Fasten Your Seat Belts

Boy oh boy, am I behind on this. The plan is to blast through the last 8 days to get you up to speed. So fasten your seat belts, because here it goes....

Last Friday, Dave and I loaded up the kids, 7 of them (at least that's how many we came home with), and headed to the Phoenix Zoo. Not much to report on. Obviously it is painful for a St. Louis native to pay for a zoo experience. But there were some highlights. They had a very cool giraffe exhibit, where you could feed them for an additional fee. There were tons of turtles in every pond. And they have a huge tree house playground for the kids. It will be interesting to go back this summer and check out the water play areas that were currently closed. The other thing I appreciate about the zoo is that you are encouraged to bring your bikes and ride around. Good plan.

On Saturday, we loaded up again, and this time headed to Pinnacle Peak. Nothing like a little hike to bring out the tired and the crabby in Caleb. :)

On Sunday, Eric and Dave played in a golf tournament where they placed 9th out of 78 teams! Tamara and I took the kids and headed to the pool. Since the pool at our house is currently an ice bath, we spent the day at Uncle Daves. The kids are not quite in full swimming mode yet and lost interest after about an hour. But it was still fun to partake in real spring break activities.

Monday morning it was back to school for the AZ kids. Perfect time to take the Ohlers hiking on Camelback Mountain. They had been bothering me about climbing that mountain since the first day of their first visit. The kids and I made it to the top and even made some friends along the way. Monday night was Noah's first tee-ball game of the season and that deserves a post of it's own...so stay tuned.

Wednesday morning we headed to Old Town Scottsdale in search of a rock store for Wil. Mission accomplished. That night, we had an early birthday celebration for Megs. We went to Dave and Busters where all games were half price. They kids played, and played, and played, and played. A perfect night for any child. Our group of kids racked up over 18,000 tickets and shut down the store trying to spend them all! I'm pretty sure we walked away leaving over a thousand tickets. :)

Thursday morning, I went on a field trip with Noah's class. We spent the morning at the Desert Botanical Garden learning about "Buddies" (symbiotic relationships between desert plants and animals). That evening, we headed to the train park to meet up with more out of town friends. Drew's wife, Annie, their two beautiful girls, Hayden and Reese, and his mother-in-law, Julie were all in town for spring break. It is always so good to see friends from back home, especially those who are like family. The kids had such fun riding the carousel, the train, and playing on the playground.

Early this morning, we loaded up the Ohlers and sent them off to the airport to head back home. Time spent with our visitors always passes too fast. And once again, we sit in the eerie, sort of soothing, sort of unsettling, silence that remains after each visit. Now begins the task of getting our kids, our house, and ourselves back into a "normal" routine.