We had such a fun family vacation for Spring Break this year! We began the week by celebrating Easter with my family. Then we hit the road again and took a little side trip to Tucson, Arizona. 1/2 way between Phoenix and Tucson is a ostrich farm, we had such a good time. It was definitely one of the many highlights of the trip.
They give you a large cup full of feed and you feed it to the ostrich, miniature donkeys, or deer. They also give you a cup of nectar that you take into an aviary and feed Lorakeets.
The deer were so sweet and gentle no one was afraid to feed them.
Most of us learned personally that YES, Ostrich do bite!
McKenzie, Hunter, and Hayden immediately started feeding the Lorakeets. You can see Reagan standing in the background...she was a little nervous about having birds land on her.
She eventually tried it and loved it!
I really can't believe that I have included this photo, but, this was part of what made the trip to the farm so funny! I really was not fond of feeding the Lorakeets and made quite a scene as I screamed and carried on. Apparently Lorakeets quite like fruity hair products (which I use) and it felt like they were nesting in my hair--- I was a mess, and of course Tom capture all of my emotion on film! McKenzie made a funny comment afterward, she said "Mom you don't even like it when your kids touch and play in your hair." Yes, Kenz... that is true
We took a monster truck tour through the desert. They showed us their farms, took us 4 wheelin' and taught us to be real rednecks. At the end of the tour we stopped to fish for ostrich. They told us that any ostrich that we could get onto the dock we could keep.
Here's Hunter doing his best to pull one over!
Here's Kenz at the Arizona Desert Museum in Tucson.
This is the gang at the Museum (Tom's taking the photo)
Definitely our favorite part of going to Tucson was seeing Ryan and family. It was so fun to see where they live, and get to play with them. Ryan took us on a tour of U of A, what a beautiful campus (we hope that the tour got Kenzie geared up for college. )
The boys outside the desert museum
The museum was in a beautiful part of the desert! Very wild terrain !
At the end of the week we came back to Scottsdale and played with my mom & dad, Jared & Heather, and the Batemans. One of the highlights for the kids was going to Amazing Jakes (an indoor theme park). The group of cousins went and everyone agreed, IT WAS AMAZING!!
(After about 7 hours at Amazing Jakes, we were all ready to go...
well all the adults were ready to leave!)
We bowled!
The 3 youngest children (Reagan, Ellie, and Spencer) loved the frog hopper ride. We could not get them off it. They probably rode this ride 20+ times during the day.
Even the bigger kids enjoyed the rides!
Each bumper car team raced to the finish line!
They asked Hayden to stay off of the ride for a few minutes, because he was a "reckless" driver!
Hayden's school choir was one of 13 choirs in the state that were invited to participate in a Spring Concert at Abravanel Hall. It was really fun to see them sing their hearts out.
Their choir leader describes them as small but mighty. Only 14 children participated in the concert. They performed 2 numbers and I could hear Hayden voice he was really singing out.
Hayden outside of the fountains in front of Abravanel Hall
They give you a large cup full of feed and you feed it to the ostrich, miniature donkeys, or deer. They also give you a cup of nectar that you take into an aviary and feed Lorakeets.
The deer were so sweet and gentle no one was afraid to feed them.
Most of us learned personally that YES, Ostrich do bite!
McKenzie, Hunter, and Hayden immediately started feeding the Lorakeets. You can see Reagan standing in the background...she was a little nervous about having birds land on her.
She eventually tried it and loved it!
I really can't believe that I have included this photo, but, this was part of what made the trip to the farm so funny! I really was not fond of feeding the Lorakeets and made quite a scene as I screamed and carried on. Apparently Lorakeets quite like fruity hair products (which I use) and it felt like they were nesting in my hair--- I was a mess, and of course Tom capture all of my emotion on film! McKenzie made a funny comment afterward, she said "Mom you don't even like it when your kids touch and play in your hair." Yes, Kenz... that is true
We took a monster truck tour through the desert. They showed us their farms, took us 4 wheelin' and taught us to be real rednecks. At the end of the tour we stopped to fish for ostrich. They told us that any ostrich that we could get onto the dock we could keep.
Here's Hunter doing his best to pull one over!
Here's Kenz at the Arizona Desert Museum in Tucson.
This is the gang at the Museum (Tom's taking the photo)
The boys outside the desert museum
The museum was in a beautiful part of the desert! Very wild terrain !
Even the bigger kids enjoyed the rides!
The 2 teams that had success both had the same last name; you guessed it--- BATEMAN!
The Bateman kids were proud to have such "SMART" parents!
No Easter is complete without an egg hunt. These kids were really spoiled, there was oodles of goodies spread around grandma's yard. Here is the gang of cousins waiting for the egg hunt to begin.
Morgan and her loot!
Hayden saying "Oh Yeah, I just found a dollar in my egg!"
Reagan checking out her stash!
Easter Morning
