Arizona Trip

Dawson on the plane ride out there.  My iPad was great at keeping him occupied.

  This post has been very delayed.   I have been very busy and when I do have time to blog, I have been having issues with Blogger and downloading pictures.  Better late than never, and I am finally getting around to posting about our Arizona trip.  We went to Arizona on September 15th.  We had originally wanted to go to New York to see Joey's family.  Sadly, once we factored in hotel, car rental, and airfare it wasn't in our budget.  Since Joey already took the time off work, we decided to go to Arizona.  He found really cheap tickets and we have a house to stay out down there for free.  My parents were also able to come along too.
     As usual, we had an amazing time.  We flew in on Joey's birthday.  It also happens to be my Grandma's birthday.  We were able to go out for a birthday dinner for the two of them and it was so nice getting to spend my Grandma's birthday with her.  My parents offered to babysit for us Saturday night so Joey and I could do something for his birthday.  We ended up at the Yard House at the Fashion Square Mall.  We had a great time people watching in Scottsdale.  It was a nice night out.
     We usually go down there in the winter or spring months.  I have never been down there in September.  We were all a little surprised by how hot it still was.  It was about 104 degrees each day.  Luckily, the mornings were cooler and I was able to go for a run in the morning if I got up very early.  Despite the weather, we still loved it down there. 
     The rest of the trip was spent eating great food, shopping, sightseeing, and spending time with my Grandma.  We don't get to see my Grandma very often, so we always really enjoy the chance to catch up with her and spend time with her.
     We also went to the Children's Museum for the first time while we were there.  The kids had a great time and we will definitely be adding it to our list of things to do while in the area.  The neatest thing about the museum is that it is in an old elementary school building.  It was so neat.  When you first walked in, there was this huge tree like structure that you can climb through and explore.  Since both of my kids are monkeys, they had a blast.  There was so much to do and explore at this museum.
    We were there for 4 1/2 days, but as usual our time flew by and no one was ready to go home.  But, the wonderful thing about Arizona is we know that we will be back soon!  

We usually eat at this golf course that has an amazing patio.  We always love the scenery.

Best buds

Checking out the ducks at the golf course

Here is part of the tree that you can climb on.  It was unlike anything I had ever seen before.

In the flying bathtub

Here we are again

As usual, Dawson impressed me with his climbing skills.

He loved riding the bikes

Taking the bikes through the bike wash

The kids loved this.  It consisted of tubes that you could put scarves in and it would blow them out.

Here was one of the side staircases that we went up.  You can definitely vision how a school that was once here.

 

Picture of the front of the school.

Ashlyn measuring beans

Pretending to shop

Dawson pretending to drive a pickle car

Ashlyn making us ice cream

They couldn't get enough climbing in the tree.

  

After the kid's museum we tried Pizzeria Bianco, it was voted the best pizza in America at one point. It did not disappoint.

 Another thing that we stumbled on that we hadn't to before was this fountain.  There is a really nice outdoor shopping mall near where my Grandma lives.  They have this amazing fountain area for kids to splash in.  The kids loved it.  They liked it so well we went twice.  We definitely will be going back there many times.  It was the perfect place for them to play and cool off at the same time. 

at the fountain

Ashlyn showing Dawson around

Dawson and Mommy

We always go to this farm restaurant our last night.  The food is wonderful and it's on a working farm.  It's a great spot to let the kids run around and take pictures.  Unfortunately, we didn't get that good of pictures because their was a photographer taking family pictures there that night.  We still did get some shots. 

 

This is from Joey's phone.

Having a great time!

Super Dawson!!!

 

Coming home.