AZ family fun!

 We joined our friends in AZ to celebrate Krisann's birthday.  The kids were going to spend time with their grandparents but Candy was in hospital so the kids joined us on our romantic couples vacation.

 The weather was 70-75 degrees every day, which was amazing!  Bismarck was at -25 the days we were gone. 

We went to the AZ Aquarium (Emmy's choice) and it was a great place to spend a couple hours.

Kids loved to touch the starfish, anemone, stingrays. 

 This penguin played games with Emmy

 The favorite thing we did was hike Camelback mountain.  We went over half way up the mountain and the climbing was quite treacherous!  The kids are quite the climbers.  Bobby has no fear so he often would lead the pack.  Emmy was hesitant at first, but she remembered her inner strength and athleticism and conquered her anxiety on some of the more difficult areas of the mountain hike.  I was so impressed with how hard they worked.  We thought that we all would have made it the entire way but we had some shopping to do and I was worried about potential injuries.  We had some great sushi and dinners while there and our fill of ice cream and deserts.  It was a trip full of family time that we were grateful for!

When we got back later in the morning on Monday, U Mary was having a Community Day and there was a Pow Wow on campus.  The kids had a day off for MLK day and so they came along with me with the promise of Icees from the campus store.  We enjoyed the Pow Wow and some extra time again that day.