The Spies Family: Our Staycation

Well we didn't exactly stay in town for our staycation, but close enough. For some reason even after living in Tucson for 10 years now (almost as long as we lived in PHX) we still refer to going to PHX as 'going home.' We had a fun filled weekend planned for our trip to PHX and we were turning it into our mini vacation.
We started out Friday evening meeting everyone at my sister Jen's house. Morgan was so excited to see the girls and their puppies. She barely slept on the way up and by the time we pulled off the freeway on Union Hills Morgan was screaming "Caity and Lindsey's house! Puppies!" repeatedly. She couldn't wait. Morgan was excited to see how much the puppies had grown, but I don't think she was prepared for how they now behaved. They have truly become puppies. Back when they came to her party they were tiny and brand new. They barely moved; just mostly wanted to cuddle. Now they are not much bigger, but much more hyper. They were all over the place and jumping all over her and biting with their little baby teeth. Although I think she loved it she kinda looked like she wasn't sure if she did or not. After hanging with the puppies for a bit Morgan then wanted to head outside with her cousins to play. Lindsey took Morgan for a ride on her skitter. Morgan loved it!

David and I sat on the side of our van watching Morgan and her cousins play. As we sat there enjoying it we both suddenly turned to each other and commented on how nice it was to be sitting just watching Morgan play. Usually one or both of us are up playing right along with her helping her move. Morgan's cousins are such a big help and she adores playing with them.

After that we headed to Babbo, an Italian restaurant, to celebrate Lindsey's 10th birthday. We met up with my Dad and JoAnne there and enjoyed a great dinner. About half way through dinner Morgan started asking "Go back, Aunt Jen's house, play." It was getting late and she had not napped much, but she doesn't get to spend much time with her cousins so we thought why not.

We headed back to my sister's house to play and got caught up for a bit in a game of Bannagrams. It is a really fun game. We bought it for Caity for her birthday and now I see why she wanted it so badly. We had a blast, but after only two rounds or so it was already past 8:30. We still needed to return a Redbox movie and drive to my dad's house. So we said good night and headed out to Vistancia.

We thought for sure Morgan would crash in the car on the way to my dad's. Well, no luck. Instead about two miles away she started recognizing things and began yelling at the top of her lungs "Nanny and Pa's House!" over and over again. By the time we unpacked the van (it was filled to the rim with Morgan's stuff) and visited for a few minutes it was ten o'clock. Reluctantly Morgan finally passed out for the night.

Saturday morning she was up bright and early as always. We had a big day planned. We were heading with Dad, JoAnne, Caity, Lindsey, and Jen over to Arizona Mills Mall in Tempe to check out the new SeaLife Aquarium. Yes, it is an aquarium in a mall in the middle of the desert. So how was it you wonder? Well, it was about as good as you can expect for an aquarium in a mall in the middle of the desert. It actually wasn't that bad. The cost was decent ($18 for adults and like $11 for kids). There were a lot of fun stuff to see including star fish you could touch and lots of bubbles you could get in to feel like the fish were swimming around you.

Morgan touching a star fish. This was her favorite part.

Morgan in a bubble. She really enjoyed getting in these and my dad was brave enough to crawl in each of them with her. David tried one, but he was too tall to get in.

Morgan's fishy face. This was a neat semi-circle tank. She was able to drive her chair right in and look like she was inside the tank with the fish.

The girls outside the Rain Forest Cafe where we had lunch.

Morgan loved the cafe. She would get excited every time a storm started. She was so exhausted by this time that you can see she was falling asleep while eating her lunch.

After lunch Morgan caught a second wind and so did Jen and I. We were walking out to leave the mall when suddenly we past by Old Navy. They were having a huge sale, 40% off everything. What drew us in was a sign for their ribbed tanks for $2. A girl can never have enough white tanks. So while we shopped Morgan found the assortment of cars out front of the store to drive. Luckily I had a bag of quarters in the diaper bag. By the time we came out David was done to his last few quarters.

That evening we headed back to my dad and JoAnne's house to have dinner. David's brother, Brad, came over to spend time with Morgan along with Jen and the girls. We had a great time playing and visiting with everyone. When I had asked Morgan while packing for the trip what she wanted to bring to play with she had said she wanted to play baseball and golf with Pa. So, here are two videos of her playing.

After dinner the girls wrote play and asked Morgan and Nanny to perform it with them. I video taped it, but it was too long to post. It was very cute.

Sunday was the day that brought about our whole 'staycation' to Phoenix. A few months earlier I had bought David tickets for Father's Day to the Diamondbacks vs. Cardinals baseball game. David loves the Cardinals and was very excited about the game. I also bought him and Morgan t-shirts to wear to the big game. This was going to be Morgan's first experience with going to a MLB game.

The family all ready to go. Go Cards!

Daddy and his little girl.

We couldn't have picked a better game to go to. It was Buster (the mascots) 10th birthday and all his friends were there to celebrate. Morgan LOVES characters in costume and was so excited to say hi to them all. She still talks about it today.

Sorry, my camera is awful but I had to post this one. She was so excited that the Panda Express Panda actually held her. She also got to meet the Taco Bell Taco! So EXCITING :)

David took the day off on Monday so we wouldn't have to rush home after the game on Sunday. We spent the morning on Monday playing at Nanny and Pa's and then went to Jen's for a few minutes of playtime with the girls.

Morgan brought her new favorite board game, Fancy Nancy dress-up, to play with her Pa.

Morgan playing in Caity's "classroom." She has a whole room in the house set up to look like a classroom. She even has like 5 little desks for her dolls/stuffed animals. It is too cute!