Tuesday March 26 continued...

I found the exhibit about addiction very interesting as well. It showed the science behind how addictions like cocaine, gambling, ice cream, even running can really damper ones ability to do normal day to day things, to be motivated, or to be creative. I love learning about the molecular level to that kind of stuff. Greta's favorite exhibit was the toddler heart model was was about to crawl around in. It was a little maze of the different chambers of the heart. James blew everyone away demonstrating how his bicycling power pushed a soccer ball to the top of a cylinder. All the little kids watching nearby were impressed. Noelle was a champ at the stretch contest. She could reach way past her toes...further than average girls in her age group. Another favorite exhibit amongst all of us was the weather simulator. We all stood on the platform while watching a video about different extremes in weather. The fun part was the floor that shook during the earthquake, the water and winds that blew during the hurricane. We also took in an I-Max movie while there....."To the Arctic"....about global warming and polar bears. It was really a cute movie. Believe it or not Greta slept during the whole thing!

After our museum adventure we found a cute restaurant called The Rose and Crown to eat at. We were all entertained by Greta trying a lemon. She really wanted to try it yet gave us this awful face each time she got a taste of it. But yet she would try it again!! Another unbelievable thing happened. Now that James has an I-phone he has been doing a lot of texting with his mom back home in Stoughton. When our waiter came with our drinks she placed a Guinness in front of Matt and said this is from Kelly. Isn't that crazy? James happened to mention in his text where he was eating lunch....Kelly did a google search and called our restaurant to order him a beer! It didn't stop there....next came a brownie with 3 scoops of ice cream from Kelly.

After lunch we headed to grandma and grandpa's for some swimming. Greta experience her first dunking and loved it. Jill on the other hand freaked out each time Matt went under with her....must be a mother's instinct to worry. After dinner we headed back to our condo and barely made it to our beds before crashing.

Wednesday March 27

Dad and Jill decided to go on a little escape adventure this morning....minus James and Noelle. We took Greta with us as we hiked several miles up at Lost Dutchman state park. She did awesome in the backpack carrier that Heather and Dave McCarthy loaned us. She fell asleep during the second half. I took advantage of the this time with just Matt and we did some future planning...image that....Jill wanting to plan!! :).

This afternoon we left Greta with grandma and took James and Noelle to K1 Indoor Go-Cart racing in Pheonix. The go-carts go up to 45 mph. I saw a new side of Matt...the adventurous trill seeking Matt. He was bummed he didn't get first place (he got 4th). He was also bummed he spun out once. Jill on the other hand got last place (11th) and didn't have the pedal to the metal like Matt did the whole 10 minutes. Noelle choose to watch....in hindsight probably a better choice...a little scary.

After getting our edrenaline up it was time to keep it going....what better than ice cream! We found a cold stone in Tempe. A little trivia....the first cold stone was in Tempe!

We met grandpa, grandma, and Greta at our condo and palyed some Old Maid while Jill cooked up some salmon. Matt, James, and Grandpa went to the Bass Pro shop down the road while Noelle taught grandma how to play Candy Crush on her I-pad.

Thursday March 28

We woke up early this morning to do "Out of Africa" in Camp Verde, AZ....a wildlife park a couple hours north of Pheonix. Greta stayed with grandma and grandpa. We started with the safari tour on bus. The highlights were seeing a 6 day old zebra and feeding the giraffes carrots. The red hat ladies who were on our tour bus were the brave ones holding the carrots on their mouths to get big kisses from the giraffe. While there we watched a show called Tiger Splash. A few brave workers played with the tiger with inflatable toys. Fortunately there weren't any close calls....just several big pounces that had our hearts pounding.

After our outing we headed back to grandma end grandpa's to hang for awhile....swimming, running, haircuts, stroller rides around the park, and not to forget the multiple golf-cart rides to the dog park. After dinner we headed back to the condo for nutria bullet smoothies and The Pawn Stars.

Friday March 29

This mornings run was a must have butter run. Our pound of butter we bought just 4 days earlier....gone. The gas station clerk looked me a little funny when buying a dozen power bars for our upcoming plane ride and a pound of butter. Once back we did some preliminary packing. Next we met grandma at the Superstition Swap meet...a flea market. What an event! You can find lots of neat trinkets there. James found himself a back scratcher. I loved the inexpensive produce! We then went to grandma & grandpa's for our last lounging day in AZ. The Easter Bunny had left a treasure hunt for the kiddos. We did some swimming and RV lot browsing. For dinner we went to the Cheesecake Factory. Afterwards we went to a Good Friday church service at Red Mountain Community Church in Mesa. We said our goodbyes to grandma and grandpa and headed back to the condo to finish up our packing. James and Noelle convinced dad for one more ice cream treat to end our vacation---McDonalds drive through :) after packing we hit the sack early...our flight was scheduled to leave at 5am the next morning!

Our trip was fun....loved the sun, family time, opportunity to hang with grandma and grandpa. I'm not sure what next year will bring???