and play on the playground.

pima air 2

The fun space hangar and the guide that invited us to "visit the moon" and then takes our picture in front of their classroom mural.

desert museum

We were excited to get back to the Desert Museum with the whole cousin buddy gang. We find something new to explore everytime we go. This time we finally found the fossil dig site we'd remembered from a few years ago. The boys were so pumped to dig out the fossils they found.

blossoms

These cactus blossoms were putting on a show! The highlight was the big saucer (pink with yellow on the right) that only appears for one day and we caught it!

ear n wings

These ears and wings!

birthday boy

No shortage of birthday celebrating for this lucky duck! Oregano's pizza cookie, Amy's Donuts, and Guadalajara Grill complete with a silly foil hat ;)

easter brunch

We were so lucky to be invited up to Phoenix to join my sister at my brother in law's brother's home for Easter brunch. What a fun time for the kids with all sorts of fun games and a great egg hunt! They hid eggs everywhere, including inside shirt collars and pony tails ;) They even had a funny April Fools gag where the kids were supposed to see which ball flew the highest but it turned out their balls were glued to the little blower. It was so funny to see the kids surprised faces!

The hummus Liz imported from Ohio was so, so good (only foodies know to find the best hummus at gas stations in Ohio).  My sister's mother in law goes all out with the desserts and you wouldn't believe those cupcakes (stuffed with marshmallow creme) - and there is even a take home treat which was a chocolate box filled with candies! What a treat to see everyone too!

easter bunny

The Easter bunny was good to these guys! A new morpher and an animatronic Porg were big hits especially.

egg hunt

Hunting for eggs amongst the cactus! This round one hunt had eggs full of Disney pins which are all the rage around here since our trip to Disney.

egg dec

Egg decorating with so many colors and especially pretty greens and blues. We kept our dye around and even colored some rocks overnight ;)

cowboy bday

The birthday boy and the party people were excited to ride the vintage cars, carousel, train, and other fun stuff at Old Tucson Studios.  They have so many sets and shows.  J, as usual, was picked as a volunteer in the medicine man stagecoach show. He got to drum for dramatic effect ;)

cowboy donut

Keaton's birthday kicked off with an early celebration at Old Tucson Studios with some buddies and both sets of grandparents! Didn't ya know, that cowboys love giant donut birthday cakes?! Keaton saw this giant over 18 inch donut and it was his immediate request. There is only one donut shop in town that can pull off this biggie and we were so happy they could make it custom with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles.

good list

It's Keaton's birthday today!  More photos and fun stuff coming soon... but it's a good day for a good list.

We love swinging past the Saguaro National Park visitor center to take a look around (and pick up some new pins for our collection.).

The nicest people at the homeschool park day bring watermelon to share ;)

I've lost count of how many Oregano's pizza cookies we've enjoyed since we've been here. It's possible that we are able to dig down and clean that pan in less than two minutes.

desert museum

The boys beg to go to the desert museum (and any type of outdoor zoo/museum) and it was a beautiful day before the holiday, so I told them we could take a field trip to see the cactus blossoms and raptors. We got there just in time to get a great view of the Raptor Show from the middle deck. The Great Horned Owl comes right up to see us for a treat (He was really feeling fiesty towards my camera lens. The trainer actually had to block his view of it so that he'd move on.)  The boys were thrilled by this new climbing area we discovered (with little coves for the gila monster exhibit).