Scottsdale aka Perfect Town USA

Here's the thing: when you obtain an SLR camera, all of sudden you turn into a crazy photographer. You try different angles of pictures you never realized worked before, you snap away filling your photo card with compositions and colors and before you know it, you've taken a picture of a cactus just because. : )  My camera should literally be glued to my hand, because I cannot stop taking pictures!! : )

Scottsdale is a beautiful southwestern town. Forget Florida, I'm moving down there when I retire. It is peaceful, very well maintained, and is just a fantastic suburb of Phoenix. 

I am so glad we made the drive to Arizona to see my Uncle Andy, Christen, and my two cousins, Brock and Cade. It had been five years since I had last seen the boys and the first time I had met Christen (who is wonderful!).  

Cole LOVED hanging out with the big (10 and 6 years old) boys and was introduced to lots of things that Mommy hadn't made a point to introduce before this....like nerf guns and fruit roll ups!!  He had a ton of fun running around the house with the "guns" and hiding and being crazy with them.   It was just a good time.

Charlotte and Cade (6) were so sweet!! They would play together and sit next to one another. Cade was just really nice with Charlotte and it was so great to see that. Again, I so wish we lived closer to them!!

Andy and Christen were wonderful hosts and packed a full day of fun activities on Tuesday. We went for a nature "hike" in the morning and just enjoyed the outdoors! Thankfully it was only 80-85 that day so not so bad. Tuesday was kind of rough on Cole as he had stayed up playing, watching the Broncos football game, and then playing the Wii until 10pm the night before. Cranky is an understatement but again Andy and Christen were very flexible and understand and I love them for that!

You can see Cole has just stopped walking.  Hmmmm....

But we managed to get a good family photo by the cactus!

And another!!

And a really cute one of all of the kids!

Dipping their feet in the pool (obviously!!)...

Later in the day we went to the Phoenix Zoo which was really spectacular. We do not have any great zoos around us in NE so this was a great treat to go to. I loved that we could walk right up to the pond and watch the turtles. They are the cutest!

Wallabies are just funny..... Cole kept singing, "Willibee, wallibee, woo..."

Ahhh, don't play with the alligator! Oh wait... : )

Brock inside the turtle shell....

And then there's little Miss Charlotte....

They had a really cool area that you could enter and just walk around while about 20 spider monkeys jumped and played all around you (no glass or anything!).  They are the cutest little things. I definitely want one as a pet. Ha!

I just love this lion picture....

But this tiger one is my favorite. Look at those eyes....that color...I really think I might want to frame this one....