Greetings from Sunny Arizona!

Today was a great day! It did start off very early Arizona time (5:30 a.m.) But at home, that is 8:30, so I guess I got to sleep in? I had been up for 21 hours before the sleeping in part, so my body was dragging a bit when I got up today. But, Matt, Suzanne & Amanda were chatting with me and the kids before Matt & Amanda had to go to work. Suzanne, the boys, and I were meeting friends at the Phoenix Zoo. My friend Valerie, was gracious enough to use her Zoo Membership to get all of us in for FREE! FUN! And, my other friend, Mary, brought her twins, Kyle and Caleb, so meet us there as well. I have to admit that I was never one for the Phoenix Zoo when we lived here. It was just drab, brown, hot, and boring in my opinion. BUT.....they have made great and enormous improvements! It was a little greener, the animals were up close and personal and were very active this morning too! The kids loved how close the giraffes and elephants were. They got to pet sting rays, go in where the Squirrel Monkey's played. It was fun! I think one of the highlights of the day for the boys was going to this little mini water cave setup they had there. They were in t-shirts, shorts, and sandals, but wanted to get wet. I told them that was fine if they wanted to walk the rest of the zoo wet, and they were happy little larks to get to splash around for a while! What a great time they had playing with the twins in the water! Mary's niece Eryn was also with us. She was such a cutie patootie too! The weather here today was so pretty! Very windy, though! It was about 83 degrees, sunny, and clear. Just a gorgeous day! It did all of us good to get a dose of that beautiful sunshine!

Then, tonight, my cute friends, Chris & Mary hosted a BBQ at their house. Valerie and her kids came, Erika and her friends, my bestie from high school Stephanie, her daughter, and her new boyfriend (well, old boyfriend, as they used to date in High School and are dating again! FUN!) Suzanne and Amanda were there. Mary's niece Alicia and her sister Vanessa. Such a fun time. All of the kids seemed to get along great, jumping on the trampoline, playing the Wii. The adults even had a fun time visiting and playing a rousing game of Bunco! What a fabulous game! Why aren't we playing this game ALL THE TIME???? There were prizes involved, and it was easy, and did I mention FUN AND FABULOUS PRIZES??? I won scratcher lottery tickets, and guess what? I won $10!!!! WAHOO!!!!

I will post pictures of the things we've done today in a later post, as I don't know how to work the computer that I'm using. Once I get that figured out, I can upload them. So far, our trip is going great.....we are enjoying new friends, old friends, sunshine, and laughs. I don't know yet what tomorrow holds, but I'm sure it'll be a wonderful day for everyone!