Summer Update, Part 2 (finally)

I know, a month later... yeesh! Now summer's coming to a close (according to the calendar, anyways, it's still pretty hot here) But, better late than never, so here's what's kept us busy the past couple months!

CAMPING: The weekend after Boards in June we went camping with our good friends, the Olsens. We haven't been camping in so long, it was great to get out and enjoy the outdoors for a bit! We went up north some, where it was cooler and set up camp in a quiet, woodsy and very private site in the mountains of Prescott. I grew up camping with my family, so it was a nice nostalgic trip for me, especially taking my own kids. Jonathan actually didn't sleep most of the night, which kept us up, so we were pretty tired the next day. But we still really enjoyed a whole lot of good company, an awesome pancake breakfast, and a fun casual hike. Thanks, Blaine, Erica, and super-cute baby Reed for a wonderful weekend! *Here's some pics of our trip:



*This is what Jonathan looked like 5 minutes into our camping trip. Oh, boy. * Benjamin helping set up camp.

*Gotta love the hammock! *Dustin & Blaine washing the dinner dishes. What good husbands we have!

*Mmmm! Yummy! Good breakfast! *REALLY good!

*Our little hiker. Seriously, he was so excited to run around and explore. He did a great job on our hike, too, till the end when Erica and I switched off piggy-back rides. :)

*Me and my boys *Off on our hike

*"I just love the backpack! *Hmm.. must've been a rough night...

*Our friends! *And their super-cute baby guy!! Love it!

The whole crew. Cheers to camping!! :)

FAMILY VACATION: Since Jonathan wasn't too fond of sleeping in a tent, we nixed our orginal plan to go on a family camping trip for our family vacation this year. So, instead, the first week of July, we did a "home-based" family vacation, which means we packed 3 days with a whole lot of museums, activities, and sites around town. I loved taking time to do all those fun things close-by we usually don't have a chance to do as a family, and Dustin loved a trip where he could still sleep in his own bed. :) Here's what we did (*and a whole lotta pictures and videos!):

DAY 1: Natural History Museum

This museum was really fascinating. It covered the ancient history of Arizona from dinosaurs to cavemen to the conquistidors to the old west. Benjamin's favorite was the dinosaurs! They had an amazing dinosaur exibit with models and "life-size" skeletons. The outing was even more fun because Grandma and Grandpa Higgins (Dustin's parents) joined us! We loved having them with us. After the museum, we went to a fun Mexican cafe down the street called Mangos. Great day so far!

*Our little family with the Mammoth bones *We love Grandma!


*What's in the pot? *Not much!

*What an interesting place! *So glad Grandma and Grandpa could come!

Matinee Movie: Wall-E

Benjamin really likes robots, so we were sure he'd love this movie. The little robot Wall-E is adorable, but I found the plot pretty annoying. It was a tree-hugger film in "kids' movie" sheep's clothing. The human-demeaning theme was much more dominating than the usual Pixar charm and humor. Benjamin thought it was just great, so it served it's purpose I guess.

DAY 2: Great AZ Puppet Theater

I've been wanting to check out this puppet theater/museum for awhile now. It looked so fun! Unfortuately, we ended being pretty unimpressed. The show was okay, but not worth the $8/person admission. Dustin would probably say I'm being too nice, but I'll just say that it was worth going to find out it wasn't worth going, too. Oh, well. Jonathan got a kick out of the first 5 minutes, and as a 3-year-old, Benjamin's pretty easy to please and was fairly amused.

Afterwards, we had lunch a good ol' Micky D's (can't have a family trip without McDonald's, right? Always a hit with the kiddos.)

Science Center

Gotta love this place! It has lots and lots of hands-on exibits, many which are very kid-friendly. Benjamin was eager to explore and try out everything.

DAY 3: Phx Museum for Youth

This is a brand new kids' "museum" that opened in June. It's AMAZING! I'm thinking we're going to get a membership. Everything is designed to be 100% kid-friendly, from ages 1 and up. The have a kid-size grocery store, an indoor playground area, a tricycle track, an art center, a GREAT (and huge!) play area for kids 1-3 years, and a bunch of other random fun stuff. If Jonathan didn't absolutely need an afternoon nap, we would've spent the whole day there. The staff is awesome, too-- everything is very clean and well-organized. Really, needless to say, we are VERY impressed and would emphatically recommend this place to everyone! Check it out if you're ever in town! (You can kind of see what I mean in the little videos we took... serious FUN for both the boys!)

For lunch, we stopped at a yummy pizza place called Z-Pizza. Jonathan conked out, so we headed after lunch. After a restful afternoon, we had dinner with our good friends the Maloufs and the Lafollets to celebrate the end of our second year of med-school. We always love hanging out with our friends! And the shish-ca-bobs were fabulous.

Fireworks

Since it was the Fourth of July and all, what better way to end our family trip than with fireworks? After dinner, we sped over to the Sports Center to catch the 9:15pm show. We were prepared to pay the $5/person admission fee, but they told us that it was free if we went in at 9pm (we got there just a few minutes before). Sweet! Even though we got there "late", we had awesome seats.. the fireworks were right in front of us! The boys both thought it was pretty cool. As for Dustin and I, well, we always love fireworks! It was a great show.

Whew! What a trip! Lots of memories, pictures, videos, and fun! We had a great time and are so glad we did it. We sure love our little family!

!