Last Week of Summer!

The week before school started Nana and Papa took the boys to buy new backpacks!  They picked some awesome ones and love them!  Crue was so lucky he got one too!  He wears it everywhere! 

Afterwards we got some ice cream to celebrate! 

To celebrate the end of summer and upcoming school year we went on a little "staycation"! We stayed at the Arizona Grand.  The boys were thrilled!  They were in such good moods our whole stay.

We swam and swam and swam! There was a wave pool, a regular pool, a baby pool, a splash pad, a lazy river, slides and jacuzzis.

The boys loved the wave pool the most!  They also loved eating dinner poolside!

We thought they'd be worn out by 9pm that night but we were wrong!

The next day we hit the pool first thing in the morning, and then had lunch at Joe's Crab Shack!  All three boys ate lots of crab!

Then it was back to the pool!

That night we ate at CPK and the boys thought they were so lucky because they got sundaes! 

When we got back to the hotel they were wired (from their sundaes most likely).  Kellan took my camera and they goofed around taking pictures of each other. 

Finally they calmed down a little... around 10pm!!!!  I guess that's a good vacation for you!

The next morning we got to the pool right when it opened, got an amazing spot in front of the wave pool and swam until it was time to check out.  It was a great staycation!!!!

We went to the Museum of Natural History during our last week of summer.  The boys LOVED IT SO MUCH!!!!  We were there for a total of 5 hours, with a little lunch break in the middle.  I could not get them to leave!  There was so much to do!

The boys got to superimpose themselves into old western movies.

We learned about the Spanish Colonization in the Americas.  Caleb was the only one who paid attention haha!

We toured the historical Mesa Jail. Caleb thought it was so cool!

We toured some mines and the boys were convinced there was a ghost in there and got really scared! So we only did that once!

Caleb thought the Hohokam houses were very "interesting".

They had fun constructing a mammoth!

And then we went and saw the "big, scary" mammoth skeleton!

Caleb knew the name of every dinosaur we saw!

He's imitating the pteradon.

Outside the boys got to pretend to be paleontologists and dig up some bones!

Caleb panned for gold, while Kellan sat in shade because he was "melting" and Crue dumped water all over himself.

We cooled off downstairs in the kids exploration room.  Caleb was in heaven.  It was a classroom with different experiments and learning stations. We went to that room three times.

Crue spent the whole time in the exploration room playing with dinosaurs.  After this trip he has been OBSESSED with dinosaurs!

The boys thought this was so scary (Caleb actually said, "frightening".)

In one of the rooms there was a volcano model and a space where you could climb inside.  Caleb and Kellan played in there a lot and after much encouraging got Crue to go in with them.  We had so much fun at the museum.  I was exhausted though! 

The next day we went to the zoo.  I was overcast and the high was only 95 so it seemed like the best day to do it!  We went in the morning and brought lots of drinks! Surprisingly all the animals were out and up close.

Caleb is always in charge of the map and our "zoo agenda" for the day.

This giraffe got up close to Caleb and kept licking its face.  Caleb said, "I think it wants to kiss me."

There were only one or two prairie dogs out when we got to their exhibit but as soon as Caleb imitated their little noises, they all started popping out of their holes.  It did sound just like them!  I didn't even know he was doing it at first! Six or so prairie dogs ran over and were staring at him but there were almost 20 just standing outside their holes looking around.  It was really funny and Caleb was impressed with himself!

We got to check out the stingrays while we cooled off a bit.  Kellan wanted nothing to do with them.  Crue reached in to touch them a few times but as soon as he got close he would squeal and pull back.  We couldn't get Caleb to leave.  He was having so much fun watching them and touching them.

We saw a few more animals - Crue loved the zebras - before heading to the splash pad.  The boys spent most of their time there in the Yakulla cavern and splash pad.

I went to take a picture of the boys in the waterfall and randomly this little boy walked up and said, "Do you mind if I take a picture with your boys?"  Uhhhhh what?! He said it would be really nice.  So I let him but then I asked if I could take some with just my boys and he said, "No I'm okay.  My name is Jesse so now you know me and we're all friends!"  Well the boys played with him and told him thanks for playing when it was time to leave.

After the zoo we got to Caleb's school just in time for "Meet the Teacher".  On Friday we went and saw the last summer movie of the year.  It was an awesome last week of summer! I'm sad it had to end!