South Mountain Park

We drove from Tucson to Phoenix and met up with the girls' friend Ila at South Mountain Park. 

The view was amazing!

We stayed until sunset...

Then we enjoyed a delicious dinner with Ila and her family!

Saguaro National Park

We visited Saguaro National Park... the weather was perfect for hiking and there were so many cacti!

Girls posing as cacti. 

Dabbing cactus!

A cactus skeleton. 

Girls were on the lookout for scorpions, but we did not see any. 

We took a family selfie using Justin's iPhone!

Biosphere 2

The hotel we stayed at had a chocolate milk machine... the girls were thrilled! 

We visited Biosphere 2, a three acre research facility containing simulated biomes. In the 1990's, eight researchers were sealed inside of the structure for two years as an experiment to see if they could grow their own food while conducting experiments. The structure is no longer sealed but still serves as an active research facility.  

Girls standing in front of a giant piece of quartz. 

This is where the rainforest biome is located. 

Additional Biosphere 2 buildings... the building with the tower is where the scientists lived during the experiment in the 1990's. 

Lauren checking out the rainforest biome.

Experiments on the effects of drought and elevated carbon dioxide levels have been performed here. 

This is the simulated ocean area.

The grassland biome.

This is one of the "lungs"... when Biosphere 2 was a sealed system, the temperature fluctuations caused the air in the facility to expand/contract. This giant disc would move up and down to help equalize the pressure differences. So interesting!

Arizona-Senora Desert Museum

We recently went on a trip to Arizona... the altitude/air pressure changes on the plane made Lauren's dried seaweed snack bag puffy!

After landing in Tucson, we ate lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. Emily was concerned that the sign said, "Gound Beef", but the food was actually pretty good.

We visited the Arizona-Senora Desert Museum. 

So many cacti!

Chuckwalla iguana with a spiny-tailed iguana in the background...

Gopher snake...

Mexican fireleg tarantula!

A scenic desert viewpoint...

Emily's selfie.

Some of the cacti were so tall!

Javelina... they look a bit like pigs but are unrelated.

Ocelot... the fur pattern is so pretty!

Walking around looking at cacti...

I took this portrait of the girls while we were there. :)

We saw a beaver swimming in their habitat.

These birds in the aviary were very aggressive and tried to bite my sock. 

As we drove back from the museum, we stopped to enjoy the desert scenery. 

A beautiful sunset.

We had wood-fired pizza for dinner at a local restaurant and it was amazing!