West Valley Wonderland at State Farm Stadium!

 

I am always on the look out for fun new pop-up events in Arizona that are family friendly & will get us out of the house for a bit, so I was happy to receive an invite to check out a new holiday pop-up event called the West Valley Wonderland. West Valley Wonderland took place over the weekend at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. If you've been following me for a while you might have seen the announcement I put up for the event back in October. This is the events first year, but I hope they come back again next year. 

This was a holiday shopping market mixed with a small holiday event for families. There are a few dozen shops selling a range of products from treats & food to clothing, books, toys and more. Along side the shops there were also a few local companies such as the Boys & Girls club of America promoting what their programs have to offer. 

Shopping wasn't the only thing found at the West Valley Wonderland, there were bounce houses for the kids, free pictures with Santa, bumper boats on ice, a mechanical reindeer, a human claw machine, photo opportunity areas set up, craft spots for small children and live entertainment. Some of the activities such as the bounce houses were free, while others like the bumper cars & human claw machine were $10 per play. The human claw machine had a bit full of large Squishmallows and players were allowed to grab any one they wanted when lowered down into the pit. 

On your way into the event they had a caroling group performing & a red carpet which had a light tunnel surrounding it that led you into the entrance where there was falling "snow" (bubbles). We thought it was a lovely, we enjoyed browsing the shops & actually ended up buying a few more things than we thought we were going to. I thought there was a decent assortment of products to browse, 80% of the shops were handmade sellers and others were an assortment of larger companies/resellers. All of the vendors were friendly & seemed to be enjoying the market. 

Between browsing the vendors & stopping for a little bit to watch the performers we were at the event for just under two hours. Parking was included in the price & even though there was a decent amount of people when we arrived it didn't take very long to get past security, get scanned in & walk down to the area where the event was held. I hope this is an event that continues to come back during the holidays & even possibly for two weekends instead of one each year, I think it is a fun way for families to get a bit of holiday shopping done together while having a good time. 

Here is a look at most of what we purchased while we were at the event, minus a piece of art & a cup of churros! 

Disclaimer- The Encore Agency provided four tickets for this event, for this review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Martin Auto Museum in Glendale, AZ the perfect spot for car lovers!

 

Even if you aren't big into cars as a hobby, it can be pretty cool seeing vintage cars up close. My family & I recently paid a visit to the Martin Auto Museum that is located in Glendale, AZ & it was a blast seeing the collection they have. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am until 5pm & it cost $10 per person to get in. We were able to visit the museum after we attended the Arizona Bao & Dumpling festival as admission was included in the VIP ticket to the event. Why should you visit this museum? They have a collection of over 170 vehicles to view, they offer a free to play arcade, they have a carousel for kids & more. One of my favorite parts of this museum is the fact that with many of the vehicles in this collection you are allowed to open the doors & take a seat inside to take photos and see how different the cars are. Any cars that are not allowed to be opened/sat in will either be roped off or will have a sign on the window that states "doors locked". Below you can see an example of one of the cars that was locked, it also didn't have any door handles. Isn't it a beautiful car? I hope to one day be able to own a car like this.

I've always loved how old muscle cars look so I was very excited to visit and see some of the classics up close. It was such a fun experience for all of us & it is especially fun for small kids to be able to sit in the cars, it made for some fun photo opportunities as well. The museum is completely jam packed with cars & other collectibles such as vintage gas pumps, auto shop repair equipment, toy cars & more. We loved being able to walk around on our own self guided tour checking out all of the vehicles along the way. Every car there was in fantastic condition from the paint job to the seats themselves, they had a few cars there were only manufactured a few years ago and they also had vehicles that are now almost a hundred years old! 

The collection ranged from muscle cars to old trucks, hot rods, vintage limos and more. Your eyes will go wild trying to take in all of the cars at once. The entire museum is well lit & everything is spaced out to prevent any door dings from happening when you are trying to get photos. Depending on how slow you walk or how much of each car you want to check out, you could end up spending anywhere from an hour to four hours here taking in everything they have to offer. With how much there is to see & do at this museum little kids are sure to be entertained the entire time. 

