I know it sounds insane, but we decided to take our vacation to Tucson the week of July 4th! Yes, it was crazy hot, but that was part of the fun! We had such a blast visiting with our friends every day, swimming, sleep overs, visiting museums and zoos, going out to fun restaurants and seeing a cool show. It was such a fun-filled week!
Loaded up and ready to go! (Gracie didn't go with us. Our first stop was the doggy hotel for her!)
Our first stop on the way to Tucson is always at the Cracker Barrel. Everyone saves up their hunger for this one stop! We all discuss what we're going to order and what we're excited to eat on our way. It's a fun tradition! And the boys love playing checkers in the rocking chairs while we wait. (I love the gift store just as much as the food!!)
This was pretty much Ben anytime we hopped in the car for the entire week. The little guy was SO tired!!
Our first date with our friends was at the movies to see Despicable Me 3. It didn't disappoint and the kids had so much fun eating candy, popcorn and soda before lunch. At least it was vacation!
For the 4th, we met up at Jennifer's parents house for the most delicious, authentic Mexican food ever. Seriously, it was so good I didn't want to stop eating! The kids were really tired but we also excited for fireworks. They are allowed to do fireworks there, so we bought a ton of sparklers for all the kids. Sadly, our kids were scared of them at first. But they eventually warmed up to them and had fun writing their names and making shapes in the sky. Then, we were in the perfect spot to watch a big firework show put on by the community they live in. It was a great way to spend the evening.
Lucy thoroughly enjoyed her ice cream!
Jennifer found the girls these super cute matching dresses to wear to church! They were excited for the dresses but even more excited to match!
Enjoying one of the many Eegees we gobbled up while in town. If you've never had an Eegee, it's the best slurpee ever. It isn't sticky sweet, more like fruit blended with ice. My favorite is lemon.
We stayed at a really cool resort (very affordable in the summer!) that had the best swimming pool for kids! It was super shallow at one end, so the non swimmers could feel comfortable and the entire pool only went to about four feet deep. For the 4th, the staff put on several games at the pool for the kids with free popsicles and they brought around frozen grapes for everyone. It was so much fun! We swam at the pool every single day we were there!
One of the games was a minigolf type thing where they had to putt lemons into the hole!
This giant chess set was ready to play every day we were there - and it got a lot of use!
Another game they set up was water soccer. There was a floating goal and the kids had to shoot the ball into the goal to win a popsicle.
Benji just enjoyed watching with Daddy.
Pool noodles make great hoses/weapons. I wonder where they learned this trick?
Oh, right. Daddy.
They also had a full service menu we could order so we got some snacks for this hungry mob!
Blowing bubbles in the courtyard area.
Jennifer and I took the kids to the cutest museum of miniatures! It was so cute, we decided we needed to come back without the kids some time so we could admire everything longer!!
There were all kinds of tiny doll houses and every detail was complete.
The boys were of course drawn to this miniature of a Star Wars town.
Ben loved this one. It had animals riding motorcycles that moved along the track through the little town. He would have stayed here all day watching it!
This was Lucy's favorite! It was a cute little tree that had hidden hollows filled with scenes from a little mouse family.
The Christmas village was so amazing! You could walk across it and look down into the little village.
What's not to love about tiny dolls?!?
Later that night, we met everyone for dinner at a special restaurant. It is located in this little western village, so we explored while we waited for our friends to arrive. It was crazy hot, but it was still fun to check out.
This tiger was made of metal and so insanely hot, it would burn you if you touched it. But it had a chain on it that wasn't too bad so the kids enjoyed pulling on it.
The gang's all here!
Fancy
So this restaurant is like a western type place and they cut off your ties (as a joke). We knew this ahead of time, so Jennifer grabbed some ties from the thrift store and we told all the kids they had to wear a tie to the fancy restaurant. When we got inside, Jonah saw this sign and started getting nervous.
Henry was hangry.
The tie bandits got him!!
Even Lucy wanted a tie and enjoyed getting it cut!
After they cut your ties, they give you a card to fill out then they nail the tie and card up on the ceiling. It was really fun and good food!
Admiring the John Wayne stuff.
Henry lost his first tooth! He was afraid the tooth fairy wouldn't know to come to the hotel but she didn't forget.
One of the days, we went to the Desert Museum, which is basically a desert zoo. It was SUPER hot, but surprisingly a lot of the animals were still out for us to see, which is always fun!
This little guy is literally called a Pack Rat! He was really cute!
Of course Cat made a few appearances.
Rocks. They have a field of rocks and you are allowed to take one home. So naturally, with seven kids, we spent most of our time here while they picked out the perfect rock.
Digging for dinosaur fossils and bones.
The prairie dogs were a huge hit! They were really active digging and running around.
They even have a small indoor aquarium with animals from the Gulf of Sonora. Henry and Lucy were impressed with the sea horses.
Ben was hot but he really did like these little water worms/snakes. I don't really know what they were but they were funny.
Our friends introduced us to a new Tucson tradition. They took us to the Gaslight - which is like a melodrama type place. We went to see Spider Guy. It was HILARIOUS!!! It was even funnier to watch Jonah. He has never been to a place like this and was completely shocked when people started booing and clapping and yelling. But he soon got the hang of it and was hollering and yelling with everyone!
Afterwards, the kids had fun taking pictures in these funny posters.
We found this funny hamburger car and just had to get a picture with it!
On our way home, we stopped outside Tucson at this ranch that offered monster truck tours and a petting/feeding zoo. It was about 110 degrees so we were super hot, but it was still fun.
The donkeys were really cute! They didn't want us to leave and would heehaw when we stopped feeding them!
Next up were the parakeets. Sadly, the kids didn't understand to hold the stick covered in bird seed for the birds to come eat and everyone except Jonah just shoved it through the bars and dropped it. So basically only Jonah got to feed them.
Next up were these hilarious goats. They said the goats love to be up high. So every morning, when the let them out of their pen, the goats race to this cage to be the first ones inside it. They allow a certain number in, then they raise it up. The goats had water inside and then they get fed all day long! You poured the food into these little cups that were attached to the conveyor belt. Then you reel the belt up and it dumps the food into their bowls.
All the goats that don't make it into the coveted roof top cage, come here and stick their heads out these holes waiting to be fed.
They also had some sweet little deer. They were very shy and gentle.
The ostrich was scary. You had to pour the food into the tube for it to eat because it would peck you pretty badly if you stuck your hand in.
More goats.
The ducks were crazy too. We basically just had to throw food at them.
The lorikeets were really fun. They weren't shy at all! You just held out the cup with the lid on it and a lorikeet would fly over, take the lid off and start eating.
The monster truck guy came over and gave all the kids tokens to play the shooting game while we waited for our tour. So fun!
Henry was so excited to be on a real monster truck!
Jonah heard the back was the bumpiest so he wanted to sit there. Great.
We saw the ostrich.
At the end of the tour, the truck stopped and we got to go fishing for ostrich! We had poles and would attach orange slices with a clip. They you hang the orange down and wait for an ostrich to come over and pull it off. It was a hit!!
