Arizona...days 1 and 2

 For Christmas, the girls all received plane tickets to Arizona to visit Grandpa and Grandma...and their cousins did too! We left on Thursday morning and had a direct flight to Mesa, AZ. Grandpa and Grandma met us at the airport and we had a fun four days in the sunshine! 

Our first stop was lunch at Riparian Preserve; we ate lunch, played on the playground and then went for a short walk. The kids were really struggling with the heat...they were desperate to change into shorts and couldn't quite figure out how to function in the warm sunshine!

 After lunch, we went to Auntie Donna's house. She lives about 20 minutes away from where Mom and Dad are camping and she graciously opened her house to us! After unloading our suitcases and relaxing for a few minutes, we headed out for an early dinner at Organ Stop Pizza. This pizza place has an incredible pipe organ, along with drums, trumpets, puppets, and lights (including a disco ball!) that all move along with the music. We had a lot of requests for the organist, and he played songs from movies like The Lion King, Moana, Frozen, Phantom of the Opera to 'Who Let the Dogs Out,' Bohemian Rhapsody, Battle Hymn of the Republic and many, many more! It was fascinating to watch him play!

The first night Annaliese and Elias spent the night with Grandpa and Grandma in their trailer and the rest of us made ourselves comfortable at Auntie Donna's. We wound down the evening with the first half of a movie (that we never ended up finishing!)

Day 2 was spent at the Phoenix Zoo...this was also part of their Christmas present!! It was a little bit overcast and the perfect temperature for walking around all day.

We watched this monkey stand up the black tube and then climb on top of it!

Pretending to be flamingos

We watched this bear climb all the way up this branch...it was trying to get to a bird that was perched right there where the bear is sniffing. Naturally, the bird flew away once the bear got close. And then we watched the bear climb back down...all the way slightly concerned that this swaying tree branch might not be able to hold the bear.

Annaliese, Elias and a huge rhinoceros

Huge turtles!

Everyone was pretty warm by the end of the day, so we took a quick swim in what was supposed to be the heated pool at Auntie Donna's. It was still quite chilly but the kids still had fun. We then headed over to the campground for dinner. It's amazing how cold it gets once the sun goes down!

Sunset in the desert.