Quiet Tuesday

As you can see in About Tusday below, Tuesday was a pretty quiet day. The Easter Bunny had brought each of the kids an unstuffed animal from Build-A-Bear, so we went to the mall to stuff the creatures. The kids named them Rainbow (Rudy), Cowboy (Brady, in honor of our Rawhide adventure), and Repooc (Cooper, his name spelled backwards).

That afternoon, we headed up to the pool for the afternoon.


Rainbow, apparently, is quite the troublemaker. After we left the mall, Rainbow kept trying to run into the street. Rudy had to hold his hand tight, because Rudy is the dad and Rainbow is the boy. Later, the three animals were napping while we were at the pool and Rainbow woke up Cowboy, so Rudy had to spank him. (A bit harsh, wouldn't you say?) After that, Rainbow growled at Rudy and Rudy told him if he growled again, Rainbow would get soap in his mouth. That troublesome dog growled again, so Rudy had to wash his mouth out with soap.

Rudy, reading to Rainbow, his stuffed dog:

Day Trip to Tucson

Today, we headed down to Tucson for a day trip. In all of our visits to Arizona, we'd never been there. We only had time for two stops: the airplane "boneyard" tour and Sabino Canyon.

Here is "Ubout Monday", to give you an overview of the day! (I love that he starts every day with Hello! My name is Brady! Do you want to hear ubout my day?)

We took a bus tour through the airplane boneyard. This is where the military keeps hundreds (thousands?) of retired planes and helicopters.

A little military humor, I guess...this is the stealth fighter :)

Brady, with his "ouch, the cactus got me" expression:

We headed over to Sabino Canyon after the boneyard tour. Sabino Canyon is part of the Coronado National Forest. There is a tram that runs up into the canyon, with 9 different stops where you can get off and hike, explore, picnic, etc.

Happy tram riders:

The canyon was filled with huge saguaro cacti. We found a pamphlet that said if the cactus had several arms and was over 40 feet tall, it was likely to be over 200 years old. None of us had ever seen a saguaro that tall, but this canyon seemed to be full of them!

We got off about mid-way up the canyon and strolled over to the river. We decided we could easily come back to Sabino Canyon for an entire day...there were a lot of visitors wading in the water and picnicking for the day.

Rudy, pouting after he got in trouble for pushing his cousin at the tram stop:

On the way back down, the tram driver pointed out this face in the rock:

We got off about three stops from the end so we could do a short hike back to the visitors center.

Some more ouch pictures...

I think I'm glad we didn't see this sign until the end...yikes!

We were strolling along, with Brady in the lead, when he all of a sudden jumped about 4 feet in the air and ran to my side. He'd seen this in the middle of the trail:

We think it was a lyre snake, which is only semi-venomous. Oh good.

Later, we saw this guy:

...and Brady said, "Oh, there's a pheasant."

James and I asked how he knew what a pheasant was. His answer was something along the lines of he saw it in a book and kept the picture in his head. Of course...

It was nearing dark by the time we got back in the car, so we loaded up for the drive back to Phoenix. The kids were really great travelers, especially considering we'd spent all of Saturday in airplanes flying out! (And that we'd be in the car another 4 hours each way for the Grand Canyon!)

Easter Sunday in Phoenix

We flew out to Phoenix this year for a joint Easter/Anniversary celebration. Brady kept a journal of most of our vacation days. This one is "Ubout Sunday":

James' parents were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary on Easter Sunday.

All dressed up and ready for the days' festivities:

Goofy poses...seems to help us get a few good pictures squeezed in!

Checking out their eggs after the egg hunt:

After church, we went to Rawhide, a "western town," complete with cowboys shooting "real" (cap) guns and all. We got to see a Western shootout show, and the kids got to try a few other activities...

Brady riding Bert, the burro:

On the train ride. This took us through a miniature western scene, complete with a ghost town and abandoned wagons. Rudy and Cooper narrated the entire time: Brokened. Brokened. That's brokened. Brokened. LOOK! Not brokened! Brokened...

Cooper went to jail. (Brady and Rudy refused to go in!)

Brady tried the rock wall. He really stuck with it and tried several times. He was very proud of his effort!

Follow the leader with Uncle Dan:

Each of the boys picked out a cowboy hat as well. (Brady and Rudy wore these most of the rest of the week!)

We had an amazing family-style dinner that night at the Rawhide Steakhouse. There was live music and the boys did some dancing after we ate:

We also watched this cute little social interaction. While the boys took a break from dancing, a bunch of girls went out on the floor. Cooper, who is quite the extrovert, settled right in with them. This is him, saying something like, "Those are my cousins!"

Rudy, and his casual approach...Brady never did venture over. Someone pointed out that one of the girls was his age, which made him even more determined to not want to go!

Overall...I hope it turned out to be a good anniversary!