We were so lucky to get to visit Scottsdale Arizona with Grandma and Grandpa Faiola a few weeks ago. The kids brought their ride-on suitcases and that made airport time more fun and interesting. Also, people pointed and laughed and I'm pretty sure we sold several sets of the suitcases to people who stopped us to ask who made them
The kiddos got to pack their own suitcases which was great! They loved to really show what they thought was most important to them. In a surprise move, Jamisen packed his entire soccer gear - including his soccer shoes and shinguards. Given that he has shown zero propensity to engage in most sports, this was interesting and also served to put his overzealous, over-scheduled-mother on a hopeful notice that perhaps our child might participate in the age-old baseline activity for learning how to be a team player ... by actually being on a team. A sports team specifically.
We went to basically every tourist attraction possible. We reprised our visit to the Butterfly Palace. Jamisen loved the life cycle of butterflies and was fascinated by the many species of butterlies and moths.
Grandma and Grandpa took the kiddos to Legoland for the day. They had a WONDERFUL time and really enjoyed it. They spoke excitedly about it for days. It was a nice break for Mom and Dad since Dad needed to work and Mom had to study for her final exam for the Nutritional Therapy Certification (terrible timing to have it the week after vacation). One less than sunny moment did occur and needs to be documented so none of us shall forget the valiant efforts of Grandma Faiola during this trying time. Thanks to a side effect from the antibiotics to heal her UTI, Lily managed to projectile diarrhea all over the Legoland bathroom (I write this solely for posterity sake so when Lily is reading this at the age of 17 she can spare a fond thought for her loving and kind Grandmother who had to clean up the mess without any wet wipes).
The kids are turning into proficient floaters and sort-of-coordinated movers in the pool and hot tub thanks to multiple sessions of swimming lessons at the Y. They really enjoy the hot tub!
We also visited the aquarium. It was amazing with some great kids exhibits and activities. They kids very much enjoyed a particularly innovative water movement system and played there for at least an hour. They also had a world class cafeteria with a wood-fired pizza oven. The bathrooms have sharks swimming by (inside the bathroom ... so you can watch them while you're washing your hands). This seemed like particularly good planning on the part of the architect.
We also visited the Firefighters Museum which was way way too old for the kids. Nothing except one model fire engine could be touched. It took us longer to drive to the museum did it did to go through it since literally, the kids could touch nothing. Interestingly enough, the entire museum (giant - 50,000 square feet at least?) was filled with memorabilia that was one man's hobby. He literally started a museum to house all of his fireman paraphernalia.
The kiddos loved the lazy river at the Marriot. It's a long slow current of movement so the kids can float on an adult or an inner tube. You can find a chair and just park yourself there for most of the day (that is, if you can stand the traditional pub food - overpriced, greasy - for the entire day). The adults subsisted on a lot of protein bars.
Chris was extremely kind and took the kids to the lazy river most mornings so I could study. This quality study time is probably the only reason I passed my test.
Oddly enough, the kids are not fans of sunscreen. Despite their distaste, between all of us, we all avoided sunburns. That was quite a victory for the week!
No comments:
Post a Comment