A Visit from Friends

So all last week, we had our friends from IL visit us! Ronn, Maria and baby Chris were here from Sunday to the following Monday, and we had such a great time. Since we moved here in August, we never took the time to be tourists in Phoenix, so we took the opportunity all week to sightsee!

We went up to South Mountain on Tuesday night. If you're ever in Phoenix, this is a MUST! The view of the valley is SO gorgeous, and it's a panoramic view. You can see so much up there. Here's a couple photos.

Wednesday night we went to the local aquarium. Hunter is at an age where we really got into seeing all the different creatures. He really enjoyed it. Chris even seemed interested in everything! Here's Greg and Ronn getting along a little too well...

On Thursday, we went to the Challenger Space Museum. There was a tour guide to show us around, but we didn't pay too much attention to him (shh, don't tell!) Instead, we occupied ourselves with the surroundings. Check out the video for an example...

Thursday evening we went to Rawhide. This is an old western town you can visit. It's not a REAL town, they just made it for tourists, but it's still fun. They have shopping and even performed a show you can watch of an old western fight. Another fun thing they have is the ability to have people arrested. Maria and I decided to have Ronn and Greg arrested. Ronn was arrested for excessive whining, and Greg for excessive gas. They had no idea it was coming so it was hilarious! They had to go into the jail cell and got a picture taken, and then they had to ride on play horses in the town. Watch the video to see that. :)

We also got old time photos taken in Rawhide.

On Friday, we were originally going to go to Sedona. But at the last minute, we changed plans and headed down to Tombstone AZ. Ronn has loved the Old West ever since he learned how to read, and he loves Tombstone. Even though this was his third time being there, he didn't mind one bit. It was pretty cool to be there and think of the history that this town has. You can tour the Birdcage Theatre, which has a ton of history in it with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. We got pictures in front of the OK Corral since that's where the very famous gunfight took place.

We spent the evening near Tombstone and drove home the next day.

Sunday, we went to the Phoenix Zoo, and then Monday morning, the Zander's flew home. It was a very long week, but we all enjoyed eachother's company so much. Greg and I are now trying to convince them to move near us so we can have this much fun ALL the time!!! :)

Monster Jam

I've mentioned in the past that Hunter LOVES Monster Trucks. Every day at 3pm right when daddy gets home from school, we turn the SPEED channel on and there's an episode of Monster Jam on. Well Universal Technical Institute (the school Greg attends) is a huge sponsor of Monster Jam and there was a Monster Jam event here in Phoenix last week. So Friday morning, they had a truck there for students to go see if they wanted. Greg doesn't have school on Friday's so he and Hunter went down to the school to see the truck (I, unfortunately, had to work - I was so disappointed!)
Greg said as soon as Hunter saw the truck (Grave Digger, to be exact) he got soooo excited and pointed and said "TRUCK!" I made Greg at least get pictures since I couldn't attend...

You probably can't tell, but Hunter is holding HIS Grave Digger in all the pictures.

Greg said he just wanted to stand next to the truck. After about 20 minutes though, Greg dragged him away from it, and as you can imagine, he was NOT happy!

We would have loved to take him to the actual event, but that's $80 we didn't have, so we were both happy Hunter at least got to see the truck in person like this, and the 2 year old doesn't know he missed out on anything!