visit to PHX

We visited Arizona last week for the holidays. We chose last week as it split Thanksgiving and Christmas and thus made for easier traveling. We visited my folks in Phoenix and also my brother's family in Tucson. Uncle David also drove out from Dallas to be part of the festivities. Overall the trip was great and I have lots of pics to share. Here are some from the first part of the trip.

We visited the Phoenix Zoo, a great zoo that is also close to my parent's home. We spent 5 hours there and the kids could have spent more!

Here they are at the sting ray petting display. This was a big hit, obviously.

There was also a carousel that was also super popular. Here is Viviana on the ride.

The whole thing was exhausting my Kris, Tom and me, but Amalia and Camilo couldn't get enough.

The petting zoo was another exciting part. Nothing like petting goats for a good time. Both Camilo and Anacelia liked this black goat.

This prairie dog seemed to be happy just sitting there and watching the visitors walk by.

More of the rays. This was the second visit and the kids got to feed the rays!

The three girl cousins in the backyard.

I think this was on the way to the zoo. Big excitement!

More from the carousel. Anacelia liked the hummingbird.

Viviana was amazed by something...

Maybe it was this lion who was sunning himself on a rock in a regal pose.

The four cousins decided to pose in front of the lion's enclosure.

The baboons were captivating.

Riding the camel wasn't cheap but the kids all had to do it. Gabe got the pleasure of taking Viviana on the ride and he couldn't have been more excited.

Amalia and Anacelia rode the camel together.

Amalia rode on some kind of mythical sea creature. 

Camilo rode on the giraffe.

Viviana on a tiger!

The lion got tired of us... he had been promised a snack of young kids and was disappointed when it didn't happen.

Anacelia and Amalia on the camel.

We also visited a train themed park in Scottsdale and this was obviously a highlight for Camilo. This was a replica of a full sized train and was a real, functioning steam engine that gave rides.

Its always fun to make faces for a camera. 

I practically had to wrestle Camilo to get him to leave the train park. Its now one of his favorite parks anywhere!