Fun with the Pachecos

Jake's dad and family came down for their spring break the last week of March/first bit of April. It was their vacation so they wanted to do fun things, but they were understanding that we couldn't go to everything because I just didn't quite have the energy for it yet, so I appreciate that.
We went to Kartchner Caverns with them. I had never been to it, and it is pretty popular. Not just in Arizona, but everywhere, so we had always wanted to go. It is less than 3o minutes from our house. It was really neat, I couldn't believe the amount of money that had been put into it. Not a place for kids though. I had left Jaxon with a babysitter, and though the girls really enjoyed it and were interested in it, the guides were so anal that it wasn't as fun as it could be. Obviously, you aren't allowed to touch anything, and in most places you can't touch anything because there is a guardrail on both sides of the walkway, but the guides didn't even want the kids touching the guardrail. We had to keep telling kids to walk in the middle of the path and keep hands in pockets (even though there was nothing to touch), etc. But the caves were really neat. It is crazy that underneath very ugly, nonchalant-looking hills there could be such beautiful caves.
On April 1st the whole kindergarten was going on a trip to the Tucson zoo (too bad I didn't know about that earlier and we wouldn't have gone in March), so we decided to meet the girls up at the zoo and take them home with us. Our trip was much more uneventful this time despite a few breakdowns from the kids. We had a great time and effectively wore the kids out so that they were all asleep before we were out of the parking lot.
We also spent Monday exporing Bisbee, a fun historic town closeby. We were going to go down to Jake's work and watch him fly, but the wind didn't cooperate. We had fun walking around Bisbee and going to the museam though.
Our visit was a lot of fun and I am so glad that we are a tiny bit closer to family so that driving is possible and hopefully our kids can see their extended family more than once a year.

This picture was taken at Kartchner caverns. We could only take pictures in the visitors center because flashes from cameras can hurt the rocks in the caves. L2R: Jono (Jake's brother that is living with us), Jerry, Kenna then Kailey, Mckayla and Amelie (Jake's half-sister).

Jake and his dad. See the family resemblance?

We did let the kids play at the water playground at the end of our zoo visit, but we were prepared with a change of clothes this time.

Here's Mckayla posing as a peacock.

Lyla riding an elephant.

This is what Jaxon though of feeding the giraffe.

Mckayla, Lyla, and Amelie playing queens of the rock. Luckily no one was pushed off in this game.

Jerry, Jace and Jaxon riding the elephant. (say that 3 times fast)

This is Kailey in the cutest little sundress my mother in law sent. It is perfect because of the little sunhat. My mother in law always seems to find the cutest clothes.

This is Mckayla and Lyla playing at the visitor's center at Kartchner caverns. Those holes are showing the size of hole that they discovered the caverns through.

Here is Lyla in front of a fake formation at the visitor's center.