Tips and Tricks to survive the summer
First off, Arizona has horrible summers. Like up to 125 degrees some days summers. Obviously you want to stay inside if you can or hit up a pool or splashpad. BUT here are some other things I didn't think of:
-Car seat coolers--just some ice packs sewn into fabric to put over the carseat buckles while you are in the store, at the park, etc. so that the carseat doesn't burn the kids when you get back in
-Be careful opening doors to stores- if the handle is metal and has been in the sun, it WILL burn you. Most businesses will put a towel over the door handle in the summer, but be careful!
-Don't leave crayons or chocolate in the car...whoops!
-Bring your own water to parks. We didn't once and when we tried to drink from the water fountain, it burned us!! Also.. slides will burn. BE CAREFUL!
-Get a water table!!! We have used it year round all 4 years.
-Don't let the kids touch the water from the hose until it has been on a while and you have felt it to make sure it isn't scalding hot anymore.
-Plus side--if you are baking and forget to soften your butter, just put it outside for a few seconds and it's perfect!
-Paint with water on the sidewalk. It's fun to see how fast it dries.
-I would take toy animals or other random little toys and put them in water, then freeze it. The kids then had to use toy hammers and other things to rescue the animals. It was fun to play with ice! We have also thrown ice at the fence and watched it smash. Or blend up ice in a shaved ice machine and have a snowball fight.
Zoos
Wildlife World Zoo
This is our favorite zoo. It is SO cool! The animals seem happier first of all, it never feels crowded, and you can interact with the animals more. You can feed lots of different animals. BRING QUARTERS! They have quarter machines all over the zoo and for 50 cents you can feed giraffes, ducks, koi fish, and the petting zoo animals. You can feed the Lorikeet birds for FREE! There are a lot of different viewing areas for the animals so you can always see them. You can also go into the kangaroo walkabout and see kangaroos with no barrier between you and them. AND there is an aquarium so when you're super hot, just go to the aquarium where you can see cool fish and pet sting rays (you can actually pet these, not like normal pet the sting ray areas where its a joke to be able to reach those crazy things and you're wet, the kids are wet, and everyone is frustrated). There is also a sea lion show.
Phoenix Zoo
This zoo has a few things going for it- it's cheaper. But get a pass to the other one and the price doesn't bother you so much. It also has splash pads which is nice in the summer. The coolest part of this zoo has to be the monkey village where you can go into the squirrel monkey cage.
Out of Africa
This is a ways away, but SO worth it. They have an awesome tiger show, we got to go on a predator walk and see them feed the predators raw meat. Thomas and Lydia fed a tiger for $5. We went on a safari and fed a giraffe. It was amazing! It's cheaper when you go on your birthday month!
Parks
Rio Vista
Has a splashpad which is a plus! The slides are super cool too.
Friendship
You have to drive a ways, which is probably why I like it. Not tons of people there. They have a splashpad and 3 different parks. One is next to the splashpad, then there is one with musical instruments the kids can play, and another one off the other direction. They have sprinklers that go off in the fields that my kids liked to run through, too. AND ducks. We liked feeding the ducks...goldfish..because I always forgot to bring bread.
Sahuaro Ranch
We call this one "Peacock Park". There are two areas to this park--the old timey part and the park part. The old timey part is some old ranch thing but it has peacocks roaming around which is cool. And bunnies and kitties. The park part is fun too! There are a few different playgrounds and swings.
Greenbriar Park
This is a neighborhood park by DI. There is rarely anyone here and it is lit up at night. There are lots of fun things and swings!
Museums
Children's Museum
SUPER FUN!! But also super crowded. You can go to the website to see how many field trippers will be there that day. But there is a climbing thing, outside play area, bikes, noodle forest, kitchen, 3 and under area, and lots more. I love that every area as a "baby area" so your toddler can play and your baby can be down playing too.
AZ Science Center
This is pretty much another children's museum. VERY kid oriented and has a lot of fun things. If you have EBT, this is cheaper with their museums for all program. :)
Halle Heart Museum
This one is small, but fun. Get a culture pass and go for free!
Musical Instrument Museum
Not super kid friendly except for the room where you can actually play a few instruments. The rest of the time the kids were bored. But it was fun for us!
Libraries
Sunrise Mountain
There is a park next to the library and an outdoor play area at the library. The library is clean, has lots of toys including puppets, trains, puzzles, computers, dolls, and a farm. The best thing about this library is that they automatically renew your materials and text you when they renew them and then again when they are about to be due.
