'zona

Since we weren't able to visit Mitch's family for Christmas, we decided to head out after the peak travel rush subsided (not to mention the cold weather, too!) to visit the Valley of the Sun. It turned out to be excellent timing! The weather was perfect-not too cold, and definitely not too hot.

And the best part was getting to spend some time relaxing with the Seavey's! There's quite a lot of pictures, so bear with me. I decided to post as digi pages, and not a huge slide show...'cause I'm really not a big fan of slide shows.

The two little ones. We got to meet little Reina (Mitch's sister, Lynn's baby girl) for the very first time. She's just 3 months older than Jolee-and so petite! I think Jolee weighed more than her...But then again, Jolee is quite a chunker. They often just stared, and stared at each other whenever we put them next to one another. And, they're both thumb suckers, too!

Kela and Anna LOVED hangin' out with their cousin, Kai. He fits right in between them age-wise (although he's a tad taller than Kela!) and they were best buds from the get-go! All three of them were inseparable every minute of the day...well, except for early morning 'cause Kai wakes up at 5 am!!! And, our girls tend to stay up till after 10 pm while Kai hits the sack at 6 pm. So, technically, they were inseparable from 8 am till 6 pm. But, you get the idea.

We met our friends at this park in the "ghetto" area of Mesa. We didn't even know there was such a place! That is, until some cops came over to us while the kids were playing and asked us where we lived and why we were at the park. Long (but super funny) story short, we told him we weren't from the area but were simply there for the day. He informed us that some guy sitting about 50 yards away from us was a homeless guy who was spotted in a nearby alley with his pants down. Huh?
Apparently, the park we were at is next to a lot of homeless people and druggies. He nicely, but very frankly, told us to stay away from this particular park because often times, there are creepy druggies nearby, broken glass and needles in the sand, and oh-don't forget about the naked homeless guys in the alleys, too. LOL. Did I mention that there were TONS of other kids with their families at the park, too?!

Here we are at the Arizona Museum for Youth (A.M.Y)
This was our second time visiting, and they had so much fun!
What's not to love about a ginormous playground where you're encouraged to mess around, play dress-up, and make noise to your heart's content?

Jolee loved the baby corner. She apparently also loves herself. Well, the reflection of herself in the mirror. She must have stared, patted, and kissed her reflection for a good 10-15 minutes. I was cringing when she started slobbering all over the mirror...but thought "positive thoughts" and said a little prayer in my heart that no diseased or sick kids were in there doing the exact same thing before her. *shudder*

Ok, although it wasn't quite my birthday yet, Mitch's mom was kind enough to make me a birthday cake while we were there.
A lovely reminder that I'm getting old, old, old!
Thanks!

The Phoenix Zoo.
Here we are at the playground there. We probably could have stayed here for hours...

Grandma played hooky from work and came with.

The Phoenix Zoo puts the Honolulu Zoo to shame! (sorry, but true)

They had so much fun...I don't think we even saw all the animals, there was just too much to see for one afternoon. Plus, the weather was hot so a lot of the animals were just sleeping in the shade. I suppose one highlight for the girls (but not for my reptile-phobic husband) was seeing a live rattlesnake. Oooh! They were quite impressed, especially when a zoo worker came in and nabbed one out of the display window!

Just hangin' out at the park near Grandma and Papa's (Grandpa) house.

Of course, we can't leave Arizona without visiting the lake to feed the ducks. This is Saguaro lake. Can you pronounce it? I'll give you a hint--it absolutely doesn't sound like it's spelled...

Anyway, it was a short but long 7 day trip.
We LOVE visiting the mainland, but are always happy to come back home to our
Hawaii-nei.