The free to play arcade is very clean, has seating for any adults who would like to rest their feet for a while & it actually has quite a bit of games to play. None of the games require tokens or game card of any kind so they are ready to go you just need to hit "Start". I also like how many bathrooms were available through out the building, the one I stopped by was very clean which is fantastic considering how many people were in & out of the museum the day we were there. You can tell the owners & staff really care about the museum and keep everything in the best condition possible. I love that they even have part of the museum decorated for Halloween! Plus if you are a fan of  Transformers they have a bumblebee car + a huge statue of bumblebee himself right behind the car. Before you leave don't forget to check out the giftshop! 

Are you a fan of seeing vintage cars in museums & out on the open road? Does this sound like a place you'd enjoy visiting? If you are ever in the area, I highly suggest checking it out, it is well worth the visit. 

🌵 If you live in Arizona check out the "Things to do in Arizona" (Click or locate it on the right-hand side of my page) section of my blog to find entertainment, restaurants, vacation spots & more. 

Disclaimer-  Admission to the museum was not sponsored by the museum. Admission to the museum was part of a VIP ticket for an event that was being hosted in the parking lot of the Martin Auto Museum. No other was provided from the museum. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Monster Jam Glendale Review!

 

Monster Jam recently came through again on one of their yearly trips to sunny Arizona! The event took place at the State Farm Stadium. Even if you aren't the biggest fan of monster trucks, this is such a fun event to attend just due to the amazing skills the drivers have & how interactive they try to make the event for everyone in attendance. If you are a big fan or have kids that love the show, they also sell tickets for an event that goes on prior to the start of the event called The Pit Party. It takes place several hours before the actual show starts so that they can get everything from the pit party moved out off of the track before the event starts. 

The pit party gives you a chance to go down onto the track and see all of the trucks up close. Not only can you see the trucks, but all the drivers have their own booths set up where you can get an autograph & photo with them. They also have a few free zones such as coloring pages for the little kids, a sand box where they can play with monster truck toys, they have food for sale and more. The pit party runs from 2:30pm-5:30pm with the actual show starting at 7pm. We are lucky & the Glendale stadium they host the event at is right next to a shopping center that has restaurants and more. We like to get to the pit party shortly after it starts & usually spend about an hour to an hour and a half, then we leave our car parked in the parking lot and walk over to the shopping center to play some arcade games and grab dinner before the show. 

The show itself is always fun to watch because you never know what is going to happen! Sometimes there are wrecks, and sometimes when you think one of the drivers is done for they are able to save themselves at the last month. This time around we saw tires go flying off the trucks, trucks that caught on fire, pieces of trucks going flying and more. It is crazy to see everything the trucks go through and sometimes they will even show the crews working on the trucks up on the big screen so you can see the amount of work that goes into the trucks between each run.

To make the event even more interactive for the fans, they have a website & three-digit code you can plug into your phone which will allow everyone to rate each truck after it's run with a score from 0-10. After a short period of time goes by after each driver is finished it will show the score the driver received based off of the average score everyone in the stadium who voted gave. Some of the over-all scores were on point and others were surprising. We had a great time at the show & always look forward to when they come to town again. 

A few tips for parents! This event can get quite loud, you can hear the trucks from out in the parking lot so for smaller children it would be a good idea to bring a pair of ear protection covers for your children. Most stadiums such as the stadium we went to only allow clear bags in, so make sure to check ahead of time so you won't need to walk back to your car to leave your purse behind. They will stadium approved bags online and also at stores such as Walmart. Venue food and drinks can get pretty expensive especially if you have more than one child so it is a good idea to have dinner before heading to see the show. 

🌵 If you live in Arizona check out the "Things to do in Arizona" (Click or locate it on the right-hand side of my page) section of my blog to find entertainment, restaurants, vacation spots & more. 

Disclaimer- Monster Jam provided tickets for us for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.