Grand Canyon Go-Karts in Williams, Az!

 

The weather will slowly be starting to cool down here in Arizona, which means it will be time to start many outdoor adventures again without worrying about melting in the heat. I will be starting to share some great outdoor activities again to enjoy while the weather is nice & today I have a short and sweet review on spot for you. We recently visited the Grand Canyon Go-Kart track located in Williams, Arizona on a day trip we spent together. Earlier this month we decided to beat the warmer weather in Phoenix by heading up north to check out a few family friendly spots. This was the second stop of our day & everyone had a great time. 

It is easy to locate directly off of the freeway & is located a short distance away from lodging, food and other tourist attractions to visit. It is located at 1000 Circle Pines Rd. Williams, AZ 86046 they are open Thursday to Sunday. Rides are $15 for single riders or $17 if you will have a child in the kart with you. It is slightly more expensive than other kart spots we've been to, but I chalk that up to it being in a high tourist area. They will provide you with the gear you'll need to ride & they have both indoor and outdoor seating areas for those who would prefer to watch. Inside there is also a few arcade games, ice cream for sale and a bathroom. During our visit there were only two maybe three other families visiting so getting into the helmets and out onto the track didn't take long. You'll be able to be on the track for a decent amount of time before having to head back in. The staff was friendly/helpful and the property was well taken care of. They have punch cards so you can get points for each ride you purchase then after ten rides you'll get a free one. 

With a few of the other attractions in the area, you can make a fantastic day out with the family or your can book a hotel stay to make a weekend out of it. We've been to Williams several times & always enjoy visiting. In the past I have written a review of the one of the KOA's up there along with Bearizona, plus I will have some new spots soon! This was not a sponsored post, we paid for our experience ourselves, I just like sharing spots like this with fellow Arizona residents & fellow travelers looking for new areas to explore. 

🌵 If you live in Arizona check out the "Things to do in Arizona" section of my blog to find entertainment, restaurants, vacation spots & more. 

Save $$$ this summer with Museums for All.

Sometimes it can be hard for families who are low income to go out & have a fun time with the family simply because of ticket prices, so knowing about awesome programs like Museums for All can be extremely helpful to know. What is Museums for All? It is a program that hundreds of museums across the United States participates in to help provide families on SNAP/EBT benefits with free or reduced prices for museums in their area. 

Every state will have a different number of museums that are participating so they have made it easy for you to locate which museums in your area are included. You simply need to visit their website & select your home state to see a complete list of participating museums. For example Arizona has eleven different museums that participate in different areas of the state. A few of our favorite spots to visit are on the list along with some other options we haven't visited yet. In order to receive the discount, you'll need to show your SNAP card + ID that matches the name on the card at the box office where you purchase tickets at each museum. 

Once you've located a museum you'd like to visit you can then check out that museums website for official information on the discount through Museums for All. For example, the Arizona Science Center provides tickets for $3 per person for SNAP card holders. Normally tickets are almost $22 for adults & $16 for children so using this discount is huge, especially for families that have more than one child or adult who will be visiting at one time. These savings can then be put towards visiting another museum during the summer, towards weekly expenses or getting to go out to lunch. 

Some museums also offer certain days during the month where it is free to visit for the general public, which is a great option but it can get a little crowded, so Museums for all may be a better option if you want to avoid more people than usual.

Even if you don't see your local museum or even zoo on the list provided by Museums for All, I highly suggest looking around their website anyways for any discounts they offer. There are many zoos and more that offer the same type of discounts for SNAP card holders that you can take advantage of. If you know someone who could benefit from this program that might not have heard of it I encourage you to pass this post along to them. 

🌵 If you live in Arizona check out the "Things to do in Arizona" section of my blog to find entertainment, restaurants, vacation spots & more. 

**This is not a sponsored post, nor did I receive anything in exchange for this post. I know how tough it can be when you are struggling and I always love sharing ways to help families & individuals save some extra funds while still being able to explore and have fun.**

Champions of Magic are coming to a city near you!

