Summertime Is Here...And With It, Our First Family Fun Friday Of The Break

We've only been on summer vacation a little over a week now, but we've been making the most of it so far. Last week (our first full week out of school) was busier than I'd anticipated, but it was fun...and hot (seriously, Arizona in the summer is an oppressive place sometimes). What to do? Go to the pool...a lot.

Also, have a campout with your brand-new tent...in your living room ('cause it's too darn hot to sleep outside!)

 Another fun thing: sign up the kids for summer camps at our local clubhouse!

Every summer, Carondelet (a local health-care organization) runs "wellness" camps for local kids. The camps are divided by age group, last one week (about 2 1/2 hours every morning), and every day features new activities. Several ladies in our LDS congregation have signed up their kids for these camps in summer's past, and I've heard several good reviews from them. Best of all, these camps are free! So with a long, vacation-less summer ahead, signing up the kids for these camps was an easy decision.

The camp last week was for the four-to-six-year-old kids, which meant that Celeste & Aurora went to the same camp together. Lorelai and I spent our time waiting for them by walking around the lake, running errands, and other monotonous stuff. It was kind of fun, though, to have some one-on-one time with my oldest girl. In the meantime, Celeste & Aurora did a variety of fun activities, including nature walks (complete with giant microscopes!), Duck-Duck-gGose, Red Rover, yoga, and Zumba! On their last day of camp, they went swimming.

They loved every day of the camp; I will definitely consider signing them up again next summer! Lorelai has signed up for the same camp, in the 7-to-13-year-old category. We'll see how that goes in a couple of weeks.

Almost every day after their camp was over, the girls insisted on going to our clubhouse pool. I couldn't believe they'd been outside for two and a half hours in the June sunshine, and wanted to spend a few hours more outside after that! I love taking my kids to the pool, but even just an hour in the Arizona sun can be pretty brutal this time of year. It should come as no surprise that the girls would always crash and burn hard every afternoon last week. School tires children out, of course, but so does a change of schedule and playing outdoors in extreme heat.

As is becoming our custom, I had planned on taking the girls on a day-trip to Phoenix as a Family Fun Friday this summer. As luck would have it, our Phoenix trip just happened to fall on the first Friday of summer vacation this year. The reason? I'd wanted to take my kids to the Children's Museum of Phoenix for a while now, and they have Free Friday nights on the first Friday of every month. It seemed like a good opportunity to visit the museum and see if it's worth the price they're asking (that price, incidentally, is $11 a person--ouch!).

But since the Free Friday didn't start until 5 pm, we had to find some other fun things to do in Phoenix in the meantime. No problem! For starters, we traveled to Tempe Beach Park, a small recreation area tucked in between the Salt River on the north and a booming business/retail center on the south. We kicked off this Phoenix trip by goofing off at the splash pad in the middle of the park.

Unfortunately the splash pad wasn't 100% operational the day we went (there was a small "waterslide" and a covered "rain" pavilion that were closed for repairs), but there was more than enough water to splash around in anyway.

 

The girls got nice and cooled off from our long drive north. After that it was lunchtime!

We tried out Mellow Mushroom, a hip pizza parlor that's been around for decades. We walked right past a few Arizona State University buildings to get to it; I suspect this place is pretty popular with the college students. We all split a pizza; the girls got the standard cheese & pepperoni side, while I tried one of the house specials...a "baked potato"-style pizza with thin slices of red potatoes, bacon, and sour cream.

Verdict? Pretty tasty overall, but somewhat over-hyped. While the crust was delicious, I thought the toppings were a bit skimpy. The potato pizza was quite tasty, but it just wasn't hearty enough...especially considering I paid about $25 for a large pizza. For that price, I'd like a little more toppings next time! Still, though, it was a good place to get unique-tasting pizza (the potato pizza was but one of several bizarre pizzas listed on the menu), and I'd be open to trying it again in the future.

After lunch, we headed west towards downtown Phoenix. The Children's Museum was still a few hours away from Free Friday, but there was another nearby museum we wanted to try. The Rosson House Museum, a preserved Victorian home as part of Phoenix's Heritage Square, was less than a block away from the Children's Museum, and just a short walk away from the much-beloved Arizona Science Center, where our kids have spent many a happy hour playing. It's nice to have so many attractions so close to one another. However, as soon as they saw the Science Center, the girls immediately started asking, "Why aren't we going back there?" Awkwardly, I had to explain that our membership had expired. Oops. Hopefully next time!

