Cows, pigs, and lace doilies part 2!

Our field trip day did not end with our agriculture lesson however! We had driven two hours to get to Tucson (and the University of Arizona) so I wanted to make the most of our day. After cleaning up -- and re-dressing Claire -- we headed to the Sonora Desert Museum. The drive to the museum was incredible and I was eager to get out of the car with my camera!

The desert in the Spring takes my breath away.

The Ocotillo is one my favorite cacti and in the Spring it completely outdoes itself. This one was reaching for an amazingly blue sky yesterday...it made me smile!

My silly boys...

The Sonora Desert Museum is part botanical garden, part zoo, part museum. We saw mountain lions, brown bear, beavers and an adorable river otter! The Aviary was so cool and we were walking around in arm's reach of these beautiful birds!

And if you know me...you know that hummingbirds are my favorite. And there was an entire aviary dedicated to them! Oh, my camera was so happy!!

And if you know my Cate, you know that purple is her favorite color...so when we found a PURPLE HUMMINGBIRD we both were soo excited!

Cate was running and yelling "Follow me, follow me!" and of course, we did! Can you see why I love my desert...these are just a few of the plants flowering right now! So beautiful!!



In the "cave", we were able to "hear" like bats...

Did I mention how much I love the desert?

Look at the Brittle bush blooming in the rocks!

Yes, this is the girl who had her arm in the cow a few hours ago...she loves Daisies almost as she loves animals! And we are not sure what this is...but it totally looks like miniature desert daisies!



We left the museum at closing time and headed north to Phoenix...but not before stopping for ice cream. I had not planned this part....but we stumbled upon Swenson's Ice Cream Factory and were just delighted to find an old time ice cream shop.

After sharing an old fashion Vanilla Coke, my kids were thrilled with their ice cream choices -- Benjamin's was a "Jailhouse Rocker Ice Cream Sundae"!

Oh, and that girl who palpated the cow's uterus...well, she squealed in delight when her ice cream arrived served on a doily!


And this girl...well, she just loved the chocolate!

What a wonderful day -- a blessing on so many levels!