 

The Champions of Magic are a team of  five illusionists from all over the world who have come together to put on an exciting family friendly show & is currently touring around the US. We received the opportunity to go see them live last Friday when they played here in Phoenix, downtown at the Orpheum Theatre. Ticket prices range depending on the city they are visiting, I clicked on a few of the upcoming dates they are playing and tickets ranged from starting at $29.50 to starting at $40 a ticket so unfortunately I can not provide you with an exact price however I can offer you a discount code for 25% off ticket prices (valid up to two days prior to the show you want to see), that discount code is TRUST. 

Before getting into our review & thoughts on the actual show, I just want to comment on how beautiful the theatre they performed at is. The Orpheum Theatre is nearly a hundred years old, it was built in 1929 & I had never been to it before now, the inside is stunning & the updated red velvet covered seats were comfortable for the duration of the show. The kids were very excited to go see this show as were we, it is always enjoyable being able to attend events like this that are great for the whole family.

We each had a different favorite part of the show & favorite performer. Each performer had stage time to do an act by themselves & then they had several acts where they worked together. The show had a great mixture of illusion acts, mentalist acts and escape acts. During certain acts members of the audience may be selected to come up & be part of the act which is fun to see and it is even better if you are one of the lucky participants selected to go up on stage. The show lasts for two hours and fifteen minutes with a short intermission to allow the audience to use the bathroom, buy food or drinks and visit the merch booth set up in the front. You'll be enjoying the show so much the time will seem to fly by. 

The whole show was a high energy event from the music they played while performing to the performers themselves really getting the crowd into the acts with them. It isn't noted on the tours website, but I would put up a small warning for anyone prone to seizures, through out the show there are a lot of flashes of bright lights, light changes & on stage fire works that are a little intense with how bright they can get when you've been sitting in the dark. 

It is one thing to see a magic act on TV, but it is another experience seeing it live & up close. These performers are well experienced and will leave you wondering just how they were able to pull off the tricks right in front of your eyes, they are quick, skilled and engaging. I'd love to go into more details about the tricks they did, but that would ruin the magic of seeing it live for yourself so I won't give away which acts they performed during this show. We had a lot of fun & would recommend this for anyone who enjoys magic or wants an exciting night out with the family.

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by US Family Guide 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.

Get hands on with the critters at the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch!

 

School is out for summer, which means it is time for summer trips, swimming and more! If you are going to be near the Tucson, Arizona area there is a fantastic destination that offers fun for the whole family. What place am I talking about? I am talking about the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch (Located at 17599 E Peak Ln. Piacho, AZ 85141. My family and I stopped to visit it on our way home from a trip to the Kartchner Caverns State Park. We enjoyed it so much that I wanted to tell all of you about it. 

I've driven past it before on my way to Tucson, but never stopped so while we were down in the area I looked into everything they offered. Once I saw you were able to hand feed and interact with a number of different animals, I knew it was something we needed to stop and do with the kids. At the door they have two different options, option #1 is $12 which comes with food for all of the animals except for the stingrays and option #2 is $15 which includes food for everything. We went with options #2, they provide you all of the food at once expect for the stingray food as it is pieces of what looks like squid that needs to be kept cold so they give you a coin to trade in at the end when you reach the stingrays. You can purchase additional food if you'd like.

There are several different areas where you can feed a number of animals, and many of them will let you pet them as well! Our kids have a blast and so did we, we all had different areas we loved so we ended up hanging around some of the areas a little longer than others. They have deer, rainbow lorikeets, goats, a ton of ostrich and more. 

While many of the animals were fun to feed my absolute favorite was feeing the Rainbow Lorikeets, you are able to go inside of the enclosure with them. Once inside you just hold the food in your hand and they will come over to sit on your arm/hand and will open the container themselves and start eating. I loved it so much, we ended up buying extra food cups and staying in there a bit. Feeding the stingrays is also an exciting and memorable experience, it feels so funny having them come up and eat out of the palm of your hands. They have no teeth so it is just a light suction that sucks up the bit of food from in between your fingers. 

