The Gillenwaters: Phoenix!

I am going to apologize for the LONGEST post ever but I want to remember what we did.

So the afternoon we got to Phoenix, we visited with my grandparents for awhile, unpacked our stuff from RV and moved into the house. My cousin, Gavin, had an All-Star baseball game that my grandparents were going to and once the girls heard the names Gavin and Shane there was no way out. So loaded up with Papa and Mama Edson and headed to the baseball game. The girls were so excited about seeing the boys. Gavin was playing so the girls didn't get to see him much but they hung out the whole time with Shane and some of his friends. I got to catch up with B.A. and Amy while watching the game. Gavin's team won and we headed home.

Shane, Taylor, and Kendall

The next morning, the girls were dying to swim. After swimming, we all packed up in the ABA van and headed over to the offices. We toured the offices and meet up with B.A. who was working but took off with us to grab some lunch.

Then we headed home and all laid down for a nap because we had a full evening of baseball games ahead of us. Gavin and Shane both had games so of course we had to go watch. Let me remind you that it was like 108 degrees outside and we were out there from 5:30 to at least 10 but it was something that we never get to do since we live so far away. The girls loved going to the games I think because their Uncle B.A. let them keep going back to the snack shack for as much junk as they wanted and they got to roam around with whichever boy wasn't playing.

The next morning Shane joined Jennifer, Avery, Nanaw,the girls and I on our little outing. Our first stop was the Great Arizona Puppet Theater. Amy and B.A. loved this place when the boys were younger so we were excited about going. We saw Old McDonald. It was cute and the kids seemed to enjoy it.

Next up was the Children's Museum of Phoenix. This place was AMAZING! You walk in and there is a third story high "climber".

It is made up of a series of tubes, stairs, walkway, a flying bathtub,

a dream boat,

a fish walk, a recycled rocket, and much more. I promise the kids could have played on it all day! We had to make them leave so we could see what else there was.

Some of the other "rooms" we explored were

Building Big

A room with filled with sheets, columns, beams, clips, you name for the kids to build/add on to the fort

Noodle Forest

Oodles of noodles suspended from above offer sensory immersion in a unique and engaging environment. Yes, those are hundreds of foam noodles hanging from the ceiling!

So much fun running and hiding in them!

Not easy to find all of to move on to the next exhibit but I caught up with them in the middle and grab a pic

Pedal Power

This part of lots of different types of tykes/bikes to ride through the "car wash". They got to ride and find their way through soft brushes, hanging strips and blowing fans.

They looked a little funny ride such small bikes but it didn't seem to bother them one bit.

Shane

The Market

Never to old for the Market! Grocery shopping at it's finest.

Art Studio

They had five different tables set up with different art activities for the kids to do and take with them. Anything that involves art/paint/drawing/coloring is always a hit with my crew.

Some of the other exhibits were:

The Pit Stop

Whoosh

This wonderful contraption is a freestanding jumble of connected tubes where children feed scarves in a rainbow of colors into the transparent, air-powered structure. The colorful scarves shoot up through the pipes at high speeds, to heights of 20' or more, and are released in a burst of energy from high above.

The Pit Stop

There was more! We had a blast there and could have spent a few more hours but had to get Shane back home in time for another baseball game!

The kids got home and crashed! We let them sleep for as long as they wanted since after the game (we skipped this game) everyone was coming over for a swim/bbq get together.

The kids had a blast swimming.

Gavin, Shane, Avery, Kendall, and Taylor

It started lighting so the kids had to get out of the pool but the girls started doing gymnastics on the putting green and soon after they were giving lessons to the boys. It was hilarlious.

I know it is dark