Labor Day Get Away: Tucson, Az

Why Tucson? Well, almost three years ago I was VERY pregnant with Maura and Adam had to go work for Sorenson in the Tucson center for a few days. I decided the boys and I needed to join him (share in the free hotel) and see some Tucson sights. We researched a few fun places to go and spent two days swimming in the pool, going to the zoo, and several other museums while Adam worked. It was really fun and we have great memories of being there.

So, we decided since everyone else in the Phoenix metro area was headed to the mountains, we would go south! I googled a hotel and found the same fun places as we had gone to before and Sunday afternoon we headed out.

On the way we stopped to hug on little Adell for a few minutes and let Dallin and Maura chase Oliver while Adam caught a quick nap. Then on to Tucson.

As we got closer to the hotel we realized we unknowingly had planned to stay in the exact same hotel as we had three years earlier! Dallin even remembered the room we had stayed in. It brought back a lot of memories.

Monday morning we headed to Reid Park Zoo, the fun zoo we had been to several years earlier.
Dallin and Garrett October, 2007

Dallin and Maura September 2010

Posing before we went into the zoo. Nice Adam, really nice.


Maura loved seeing the peacocks everywhere.

Feeding the Giraffe was a fun treat.

Garrett really loved doing it too!


Mookster and Daddy got up close and personal with a python.

How many little lizards do you see? hee hee

Dallin on a termite mound.


Ohhh, that 's where Maura came from. Now I understand!


Dallin too!

Such cute little toads (as Grandpa Jonesy would say).


Not too bad ourselves.

Just outside the zoo is a little train you can ride on around the park. We didn't ride it this time, but Dallin and Garrett enjoyed it when we came last.


Next, on to the Childrens Museum. I love that it has so many hands-on things for kids to do.



When you first go in, you see a giant T-rex display that moves! Garrett was apprehensive.

Maura was terrified!

She liked the puppet area much better!


When it was her turn to play with the puppet, she picked it up and said "Mom, it's broken. It doesn't work anymore!" I had to teach her how to put her hand in and move the mouth. We have puppets at home so I thought she knew what they were.


The rope maze was a lot of fun too!

Dallin enjoyed it too.

I love that there were so many areas for big kids and little kids too.


It was a good day. I missed Garrett a lot and was a little sad he wasn't with us. It would have been an adventure having all of us there together.


Tucson is a great place with tons of fun things to do. So, next time you need a mini-cation you should try it!

P.S. I forgot to add: Everywhere we went we would ask Dallin "Do you remember this?" and he would respond that he did or didn't. Pretty soon he would just say "Oh, yeah, I remember this!" and we would talk about when we came with Garrett the last time. Half way through the day Maura began to chime in "I remember this!", "Yes, I was here long time ago." and on and on! Really funny.