My kids really enjoyed feeding and petting all of the bunnies, there are so many of them and they are completely unafraid of humans. I was impressed that not one of them tried to bite or get aggressive with us while we were feeding them. All of the animals were fun to feed in their own way and the ranch spices things up by giving you different ways to feed them such as a delivery system for the goats, a goat kissing wall and more. It was fun hand feeding all of the animals - aside from the Ostrich, they have a special cup you pour it in. Although I am not going to lie, it freaked me out feeding the ducks, they have a sign showing how to feed them next to their swimming area. You make an open fist  leaving a round opening between your thumb and pointer with the food inside of your palm, so they can put their break into the opening and eat. I was worried they would nip on the soft skin near my thumb on accident or that their hard beaks would hurt, my husband actually had to help hold me hand because I was nervous hahaha. Everything turned out just fine, didn't hurt at all.

They also have a gift shop, and a shooting gallery where the kids can have some fun. You can also use their pressing machine to make a souvenir pressed penny to take home, it was open during the time we were there but they also have monster truck tours. We thankfully went on a day when there were not a bunch of people so we were able to take our time and really enjoy the experience. In total we were there for about two hours altogether and we can't wait to go back again, it was well worth the money spent to feed the animals. 

I will be sharing some photos and videos from the ranch including showing how some of the animals are fed over on my blog Instagram page and Photography Instagram page, so stop by and check them out! I will be putting different photos and videos on each through the next week.

Exploring Brazil with Eat2Explore

I've seen ads for several different food/cooking subscription boxes and most of them are the same, they send you some food and a recipe to try out which can get a little repetitive if you are looking for something a little more. I always try to look for fun activities to do with my family as a whole and Eat2Explore covers that along with being a food based subscription box. A one month subscription is $24.95, however you can save a little money if you opt for a six to twelve month subscription that will drop your cost a bit. If you have someone in your family that is allergic to Gluten they offer gluten free boxes.

Eat2Explore is a wonderful way to explore the world through food while connecting with your family, it allows you to experience what they call the three C's - Country, Culture & Cuisine. Each box features a different country each month and comes with three recipes (each makes 4 servings), the essential spices/sauce mixes you'll need, a shopping list for the fresh ingredients needed, educational activity/information sheets for the featured country, fun cooking tools, plus a pin/sticker/passport. Does someone from your family have a dietary restriction? They have you covered "We understand that each family has it's own unique food preferences, so we've ensured that our explorer boxes can accommodate different dietary needs. We leave the shopping for fresh ingredients up to you, allowing you to customize your eat2explore experience."

The box we received was for Brazil, all of the recipes we received looked pretty delicious and made us excited to try them out. One recipe was pork chops with sides, another was for meat filled pastries served with a watermelon/tomato salad and the last was for a shrimp dish. Thus far we've only tried out one recipe which you'll see below, the other two I am waiting on until we can get together with my mom/step-dad and make it during a family night.

I love that they provided a separate paper with all of the ingredients you need to pick up at the store, looking at the recipes online it looks like they provide a version of some of the recipes you'll receive in their boxes. For example the shrimp dish recipe we received is called "Moqueca" Online it states that it is a Brazilian recipe based on a salt water stew made various fresh fish caught off the coast however it is altered to be a "Shrimp Moqueca" which includes just shrimp to make it easier to shop for. For the Moqueca I purchased shrimp, spinach, rice, a lemon, a red bell pepper, and onion and a can of diced tomatoes. Eat2explore included the coconut milk and spices we needed.

My family got together at my mothers house to cook this with her and my step-dad so we could all try it out. The recipe states it makes four servings, however we added an extra cup of rice and it ended up feeding five adults and two children leaving us quite full. The dish was fun and easy to make! Like Eat2Explore stated all families have their own preferences when it comes to how they cook, I cooked almost everything as directed however I did make a few small changes instead of making it stew like I removed some of the liquids then mixed in the rice to make it more of a hearty dish. I also took a small portion of the dish and cooked it separate without shrimp because my daughter and mother do not like sea food.

We are big bread lovers so we served this with a roll on the side. Everyone really seemed to enjoy the dish and everyone finished their serving feeling full and satisfied after dinner. I was glad I added the extra rice because there are a ton of shrimp in this recipe and I think they would have over taken the dish a bit without the extra rice. The kids also had a lot of fun learning new facts about Brazil, and my daughter made sure to track everyone's rating/opinion on the meal in the little passport provided. I look forward to testing out the other two recipes as well once I get a chance.

