Our Wet & Wild Phoenix Staycation 2014 Pt. 1

We took a family trip to Phoenix not once, but TWICE this summer! Our first trip was at the beginning of June, and it was a lot of fun. However, on that trip we were missing one important part of our family...Daddy! For this early-July trip, Nathan made sure to take a couple of days off to join us in our out-of-town revelries. We were out of town on the Monday & Tuesday following Independence Day weekend; this ended up being a very eventful five-day weekend for Nathan!

Several weeks before, we'd made reservations at the Arizona Grand, a nice resort conveniently located in south Phoenix. We've visited the Grand one other time a few years ago, and promised ourselves we would return when the girls were a little older and could enjoy the water park a bit more. Both our visits were inspired by the discount-deal website LivingSocial, who offered a cheaper-than-usual night in one of the resort's deluxe suites. But before we checked in, we thought we'd have a little fun on the way up to Phoenix...

...like feeding a bunch of random animals at the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch.

 

We've also visited the ostrich ranch before, but our kids love it dearly and have often asked about visiting again. We thought that dropping by on the way up to Phoenix made a lot of sense.

Helloooooo, hungry deer....

 The only downside, of course, was that this visit would be in the middle of summer and the farm would be hot, since it's mostly unshaded. We headed out a little early to try and avoid this issue.

The very bravest of us managed to "kiss" a few goats, by feeding them straight from our own mouths...

...as shown

Celeste, goat-kisser

 

As you can see by Celeste's face, feeding the ostriches is kind of scary. They are big, fast, strong, and creepy up close!

Despite the heat, we enjoyed the farm as much as our last visit. In fact, the warmth may have worked to our advantage, since we almost had the place to ourselves!

One of our favorite parts of this farm is feeding the tame lorikeets; they drink nectar out of small plastic cups you are given with your admission.

The birds aren't shy at all; they can even pry off the plastic lids of the nectar cups all by themselves!

If you're patient enough, they'll hop onto you to get a closer look at your nectar cup...

In addition, Aurora had a lot more fun than her previous visit. Last time, she was terrified by the close proximity of the deer & goats, and she cried several times, but this time she was lovey-dovey with almost all the animals. She has become quite the animal-lover in recent months; every time any animal is in close proximity (be it dog, cat, hamster, donkey, goat, deer, or ostrich), Aurora wants to approach it, hug it, and pet it while cooing and singing into its ears. It's adorable.

She even loved the big, scary ostriches

There's one new feature at the ostrich ranch that was added between our visits: a prairie-dog village!

Most of it is located underground, but there's a large grid of entrances & exits throughout the small gated area. And you can feed the prairie dogs, too! In addition to the animal feed and lorikeet nectar you receive with your admission, you're also given a handful of peanuts to offer the prairie dogs. Apparently they love peanuts!

Unlike most of the other animals, the prairie dogs are pretty shy, and can't be fed by hand. But the girls would toss their peanuts onto the ground inside the village, and a few moments later a prairie dog would waddle up and snatch them. And I do mean "waddle"...these prairie dogs look, ahem, very well-fed.

After we said goodbye to the ostrich ranch, we drove a little further up the road to Casa Grande, where we grabbed a quick lunch (this city is the unofficial "halfway" point between Tucson and Phoenix). Bellies filled with Chick-Fil-A, we headed up to Phoenix and the Arizona Grand!

 

Soon after checking in, we headed for the Oasis Water Park, one of our favorite parts of the resort.

We probably spent more than three hours there, in the hot afternoon sun. It was refreshing and glorious! We enjoyed the water park much more this time around than we did on our last visit, mainly because our kids were older and able to swim independently, without Nathan and I hovering near them the whole time. Celeste & Lorelai wandered from wave pool to splash pad to lazy river to water slides, and back again. And we brought along Aurora's life jacket, so she was able to swim about on her own quite a bit as well.

Lorelai was able to go down the water slides this time, and she was overjoyed at the opportunity. However, she decided against the steep "drop-off" slides and stuck to the more traditional "serpentine" slide.

In fact, I was the only one who attempted the tall slides this trip; I'd never gone down one before and I decided to conquer my fears. As it turns out, I didn't have much time to be scared, and I ended up with a huge wedgie and a nose full of water, so I don't think I'll be doing that type of water slide any time in the near future.

Tragically, Celeste was just an inch or two too short to ride the water slides! It was a terrible blow to our little adrenaline junkie. She was turned away at the slide entrance, and Nathan took her to the front office to appeal her case (after all, she's ridden many other water slides before). However, she was refused there too. Celeste walked out of the office, sat down in a nearby chair and burst into tears. It was so sad! One of the office staff took pity on her and brought out some candy for her to eat. This quickly cheered her up, and thankfully she enjoyed the rest of her stay at the water park (with only a little sulking now and then). I'm grateful Celeste is a girl who can "bounce back" quickly from disappointments.

After drying off and getting dressed, we drove a few minutes south of the resort to grab some dinner. Nathan had found a small soul-food restaurant called Ezekiel's that he wanted to try. The girls weren't too impressed (they like their fried chicken more fast-food tasting, I guess), but I thought the meal was delicious!

Best. Sweet. Potatoes. Ever. I am not exaggerating. I could have eaten two pounds of them!

All five of us were pretty exhausted by this time. We collapsed into our room, and after a little television, fell asleep in our comfortable beds (all of us except poor Nathan, that is; he ended up on the hide-a-bed in the living room, because all the girls refused it! Next time, we will have to be more insistent that they use that bed!). Another day of fun awaited us in the morning.