The second full day we were in Arizona started a touch later than the first day, but still pretty early. The kids and I did some exploring around our hotel while we waited for the pool to open. I had a phone interview that morning, so I wanted to stay close by until that was done. Our hotel was neat because all of the doors opened to the outside (motel-like) and it had a very irregular layout. It made for great exploring.
Here’s a view of the pool area from a few floors up. Our room was on the ground floor, right near the pool gate. It was perfect.
There were lime trees all around! I didn’t even notice they had limes on them until we got to an upper level and had a close-up view.
After our walk I let the kids swim while I had my interview. It seemed pretty perfect to me, but I didn’t get the job and therefore maybe not the best interview location. At one point I lost my train of thought completely when Eve went under and didn’t come back. Fortunately she did come back moments later and fortunately I was interviewing with people I knew, so it was easy to explain the temporary lose of attention.
Silly kids. They played all sorts of games, including karate ninja mermaids.
When the interview was over and the kids were thoroughly soggy (ha! like that ever happens!) we went back to the hotel room for a lunch of peanut butter crackers, yogurt, and fruit, then packed up for a trip to the Children’s Museum of Phoenix. This place is AMAZING! If we lived nearby I would totally have a membership! One of the many, many, many things I loved about it was that each area had a theme, and each area had a baby sub-area that fit with the same theme. Not that I needed it, but it was cool that you could bring big kids and little ones and everyone could have fun and still stick together. Anyway, so many cool things about this place!
When you first walk in there is a giant, two-story climbing structure.
I love all the crazy details, so many are recycled craft projects too.
A bathtub with wings? Why not?! The ramp leads right into it as well, so the kids can play in there. Fun!!
I wish I had the panoramic feature that the iPhones have. This would have made a good panorama picture instead of taking it in three shots.
A shoe rack, outside of a “socks only” area.
Noodle forest. Seriously cool.
A wrench xylophone. One of many hardware related musical instruments.
I love how they use so many common, every day items to make cool activities for the kids.
Balls roll down the ramps, bumping into the pots and pans and making different sounds. Each area also had “what are your kids learning” signs around for the parents to read.
Eve doing a little flower gardening.
A fort room with umbrellas and sleds on the ceiling. Of course.
Tons of common household items available to build forts.
A “car wash” with lots of different tricycles and scooters to ride through. Targeted a little more towards the younger kids, but everyone was having fun.
“Paint the Castle!” A big wooden (or cardboard?) castle that the kids can paint. Apparently a different color each day. When we were there it was pink. Kids were given smocks, a big paintbrush (like you’d use for a house, not for water colors on paper) and a big bucket of pink paint. The castle had lots of things stuck to it as well, giving it some texture and detail. Lex and Eve didn’t want to paint (they were wearing down by this point!) but I thought the idea was really cool.
We stopped for some arts and crafts. The theme that day was desert so we made snakes.
They have a little café with healthy snacks available. We sat by the window overlooking an outdoor play area that was way to hot to play on! We enjoyed the view though, and the snacks, and the break.
This is a full-wall activity with tubes that have air blowing through them. You put colored scarves in holes at the bottom and the air pushes the scarves through the tubes and shoots them out holes at the top. Then the kids jump and scramble to catch the scarves as they float down. This lady in stripes was grabbing them all first and handing them out to her group of kids. Not cool!
Legs hanging out of a boat. We ended up back at the climbing structure at the end of the day and this caught my eye. Kids peek their head out the top and legs hanging below (not real legs!). Pure fun.
The museum even had some covered parking (completely full by the time we got there) which I think every thing in Arizona should have! They had solor panels on top and even had a few electric car charging stations. I almost parked there, but then remembered I was driving a rental not our Nissan Leaf. It was the last available spot under the awning and when we came out we found a huge pick-up truck parked there. The thing didn’t even fit in the space!
That evening we had dinner again with Amy and Ian at the Mexican restaurant in the hotel. Everyone was pretty tired so we turned in early… or at least vacation early, which of course is still later than regular non-vacation bedtime! We had to rest up for our long trip to the Grand Canyon the next day!
