Awesome Arizona

Lucky girl, Ellie, got to go on a trip to Chandler, Arizona with Gran Carolyn to visit Uncle Jon, Uncle Matt, Aunt Gretchen, and cousins Sam and Kelly. She left last Friday and returned home early, early Monday morning. Before she left, I gave her a small camera and told her to make sure to snap a few pics. I had a feeling she'd take good care of the camera and would come back with a few shots. Sure enough, first thing this morning, she asked me to download her pictures. And I cracked up when I saw that in just over 48 hours, she took about 200 pictures. That's pretty attentive for a 7 year old girl! The first step is remembering to actually take the camera out of it's case and with you wherever you go, and then you have to take the pictures! There are some pictures of people , some pictures of the scenery (down to the minute details) and LOTS of pictures of dogs. She really likes dogs. I didn't post one quarter of the dog pics that she took. You will also see that she likes nature, specifically rocks. She took a lot of pictures of rocks and trees and plants. I couldn't resist sharing a few them with you, along with some of her comments. After all my talk about picture taking and how critical I was of my own pics, I have to say that these pictures are pretty close to perfect to me.

Uncle Matt and Kelly - thanks for having Ellie for the weekend!Kelly's dolls

Watch out for the really big cactus growing on the side of the house. The aloe vera plant growing out front. A nice, red rock.
Sam holding a really cool looking rock. Possibly from the moon.
Sam.
This is the first picture in a sequence of pictures taken at the Renaissance Faire. Ellie was meant to live during the Renaissance period. She loved the fun to be had there and especially the bird shows.
Oh, and the danes. She loved the danes. The danes were everywhere. More danes.

A ride. Ellie and Kelly are riding it.
Another dane.

Ellie and Uncle Jon.
Kelly in her Robin Hood hat. Ellie got one too because she was sweating in that Arizona sun!
Another great dane.
And yes, another.

Some details in Matt's house. The chess game. Matt and Gretchen love games. Ellie feeling the water in Matt and Gretchen's pool. Glad she didn't drop the camera on this shot.
She likes rocks. She spied a star fish. Pictures of pictures. She took about 10 of these. The grapfruit, she said.The grapefruit tree. A lovely trip.