Day 47 - I.d.e.a. Museum

The new Once Upon a Time exhibit opened last month at the i.d.e.a. Museum and since Kid One's pogo pass expires today, it was our last day to check it out for free.

Anything I write about this today will be a repeat so I'll refer you to this post and say good night.

http://vaughnfamilysummerfun.blogspot.com/2015/05/day-7-idea-museum.html

Day 46-Disney Store Summer Play Days

We love to play at the San Tan Village in Gilbert, Arizona. They have a puppy store, Build-a-Bear, playground and splash pad, tropical smoothie, and one of our favorite stores, The Disney Store.

Every summer, the Disney Store hosts these fun little free events called "Summer Play Days." All Disney stores are required to offer free activities at least 3 days a week but most have something everyday. Earlier this summer we went to the Disney Store in Temecula, CA for storytime. They read a story about Jake and the Neverland Pirates, had the kids act parts of it out and gave them all gold doubloons with a picture of Cubby on them. Today we participated in the Art of Drawing at San Tan Village. The kids learned to draw Mickey Mouse and Captian America's shield. Each week kids participate, they can earn a new pin for their lanyard. Most of the activities only take about 15-20 minutes, so we usually make the Disney Summer Play Day part of a mall outing instead of our only activity for the day. Activities start in June and go through August. Times and activities vary every week so call ahead to find the schedule.

Day 45 - Missionaries to Dinner & Evening Walk

You may not know this, but Arizona gets hot in the summer. The locals like to escape the heat whenever they can. Fourth of July weekend gets pretty empty at church. At our church we take turns hosting the missionaries for dinner. Since we happened to be in town this week when no one else was, we decided to take a turn.

Having the missionaries over for dinner is great for the family. The kids get to see these young men who gave up a couple years of their life to teach people about Christ. They also always leave us with a message. Today it was about how we can be perfected in Christ.

The weather after the missionaries left was a cool 89 degrees. There was a nice breeze. We had to take advantage and go for an evening walk.

Day 44 - Fourth of July in Safford, AZ

Small towns seem to know how to do partriotic holidays. My sister just moved to Safford, AZ. It seemed like a great time to visit.

There was a pancake breakfast, bike parade for the kids, and a city parade down Main Street. In the afternoon there was a Battle of the Bands and Nickle Picnic at the fair grounds. The breakfast at bike parade at the church were fun. Lots of the kids decorated their bikes and rode around in circles. My kids brought scooters and joined in the fun. The city parade was mostly people in their trucks driving down the rode. A couple cool farm machines were in the parade so that was fun. After the parade we were too hot to hang out at the fairgrounds. We did have a great time hanging out with cousins.

Day 43 - Swimming at Roper Lake

My sister recently moved to Safford, Arizona and we decided to visit for the 4th. Safford is home to Roper Lake State Park. I'd recently seen an article about camping at Roper Lake saying it was a great place. This seemed like a good day to see if that article was true.

The lake was beautiful. The mountains in the background and the greenery around the lake made the whole setting so picturesque. The water was warm. The lake floor was sandy, not rocky. And there wasn't too much gunk floating around in the water. It was a beautiful day. You can read my full review here: http://www.trekaroo.com/activities/roper-lake-state-park-safford-arizona

Day 42 - The Dolly Steamboat on Canyon Lake

I'd seen the Dolly Steamboat on Groupon and thought it would be a great date for Hunby and me. I never thought about taking the kids until it was suggested to me by my friend at Visit Mesa. She hooked us up with passes and today we found ourselves on a scenic nature cruise on Canton Lake.

The cruise was great. The crew was friendy. The narrator was funny and informative. The kids had a good time and so did I. Seeing all the boaters and jet skis out on the water did make want to spend sometime actually in the water. Who wants to take us out on their boat or jet skis 😉? You can read by full review of The Dolly Steamboat here: http://www.trekaroo.com/activities/the-dolly-steamboat-tortilla-flat-arizona

Deals for The Dolly Steamboat

*Entertainment Book or App- print BOGO free coupon if you own a current book (or snag on from a friend with a book)

*Groupon has 2 tickets for $27 at this link: https://www.groupon.com/deals/dolly-steamboat-5?utm_source=GPN&utm_medium=afl&z=skip&utm_campaign=200940&mediaId=201773&sid=gd42QTtu

*AAA members save $3 a ticket

Day 41 - Inside Out at Regal Cinema

We had a fun idea to go with our movie outing today...dressing up! Most of the kids were into it, except Kid Two gave me a hard time. No problem, though. He was Anger.

I think the kids were a lot more into the movie because they were each trying to see how their character acted. Kid Four was so cute as the boy version of Sadness. The costumes were so easy. For Joy, we wanted to spray her hair blue but ran out of blue spray so went with purple and a blur headband. She didn't have a green dress so she borrowed one of Dad's shirts and tied some yarn around the middle. Anger's costume was the easiest: white dress shirts, red tie, khaki shorts. I couldn't find our red bow tie for Fear, so he is wearing a gray one that you can't really see. Since we live in AZ we don't have any sweater vests either but he looked super cute in his suit vest. Sadness wore blue shorts and a white shirt. He had glasses without lens and we sprayed his hair blue...well, a little blue but then it ran out. Kid Five was Disgust. She had a cute green sundress that worked perfectly. I tried to keep a green headband on her just for a picture but she never keeps them on. She actually stayed home with Grandma so we could enjoy the movie.

 Inside Out was a good movie. I wasn't sure what to expect but I really liked it. The theater we watched it in was great, too. The Regal Cinema Gilbert 14 has amazing seats. Kid Four even joined me in my seat for a little and I was still comfortable. They also have reserved seating. You can also save a lot of money if you go to the first showing of the day. Only $5.05 a ticket. I suggest buying your tickets in advance so you can be sure to get the seats you want. You can read my review of the theater here.