Sonoran Desert Museum

Saturday was rough going...afterall the girls, Aunt Laura and I were up at 5 AM. But still, we decided to venture out. We went to the Sonoran Desert Museum in Saguaro National Park on the west side of Tucson. I have been there 4 or 5 times now, and I always enjoy it. Kiersten slept in the van for about 15 minutes on the way there. Uncle Jeff treated us, and we excited to get going. Lucky for us they had complimentary strollers for little one. It is quite a hike!

They have quite a few animals, desert animals that is...and so Leah called it the zoo. I think the first thing we saw was a mountain lion. The girls were impressed! Next we saw the Turkeys. Uncle Jeff had to hold up Kiersten so she could get a better look and she says "I eat him!" It made us all laugh...of course we heard lots of "gobble, gobble" too. We saw some deer, and then kept moving along. We walked through some caves...Leah was not happy. She has some bad memories of a "cave" at Rockome gardens where she got frightened so she was apprehensive, but we survived.

We saw the coyotes next. He was moving around and was hard to spot but I think Leah saw him. We were so excited to see Javelina's...if you don't know, they are a kind of wild pig. So fun to see and lots of "oink, oink" was heard. There is actually a book about the 3 little javelinas...Leah likes to say "little pig, little pig, let me in...not by the hair on my chinny chin chin" and another one called Don't call me pig. One of these days when we are out there I am going to remember to pick up those books! By the time we got to the end we had some tired and hungry little ones, so I passed on the gift shop.

Both the girls were so excited by the river otter, Kiersten just laughed and laughed watching him swim and kept saying "look at that" over and over. By the time we came out of the under ground/water exhibit we were about to turn a corner and Leah kept saying "P U it smells like stinky goats" sure enough, there they were. Well actually they were big horn sheep but she had the right idea. Their horns were enormous and the girls likes seeing them. We finished up with the turtles (never saw them) the bird exhibit and the hummingbird garden. We stopped halfway through for a snack and a drink but it was almost noon. We were all tired and hungry. The girls both napped in the car on the way to Beyond Bread...Uncle Jeff did too! We had a good lunch (it's the same complex where Gabby Giffords got shot last year) and then headed home where we all took LONG naps....me and Aunt Laura first of course :)