The Kecks

We spent a wonderful week in Arizona visiting Rob, Joanne and extended family!  It was a treat to get away from the cold weather for a while and we had some fun outings while we were there.  Lauren did really well with all of the traveling and schedule changes.  She was very happy to spend time with her Nana Jo and Opa Rob!

Our first outing was a trip down to see Grandma Merle in Green Valley- she took us down to Tubac, and for a minute I got nervous that we were going south of the border!  We didn’t quite go that far, though, and had a nice afternoon walking through all of the artsy shops.

We went to the Phoenix zoo and, arriving early on a week day, it was almost like we had the zoo to ourselves!  Lauren really liked the giraffes, hippos and baboons and had fun playing in the zoo playground.

Another day was spent in beautiful Sedona.  The red mountains and plateaus of that area really were amazing to see.  Most of our time was spent hiking and driving to some scenic spots.  We got a baby carrier backpack before we left and Lauren loved it so much that she couldn’t wait to get in it.  Josh convinced us to walk out on a stone archway at the top of the hike which made Nana Jo pretty nervous!

One of the trip highlights was a visit to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.  The Garden is currently featuring the glass artwork of Dale Chihuly and his pieces are really beautiful.  At night, the pieces are lit and the art takes on a whole new look.  Lauren’s favorite was a row boat filled with multi-colored glass balls.  Some of them were placed outside of the boat and every time we walked by, she would say “uh-oh”, like they had fallen out accidentally!

The rest of our visit was spent relaxing on the patio, visiting with family, and enjoying time together.  It was sure hard to come back to the cold of Minnesota, especially with the dump of fresh snow we got last week!