There were a couple of other drawbacks as well; namely, not being able to find any parking anywhere in Phoenix (thanks a lot, Phoenix Comicon! Oh well, at least we got to see lots of costumed weirdos walking around as we circled city blocks over and over, looking for a parking lot that wasn't closed or full). We finally had to drive about a half-mile away and park in front of an empty lot, then all of us had to walk that half-mile back to the museum...on a June afternoon...in Phoenix, Arizona. Ugh. And then we had to sit outside and wait another half-hour or so for the tour to start. This was probably the most unpleasant part of the day, and I wish I'd been able to plan it better.

Once the tour got started, though, things improved. Besides the Rosson House, there's another smaller house we visited inside Heritage Square. This one had an exhibit inside about women's underwear in Victorian times. Hee hee...underwear!

I have to say...after seeing how many layers of clothing women were required to wear in that time period, I felt a lot less sorry for myself walking around in the heat. I am not sure I could have survived with all those petticoats, bloomers, corsets, chemises, what have you...*faints dead away*

After that, it was time to head into the Rosson House itself...

 

The girls mostly enjoyed looking around the big fancy house. At first, Celeste thought it looked "princess-y" from the outside (of course Celeste would think that!). Just before she entered, she got a little nervous, telling me it looked a little like a haunted house as well! But once inside, she enjoyed everything.

 

"Princess" Aurora next to the spinning wheel...look out for the spindle! Thankfully, it had been removed... :)

I'm not sure how young boys would enjoy this tour...there was a lot of talk of wallpaper, furnishings, and Victorian lifestyles. But us girls were sufficiently entertained. I thought the tour guide was very knowledgeable and the home decor was lovely.

After that, it was time to head over to the Children's Museum! We had to wait outside again for a few minutes, but thankfully not for very long this time. At 5:00 on the dot, we were ushered inside and it was playtime!

The first activity in the museum was a massive, three-story-tall climbing maze; it had the girls gasping in wonder at the sight of it.

 

 It was made almost entirely from recycled materials, which gave it a pretty cool look.

There were lots of other activities throughout the museum as well. We managed to sneak into the art room, and the girls made Nathan some paper "ties" for Father's Day, complete with a cute poem.

We also picked up some swimmer-safety coloring packets:

And there were lots of other cool things, too!

Like this cute tricycle "car wash," for example...

...this pool noodle "forest"...

 

...these cool reading nooks...

This mini "grocery store" (and there was a whole "pizza parlor" next door)...

Plus a variety of vehicles to ride in...

...and musical instruments to play, made out of all kinds of objects.

One plus to the whole thing was that I randomly ran into my friend Heidi, who was one of my mission companions in Moscow, Russia back in the day (1998-99, if you must know). It was great to see her beautiful smiling face again, and briefly catch up. It only lasted a few minutes (Heidi was there with another friend, and my kids were vanishing down the hallway into another part of the museum), but it was a sweet reunion. It's always nice to see old friends!

Overall, the kids really enjoyed the museum, but I'll have to think long and hard about how and when to get back there again. The Free Friday activity was understandably very busy (although I suspect it wouldn't be quite so bad in the winter, when there are more outdoor activities to choose from)...the museum was so crowded. There were hundreds of kids swarming every which-way, and it was often hard to keep track of the girls. Also, I really don't want to pay full price to visit. It's true the Phoenix Children's Museum is bigger and better than the Tucson Children's Museum, but it's not "50% more expensive" better. Perhaps if I can find a good online deal, we'll make a return visit. Until then, it has provided the kids with a lot of happy memories.

After we got out of the Children's Museum, we ate a big dinner at Culver's, then piled into the car for the long ride home, by which time it was already dark outside. It should come as no surprise that the girls slept almost the whole way home! But that sleepiness was definitely earned. We may have had some scheduling issues in the early afternoon, but the kids enjoyed all the activities and had lots of fun. So it's a net positive for everyone.

As it turns out, this was only our first trip to Phoenix this summer. We got a nice deal on a resort hotel package, which includes admission to their fun water park. For that trip, we'll be going as a whole family, just after the Fourth of July. We are looking forward to it...and all the other Family Fun Fridays to come this summer.