San Xavier Mission and Tucson

On Sunday of our vacation in Arizona, we drove out to the San Xavier Mission, which is actually on an Indian Reservation just outside of Tucson for mass.  The church is absolutely stunning.  The sky was incredibly blue, with no clouds when we arrived.  We walked around, explored the "museum" and gift shop inside the church, and enjoyed some fry bread made in the parking lot by Native Americans before attending the 11:00am mass.

After mass let out, we went back to downtown Tucson to a pizza place for lunch where we split a BBQ Chicken Pizza....yum!  We stopped for ice cream that was absolutely delicious and went back to the condo to change and re-group before going for a hike at Sabino Canyon. 

Our hike at Sabino Canyon was about a mile and a half to the dam.  It was a little cool out, but the sun felt nice when it wasn't behind a cloud.  We stopped at the Visitor's Center for the kids to explore a bit.  One of the routes was actually flooded from the amount of rain they've had recently so we had to try another route to get to the dam.  It was nice and the perfect length!

We had dinner back at their condo that my mom cooked while my dad and I took the boys to the hot tub.  In the evening the boys got hooked watching "The Force Awakens" that was on TV so we let them watch some in bed before they fell asleep.

Monday, on our last full day in Tucson, we woke up and went out to eat at a delicious little spot that was known for their snickerdoodle pancakes.  They were awesome, but I enjoyed Evan's cinnamon roll pancakes a little more.  Not Weight Watchers friendly, but dang, they hit the spot!

After breakfast, we drove over to the Pima Air and Space Museum to see some really cool aircrafts, helicopters, and more.  The boys loved it and I appreciated all the interactive exhibits they had.  One was an actual airliner that the boys could pretend they were the pilots pushing buttons, pulling levers back, etc.  Another fun one was an air traffic control tower.  We easily spent a few hours at the museum and let the boys play on the playground outside the museum before leaving.

We skipped lunch and decided, since it was cool and rainy, to go chill and see the Lego Movie 2 (again for me and the boys).  After the movie, we went to dinner for our last big meal together at El Charro where we splurged on fajitas, flan, and churros.  Yum!!  We came back to the condo and got the boys ready for bed.  The adults enjoyed games of Yahtzee on the iPad (I was victorious) while watching Caddyshack on TV.  It was a great evening and I was sad to see our trip come to an end.  We had an early wake-up to drive up to Phoenix to catch our flight Tuesday morning and a full day of travel.  But, we were very blessed to get to see Tucson and my parents again this mid-winter break, even without Scott.