When my mom called to tell me that my Grandpa Pete’s beloved cat Scooter had died, my first thought was that she, we, SOMEBODY had to go visit him.  Once I spoke to my grandpa on the phone and heard how truly, truly sad he was, there was no doubt about it;  we were headed for sunny Arizona to give Grandpa Pete some love and R & R.

It turned out to be a great deal for me because my Aunt Megan and Uncle Chad came too as well as my little sister Livi.  I hadn’t seen anyone since Thanksgiving so not only was the warm sunshine good for my soul but the people didn’t hurt either.

I am convinced that mornings in Arizona are what it’s all about.  We arrived late in the evening so it was such a treat to wake up and walk outside into the beautiful mild weather. We enjoyed many mornings in the backyard and as you can see, made ourselves quite comfortable.  : )

My Grandpa is a long time collector of trains and has several actually set up in his house.  I’m not talking simply train and tracks either.  These are elaborate set ups with billowing smoke, train sounds, scenes with people and all sorts of fun stuff.  He loves it.

Cool as the trains are, sitting all day at a Grandpa Bachelor pad isn’t how we love to spend our days, so we hit the ground running with the zoo on day one!

A highlight is always getting to feed the Giraffe’s!  Talk about up close and personal.

Livi enjoyed the Giraffe’s, but what she was looking forward to most were the Llamas.  That is until this one spit right in her face.

There were a few tears from Livi as it was everyone else’s fist instinct to laugh, but she recovered and we moved on to more zoo fun.

The zoo is always exhausting but usually worth it.  Livi had fun and it was nice to spend a day in the sun just wandering around.  We got some great photos and enjoyed a lovely late lunch together surrounded by squawking flamingo’s.