Shara's Trip to Arizona!

I recently returned from an 8-day trip to Tucson, Arizona to visit my sister Tara and her family. Tara and her husband Dane have two darling children named Aria (age 3 1/2) and Zade (age 1 1/2). It was great to spend time with Tara and her family! Below are pictures and descriptions of some of the fun things we did.

We attended the ward campout.  We ate hamburgers and hotdogs, applesauce pies, and of course s'mores!  There was a big lightning storm that evening so we set up our tent under a pavilion just to be safe.  I enjoyed meeting the really nice members in Tara's ward.

This is Zade.  He is the sweetest and cutest little boy.  He was sick much of the time I was there, but was feeling much better near the end of my stay.  The main three sentences he says all day long are "I want Mommy," "I want Daddy," and "I want baba" (his sippy cup).

We went on a short hike after the campout

Aria and I had lots of fun together.  Here we are painting the beads that Tara and Aria had made earlier in the week out of clay.

Tara and I had lots of fun making designer cookies and chocolate covered pretzels for the bake sale at Aria's preschool.  We used a plastic mold to create darling flower shapes on the cookies.

We attended the zoo in Tucson.  The big scare of the day was when we saw a tarantula that was not caged but was wild. 

Here we are enjoying the animals at the zoo.

We went for a bike ride and got caught in one of Arizona's monsoon rain storms!  It was fun!  Even though the kids were in a covered caboose attached to Tara's bike, they still got pretty wet too!

Tara introduced me to thrift stores and I ended up buying seven cute skirts at one of the stores!  Aria found a Minnie Mouse Halloween costume which she is super excited about!  That night when she was trying to fall asleep she told me, "I just can't stop thinking about my costume!"

We went to a fun place that has blow up slides and obstacle courses.  Aria didn't stop for the entire time we were there!  I was impressed by her bravery!  It was lots of fun!

You can see how much fun Aria had at this place!

One afternoon we enjoyed frozen yogurt at a nearby place.  Aria's favorite part was the unlimited amount of sprinkles she could put in her frozen yogurt.

I got to be there for Aria's first ballet class!  Aria was so excited to put on her new blue dance outfit.

We went to Sabino Canyon and took the tram through the canyon.  It was lovely!  We ended up getting caught in another big rain storm here!  We took shelter at the bathrooms!

A lovely view in Sabino Canyon.

We were planning to play in the river, but that's when the rains came!

I love my little niece!