Monday, March 26, 2012

Our Fantastic, Fabulous Spring Break Adventure (Part 1 of 3)

     What a week!! We had one super fantastic Spring Break! I call it an adventure because we had a couple of crazy moments that we will never forget. We were gone for so long and I have so many pictures and stories to tell that even thought I am going to do a "quick" overview, it would be too long if I didn't split our trip into 3 parts. (BTW- If you want a more detailed description of our trip, you can go to my new personal blog)
     Day #1- Our first day was really spent driving, but I will bypass that day and get right to the good stuff! We drove down to see Grandma and Papa Dare in Bagdad, AZ. We stayed the night on Saturday and went to church with them on Sunday. It was good to see them even though Papa was still dealing with his blood clot. We dropped off our camper before heading down to the Valley for a few days.
     Day #2- We spent the rest of Sunday with the Brownlows. We LOVE them! They have been such special people to us and our girls. We talked, laughed, the girls helped make a special dinner, swam in their hot tub, roasted marshmallows/made s'mores, and stayed up way too late (as usual!)
     Day #3- We met all of our cousins (minus the Webers) at the movie theater for "Movie Monday". Only $5 for a movie and popcorn! Wish we had that here! We saw The Lorax, which was really cute. It was even more fun being with family. We took up an entire row WITH kids on laps :) So much fun!
     After the movie, we went to a park to celebrate Maddi's 11th birthday. It was such a blast! It's times like this that make me want to move back to AZ. Sure love my family!
      Day #4- The 4th day of our Spring Break started at the Phoenix Zoo with cousins again. Cameron (my little nephew) decided that to start off our zoo "adventure" he would make his mom really happy and throw his  shoe in the lake. We couldn't believe it! So funny (for us, NOT his mom) Luckily, Danielle saved the day and once it floated close by the edge she went in to the water to retrieve it! It was great...we even had people cheering when she got it! We saw lots of animals and just enjoyed our time together. So fun!
     The Phx Zoo has an exhibit called "Sting Ray Bay" where you can pay a couple bucks and actually pet a sting ray. We thought it would be fun for the girls to experience it, so when the rest of our group left to go home, we bought our tickets. The girls were a little nervous at first, but once they tried it they were really enjoying themselves. It was pretty cool! They are very curious creatures that have no problem coming right up to you. After petting them for about 15 or 20 minutes, Mollie started to scream! I grabbed her and pulled her back from the water and a sting ray came with her!! It had bit her and was still on her finger! It fell back in the water making a huge splash and Mollie was crying about her finger hurting. Poor girl! Her finger was red and she was pretty scared. I told her we could just leave, and surprisingly she said, "No!" My brave little Mollie put her hand right back in the water to pet one again!! My favorite part was that her hand was back in the water, but she was still crying! :) It was an adventure! Grandma Whiting told her that she might be the only 5 year old EVER to be bit by a sting ray. Regan got really excited and exclaimed, "Mollie! You're gonna be famous!!" Love it!
     The girls wanted to go swimming, so we headed to the Straders after the Zoo for a dip in the pool. Personally, I think they are crazy...it was cold! To end our day, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Whiting to one of their favorite restaurants, Golden Corral. Our girls had never been there before and they LOVED it! So happy we could be with them!!