Arizona Paradise

My dad recently moved to Phoenix for a job, which means that we have a place to run away to when the winters in Utah drag on!

At the end of February, papa flew Luke and I out for a quick weekend visit in the perfect 70 degree weather. Luke was a champ on the airplane, competely in awe that we were actually on an airplane. His favorite part was when the pilot turned the cabin lights off. Don't ask me why, but that is what he kept talking about.

Found a distraction from running around in the airport

We got in Friday evening, met up with Uncle Danny and Aunt Lauren to go to Rustler's Rooste, which is an extremely family friendly steakhouse-esque restaurant. I mean, they even have a slide and just let the kids run a muck on it!

Saturday, we started with a little hike behind my dad's condo. The hike probably was less than half a mile, but with Mr. "look at every rock, bug, plant and speck of sand," it took us a good hour. That just made it that much more fun!

That afternoon, we made a trip to the Phoenix zoo. Word to the wise, zoos in the desert are not the greatest. We had more fun viewing the different types of homosapians than we did the exotic animals. However, Luke still had fun seeing the elephant, zebra and flamingos, even if he didn't get to see a hippo, which was the only animal he requested to see.

"Hello Mr. Tortoise"

Elephant with papa

 That evening we got some long awaited GOOD Mexican food, with legit hatch green chilies. The food was superb, my 1.5-year-old, not so much. El nino de el Diablo is not too far off in describing his behavior at dinner. Where he got his attitude from is mystery...

The Claw! This happy mood lasted about the length of this video that night...

Sunday, we woke up in much better moods and met up with Danny and Lauren at an awesome park next to the Cubs training stadium. Luke had fun playing with Danny on the playground, attempting to throw the frisbee for Cooper and just being outside before our flight home that afternoon.

Papa's stairs were an instant hit

Overall, the trip was a success. Luke will still ask where papa is and now thinks that any glasses that are not his sunglasses are "Papa's glasses." Thanks for a great weekend, papa!

P.S.
The next feat for the Spud...

Being the cautious child he is, he was not too excited to sit on it at first, but thought Gerry might enjoy a little ride. He will now sit on it and scoot a little ways if we are holding onto him. Baby steps!