Spring Break Day 5-8 The End!

Thursday was a fun, fun day. First, it started out nice and early with a phone call from our neighbors back home. Our smoke alarms were going off. No visible smoke or flames, and they apparently had been going off for a while, so that was a little heartening that our house wasn't burning down...but still!

In our brilliance, we hadn't left a key with anyone...nor was there a key hidden anywhere...so Ron asked the neighbor to go break the glass in the back door to get in and check the house....of course in hindsight, we should have had him break the basement window that is already cracked and needs to be replaced. Even better, the same neighbor also told us after we got home that he probably could've just jimmied the door from the garage into house with a credit card. But no, we had him break the big tempered glass double-paned window in our back french door....little cubes of glass everywhere....and nothing wrong with the house except some confused smoke alarms. Then two neighbors came over and cleaned up all the glass. I am still embarrassed. My house wasn't clean, or even straightened up, and my two pine-sol clean neighbors were here to see the disaster of my house! But I am eternally grateful that the house wasn't on fire, and that I didn't have to walk into a huge glass covered mess when I got home.

So after all that fun....we went to the ZOO! Hooray! I LOVE the Phoenix Zoo. One of the best zoo's out there! The kids had a blast...look:


At "Sting Ray Bay", the kids got to get up close and personal with sting rays(with sting barbs removed) and sharks. Very cool! We even saw a couple jump up and catch air out of the water! Do you like Ellie's monkey backpack/leash? Best thing ever. She loves to wear it because it's cute, and I love it because if she's getting too adventurous and far from me, I just pull the little tail out of the pocket and can keep her from straying too far....and you don't get dirty looks from people for having your kid on a harness and leash like some of the other contraptions out there.

Nicole and I on "Josh" the camel. Jared chickened out, and Riley wasn't interested...or thought she was too cool to ride a camel!

Hmmmm...Right where she belongs! ;)

Everyone, take cover! There's a monkey escaped from his cage!!!! Just kidding...isn't he just cute?!


The favorite, by far. The petting zoo. Oh the joy of brushing the goats. I tried to get some cute shots of the kids, but would someone explain to me how to not only end up with pictures of their backs?! They were cruising so fast all over that pen that I hardly got their faces in any shots! Following them around to make sure they are safe and trying to take pictures at the same time just didn't work. :) I think in the last one Ellie is trying to determine what style of hairdo this goat would like.

Friday Ron went golfing, and we played on the slide a little more. Auntie Beth took Riley for a pedicure, and then that afternoon the kids, Beth, and I had a fun get-together at a park with my cousin's wife OneHM, Crazymama, and Jamie(private blogger). Too fun to meet up with them and meet their kiddos! And how dumb am I......didn't get the camera out.....thpppt! Oh well, it was still fun! That night, we roasted s'mores in Auntie Beth and Uncle Scott's firepit, and packed up.

Saturday and Sunday was driving.....we had a fun lunch in Tuba City....if you ever go, the only place there with grass to picnic on is at the LDS meeting house there in town! The closer we got to Utah, the worse the wind was. Monument Valley was pretty, but too windy and dusty to stop and record with pictures. Moab, where we planned to stay was full...very full. Any of the empty hotel rooms were taken up with campers who decided to escape the wind for the night...it was bad! So on to Green River, and I think we got the 2nd to last room there! (Spillover from Moab?!) The kids were happy though...three words...indoor heated pool. We got home Sunday. An hour before we got there, our neighbor called. Our alarms were going off, AGAIN!!!! So we stopped and got 12 new 9V batteries and replaced them all when we got home...no more problems since....weird!