Labor Day weekend - Aquarium and Lego Discover Center - Day 3

Day 3 in Arizona and it's a full one, but a fun one.

The day started with breakfast at the hotel. The staff here at the hotel have been wonderful. Everyone has been very friendly. Conversing with the kids, talking to us, it's been really great. Along with their name on their name tag, they also list something they like. I remember seeing things like Golf, Family, and Camping.
Well one of the hostesses who has been very nice to the kids was Mrs. Donna. Her name tag said she liked Butterflies. And one of the coloring pages she gave the kids had butterflies. Well the kids decided to work together and make a really nice picture for her.
After some direction from Theresa, Alli's coloring in the lines dramatically improved.

That was a great job guys. Everyone did a little bit and we all signed our names in different colors.

After breakfast the kids brought their picture back up to Mrs. Donna and she was very surprised.

She fawned over it and was happy to learn that it was for her. She loves butterflies and even has butterflies in her hair.

Knowing that we didn't need to rush to the pool, we rolled up around 10am. And there's still chairs available.

We spent some time in the lazy river. The kids both wanted the yellow tubes because the hole was filled in the middle. This allowed me and T to spin them in the tubes in circles a lot faster than if their feet were dragging in the water.

Next the kids wanted to play in the main pool. T and I lucked into some prime seats right at the water's edge and in the shade.

Kids love being in the water.

They're seeing plenty of people with drinks and there's servers coming around asking if you'd like anything. We promised we'd let them get something while we were here and this is probably the best time to do it. It's hot and the smoothies are nice and cold.

After 90 minutes of pool time it's time to get going. We've got other plans today.

But first we've got to finish that smoothie. They're taking turning drinking what's left of the watermelon smoothie.

Weren't we just here? Yes but now we're back for lunch. Mrs Donna showed the kids that she was saving their drawing to take home.

After lunch we're going out and about. Off to the Sea Life Aquarium!

Where we're going to meet up with some Disney friends! It's Penny and Sophie (and Sean)! We last saw them when they came out to Disneyland last December. Now we're in their neck of the woods and looking forward to hanging out together.

They showed us some of their favorite tanks.

And the touch pools where we got to touch sea stars and anemones. Alli was very tentative but upon hearing that we'd be moving on to the next exhibit, gained her courage and quickly stuck her fingers in the tank to touch them.

An outdoor water play area? Love it.
Ian had asked about how we make electricity a few weeks ago. I had told him how we sometimes use a dam to spin water turbines to generate electricity, and here's a great example! The water flows down the river, then goes through this model dam and spins a couple wheels at the bottom.

Ian gathered every single fish he could find and set them all off on a journey down the Colorado river.

There's lots of aquariums here that have viewing windows that the kids could get in.

They could get up close and personal with the fish in the tank.

Smile kids!

Are you guys inside the tank?

You guys are silly.

Right next door to the aquarium is a Lego Discovery Center. Let's go explore!

There were plenty of impressive Lego models. Hey, I recognize that Southwest plane.

But the kids really love being creative and building things.

I bet Ian spent 45 minutes building cars and racing them down the ramp. He loved making all sorts of different cars. And now I think I know what to get him for his birthday. Wheels to go with the Legos he already has. And maybe a ramp of some sort to race them down.

Looks great Sophie!

It's time to go. One last race guys!

And now we're meeting up with another of our Disney friends. Matt and Amy invited us over to their Disney Museum house and then we all went out to dinner. The kids loved playing with Charlotte back in April when they came out for Dapper Day. Ian saw a Haunted Mansion themed game of Life and they played together.

Dinner time!

We've experienced the heat that Arizona has to offer. On the drive over to the restaurant we got to see another fun side of living here. I'd never heard the term haboob, but found out what it meant later. The clear skies quickly turned cloudy, the wind really picked up, and the overall visibility went down dramatically. All the grit and sand were blowing and I had Ian close his eyes as I carried him into the restaurant. Whew! Crazy!

Inside the Tee Pee mexican restaurant, the kids all sat together. Ian, you are way outnumbered girls to boys.

And all the adults nearby. The food was tasty. Good recommendation Amy.

The crazy weather continued outside. We even lost power for a little while!

Smile kids.

Time to say our goodbyes, but thankfully it won't be for too long. We'll see everyone again for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Back at the hotel, we got to the room and changed into our swimsuits. It's only 7pm so there's another hour before the pool closes. When we arrived, there was no one manning the gate, but our keycard opened it right up for us.
And wow, the pool is completely empty. There's not even workers here.

The kids had 15 minutes or so of the pool all to themselves when I noticed that there was some lightning in the far-off distance. We're not going to take any chances with that, so I told the kids it was time to get out. Later I learned from another guest that they'd actually closed the pool earlier, which is why it was empty when we arrived.

To finish our night, we again made s'mores at the fire pit and Ian and I played another game of checkers.

It's been a great vacation so far. I'm sad to see it end tomorrow.