Foothills
This one is not as clean or new as sunrise mountain, but that also means its less crowded. It is also next to a park. It has a play kitchen, tablets, legos, blocks, puzzles, trains, and animals. This one has way more board books and movies. But return your movies on time!!!! They don't automatically renew and it's a dollar a day.
Uptown Jungle
Super cool indoor play area. Go Monday-Thursday before the afternoon and it is toddler time, which is cheaper than normal PLUS there aren't tons of big kids taking over. There is a toddler area, but the kids can play anywhere. There are slides, rock climbing, trampolines, balls, and more!
Chuck E. Cheese
We have a Chuck. E. Cheese problem. I'll admit it. We love it! I'll tell you my hacks. First, if you go first thing when it opens, they test all the games so there are tickets hanging out of every game. Send the kids collecting tickets! Second, the one by DI is nice, but it uses tokens which are expensive. The one in Phoenix is a further drive, but it has all you can play cards so you can buy 60 minutes of play and just swipe that thing over and over. We will swipe and have all 4 of us on a different game/ride. It ends up being cheaper and you get more tickets. Most importantly, download the apps! There are chuck e cheese apps were you can earn 500 free tickets if you play them. So there are 3 apps. 500 tickets each. Thomas and I both have all 3 apps. You do the math. We start with a lot of tickets before playing anything. You DO have to buy food to get the tickets from the apps, but we usually do Chuck E. Cheese as a treat or celebration so it's fine.
DI
Another obsession of ours. When I get bored, I just take the kids here. They can play with the toys and we are inside in the beautiful air conditioning. Plus the board books are fifty cents so...we have a lot of books.
Enchanted Island
Geared towards kids. All the rides are for little kids which is awesome since usually rides are like nope! you're just gonna have to sit and cry because you are too short!
Cabela's
We call this "going to see the dead animals". It's hot. We need indoor things to do. So we go look at the taxidermy animals in Cabelas. They also have a small aquarium so you can see a few alive fish.
McCormick Stillman
Unpopular opinion- We like this train park better than anthem. It has a cool train ride, but what we really like are the awesome model trains! There is also a park there that is fun.
Anthem Train Park
Has a train ride, splashpad, and park. There is actually another park across the parking lot that is pretty cool too.
Rita's
Medical school is tough at times so we found reasons to celebrate whether it was finishing a test, being done with a rotation, or because we survived the day. Rita's is one of our go-tos for celebrating because it is delicious, cool, and not too expensive. They have punch cards too. But I suggest getting an ice flight. You get four flavors of ice(great for people like us that can't make decisions) and it's pretty cheap. We usually get an ice flight and a regular size ice and share it all. When it was just 3 of us, the ice flight was plenty, but Evan really likes Rita's. There is an outdoor one next to Shine dentistry and the indoor one by Starbucks and Walmart. We like the indoor one because it has a little library(take a book, leave a book type thing) and board games to play while you are there. Plus...it's indoors.
Electric Bikes
I wish we would have known about this sooner!!! Right next to Rita's and Shine pediatric dentist is a little electric bike shop called Pedego. You can rent electric bikes for as little as $15/hr. The people are incredibly nice and it is a blast! It's right next to skunk creek trail, so you can just hop right on the trail!
Hikes
This is a fall/winter activity. There are tons. Thunderbird has some cool ones with views of the temple, there is hole in the rock, and we did one in north scottsdale that was fun, too!
Rec Center Water Park
Pretty cheap and fun! We didn't take pictures, but you can check online. They have a lazy river, a little kids area, and a pool to play in.
Skunk Creek Trail
This is where we got most of our exercise. There are fun parks along the trail so you can go for a run and stop at the park to let the kids play. There are also bunnies that hop across the trail sometimes.
Sedona
Fun day trip! There are hikes, beautiful views, and it is cooler weather!
Flagstaff
Another day trip. We did this one in the winter so we could go see some snow!
Note to med students
Get out, make friends, and celebrate the little things. Go to the on campus activities! They do an amazing job putting together parties for holidays, they have open gym during the week that is fun where the kids can run around while you build your support network with fellow wives, there is also music time during the week, occasional craft times, and during the summer they have a summer camp which is incredible. We are always impressed with the things they put together for the families on campus!
