Arizona {Day 8 and 9}

{December 24}

We had a fun Christmas Eve! We started our day watching  The Greatest Showman.  It was such a good movie.  Hugh  Jackman, Zac Efron and Michelle Williams were fantastic! 

After the movie we went to a brand new aquarium in Scottsdale called OdySea.  It was absolutely amazing!  When we arrived we went next door to the Dolphinaris to see a free dolphin show.  When we went to OdySea the lady who took our tickets said our first stop should be to the bathroom.  There was an aquarium in front of the sinks.  It was so cool! 

In addition to lots and lots of fish they had the cutest sloth, a toucan, and a touch pool where you could touch sting rays and star fish.  They also had two tanks full of piranhas. 

 

At one point in our tour we went down an escalatorand were   surrounded by a tank of fish.  It was really cool!  

The last part of the tour we sat in a rotating theatre and saw four different tanks of marine life including sharks and sea turtles.  The whole place was really incredible!  

Here is a picture of the rotating theatre from the OdySea website.  It was a really unique and fun part of our time at the aquarium.

If you go

-Admissions is $34.95 for adults and $29.95 for students. 

 -You buy your tickets ahead of time on line and can add extra things (like meals, encounters and special tours)

-We just did the basic aquarium tour and it took us about 2.5 hours to go through.

After the aquarium we went went to lunch at In and Out burger. It was so good!  And I’m so glad we got to try it. 

  I got ready and went to Christmas Eve Mass and the boys stayed home and watched a Christmas movie.  They picked me up from church and we went back to our hotel changed into our fun Christmas cactus  jammies.  Pictured below Brock did not want me to take a pic of us wearing them 🙄😂

{Christmas Day}

We had a relaxing morning, we slept in late, watched the Disney Christmas parade on TV,  called and FaceTimed our family, and then had breakfast.

After our late breakfast we went to watch The Shape of Water.  I loved it!  I thought it was so good and I’m sure it will win many Golden Globes and Acadmy Awards.

After the movie we hiked to Camelback Mountain in Phoenix.  It was a beautiful afternoon for a hike.  There were SO many people out and about on the trail this afternoon.  It was a beautiful day and I think people were happy to be out in the sunshine.  This was a short hike but very treacherous.  It was rated extremely difficult. 

It was a tough hike but the views were worth it!  It was absolutely gorgeous.  

G had no trouble with this part of the hike.  B and I struggled to get to the top of this part.

I’m so glad we went.  It was a good workout!  Especially after a week of non-stop eating-ha ha!

 

We had a great Christmas!  I was so happy to be with Brock. 

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

Xoxo