phoenix, oh so great

i love phoenix. we have lived here for over five years, and i must say, it has been a wonderful place to raise young kids. maybe it's where we live...that within 5 miles of our house are countless parks, the dinosaur museum, free kid water parks, and the fabulously awesome zoo.

today i took abe, ellie, and riley to the zoo, because they have a new exhibit. we were sad otho couldn't come, but we had fun regardless.

the kids didn't care to watch the giraffes (what were eating right next to us), but they wanted to climb the fun tree house next to the giraffes.

ellie climbing to the top. isn't she so darn cute?


ellie and abe posing for mommy.


hello mommy!

the water park was way way way cool. yes, it earned three 'ways.' half of it is a cave with waterfalls and misters flowing down. the outside of the cave has a bunch of water coming up out of the ground. and there are slides too.

i didn't know there would be water involved ahead of time, so the kids were in their street clothes. but they had tons of fun regardless.


abe climbing into a cave, which is a slide into the big cave.


there's a little stream running around the perimeter that ellie had a blast with...until she gained confidence and actually went into the cave.


abe having fun!


ellie running around on the fake grass. how smart...fake grass so there is no sand and dirt and gunk that can get on my wet kids. the inventors of this place had my ocd cleanliness in mind. thank you!


after the water, we went to see the orangutans. don't tell the zookeepers, but ellie saw them and immediately threw an apple to feed the orangutans (luckily there is a net in place just for that - to stop the food that kids throw down to the animals). but it really sparked the interest of this big dude... and he stared at me the entire time. which is kinda freaky if you've read life of pi. the entire time i imagined being in a boat with this guy, and i know he would totally snap my head in two at his first chance. well, i would rather die like that than live in a boat with a tiger for months. (if you don't have any clue what i'm talking about, then go and read life of pi because it is really in my top 5 favorite books and a MUST read).


and here is the cutest baby orangutan ever. she was swinging on the vines and entertaining us to the tee.

and a couple of videos of the ellie (and sometimes abe) playing in the water:




well, thank you phoenix, for having a wonderful zoo that we can go visit. and now that the weather is hovering around a cool"er" 100 (better than 115) we can go even more often.