Arizona in the middle of cold February is amazing! We had a great time with Shane parents seeing their new condos, doing some hiking, eating out, swimming, played in the sun, and watching the girls love being outside! There are tons of pics below since we had such a great time!
This picture was right before takeoff on the way there. Thank goodness Grandma Dooyema flew with us on the way there and back. Our girls did great on the plane rides but wow they are a lot of work and require a ton of stuff!!! Neither of them slept at all on the way there.... so that was a huge bummer especially since it was 2 hours after their bedtime by the time we landed! Thankfully Erin slept some on the way home but Miss Active Kate did not sleep again! She was too busy looking around and wanting to walk and getting mad when I was trying to keep her in my seat. She's a busy one.
Once we got there everyone went straight to bed but then we got up early the next day to start the fun in the sun! This was Kate's first experience with sand since she started walking. She was timid for about 30 seconds but then loved it! She loved it so much that she tried to eat it a couple times too (along with every thing else she saw outside... rocks, sticks, grass) yuck!
We also found this great splash park just down the road and both girls thought it was the best thing ever!
Kate had no fear of the water and was walking all over getting soaking wet
And Erin loved running through the sprinklers
In-n-out burger for supper! Yum!
Then later that night we met our friends, Ben and Leah, who were also in Arizona visiting her parents. How crazy that we were only 15 minutes away from each other all the way in Arizona! So fun to be able to see them!
We went to a butterfly garden the next day and it was really cool! There were tons of butterflies and they loved to land on us.
Erin got to watch her first movie in a theatre (it was only 15 minutes) about the life cycle of butterflies at the garden. It was a 3-D movie and she kept pointing and reaching her hand out to try to touch butterflies. She even said "they are in here mom!!" :)
The butterflies seemed to really like the color red because they kept landing on Shane and Grandpa Dooyema.
Kate was VERY interested in the butterflies and kept pointing and stomping her little feet and making grunting noises :)
Erin was sure to let us know if we were close to stepping on them- she wanted to keep them safe!
Kate liked the pretty flowers too. She's not used to seeing green plants or flowers in the middle of winter!
Grandpa butterfly and Erin caterpillar :)
The guys went golfing a couple times and had great weather!
We made sure to get some ice cream at the old fashioned Sugar Bowl in Old Town Scottsdale. Grandma Dooyema and Erin share a love of chocolate and ice cream :)
Then Friday night we met up with Ben and Leah again. The grandparents went out to dinner to have some time away from their very busy grandkids :) So we got pizza at Leah's parents house and just hung out. This was supposed to be a sunset picture but it didn't quite work out :)
Conner, Haddie, Kate, and Erin after our golf cart ride. The kids loved the ride!
Saturday morning Mom and Dad D babysat so that Shane and I could hike (thank you!!!). We hiked up Camelback Mountain again this year- we did this hike 2 years ago when we were in Arizona and loved it. Its a super challenging hike with lots of rock climbing and an amazing view of the city at the top.
Saturday night we met some of Shane's extended family at a cowboy ranch. Love this cowboy and cowgirl :)
Sunday we did a little hike with the whole family
I love this pic- the shadows made it really dark though and trying to lighten it made the colors kinda funny...
My little hiking buddy :) She liked looking around and then fell asleep on the hike back to the car.
The pool was right next to the condo and we went there most days. Kate loved the water and did great!
Erin had an amazing time in the pool. She wanted to swim all the time and loved everything!
Poolside picnic for our family. Such a fun trip! The warm weather felt so great and coming back to the cold here was quite a shock. The girls did really well overall and our only issues with them were 3 year old attitude problems when Erin was over tired, severe diaper rash and a few days of terrible diapers for Kate (her stomach has been off since her birthday... poor thing!!), and trying to chase Kate around making sure she doesn't eat everything outside or walk straight into the pool (she has no fear!!) while still having fun with Erin. They both loved being outside and swimming and we are so glad that we had the opportunity to go!