Looking for a Brazilian inspired dessert to go with the recipes included in this box? My work has a small culture inspired project where we all made dishes for different countries assigned to us, for mine I made Arroz Doce which is a sweet rice. It is so good and I highly suggest trying it out, it would make a great addition to this explorer box.

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Eat2Explore 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.

2019 Arizona Renaissance Festival

There are only two weekends left to visit the Arizona Renaissance Festival before it is over for the season, so if you are wanting to visit now is the time to go! Tickets are $28 per adult and $18 per child at the festival, however you can buy slightly discounted ($1-$2 per ticket) tickets on their website or at Fry's Marketplace. The festival is opened from 10am until 6pm, it is located off of the US 60 in Gold Canyon, Arizona, for us it is about an hour drive if traffic isn't too bad. You can find a coupon for One free child per One paid adult Here.

Before you go there are three things you should keep in mind/do:

1. It is a good idea to go early if you don't want a long walk from the car to the entrance. Last year we arrived 15 minutes before gates opened and we were parked only three rows away from the entrance. This year it took a bit longer for all of us to get dressed and ready so we didn't get there until 15 minutes after they opened and we were marked about half a mile from the entrance. They do have a "VIP" parking area which costs extra, however I don't see anywhere on their site that tells you how to purchase tickets for that lot, and they have Handicap parking as well that is closer to the gate.

2. There are a ton of free shows to see and plenty of booths to "window shop" at however you will want to budget at least a $100-$150 for the festival to really enjoy the sights, vendor booths and food. All of the performers ask for tips, though it is not required for you to tip anyone it is how most of them make their living so we always make sure to bring actual cash with us for the shows we see. Some of the exhibits, rides and games require payment as well.

3. Bring sunblock & a water bottle! You are allowed to bring in one 16-24oz sealed water bottle per person, they have drinking fountains near all of the bathrooms so you can re-fill them if you don't mind fountain water or you can purchase a small water bottle at the food stalls for $2 each. Even on cool days, you will be out in the sun and several food booths and experiences have lines so you'll be planted in the sun. This year we completely forgot sunblock and I ended up with a red and angry sunburn.

Another great tip to keep in mind is plan to be there for most if not all of your day, there are fourteen different stages with performances all through out the day. Many of the acts are on for thirty to forty-five minutes, between watching several shows, browsing the vendor booths, grabbing lunch and everything else the festival has to offer time will fly by. We arrived at 10:15am and ended up leaving about 3:30pm when everyone was exhausted from the sun and walking around (you'll want to wear comfortable shoes, the festival is huge).

In all we saw three shows, took photos with our favorite Dragon, grabbed lunch and walked around several of the shops during our time at the festival. There is a ton to see and you may not get to do everything in one day so if you are wanting to see it all you can purchase a season pass at the front gate so you can visit as often as you'd like during the open season. One of my husbands favorite shows is the whip cracker and mine is the bird show, we got lucky and they were back to back so we grabbed a bench seat in the shade and relaxed with the kids while we watched the show. Shows tend to fill up quickly especially the more popular shows like the bird show so you might want to get there a few minutes early to get a decent seat. Many of the vendor booths have signs asking you not to take photos otherwise I'd share some of the wares with you!

If you are a foodie there are dozens of options to choose from along with lots of sweet treats, we each have our favorites my husbands being the spinach bowl and mine being the broccoli cheddar soup bowl but this year we were a bit disappointed. They had run out of the broccoli cheddar bowl and stated more wouldn't be ready for about forty-five minutes, at that point we had been in line for about twenty minutes in the direct sun and had acquired sunburns so I decided to skip the bowl, my husbands spinach bowl was so full it was getting every where and this year it tasted and looked kind of odd so most of it wasn't eaten. To make up for lunch we did stop by a chocolate booth on the way out and purchased a few goodies. Food costs are what you'd expect for an event like this, $3 for a small lemonade or soda, $2 small bottles of water, $4 for a slice of pizza, $7 per soup or dip bowl, small chocolates are 3 for $10 or two big pieces of chocolate such as a chunk of fudge + a slice of cheesecake for $13, and other prices vary.

One of our favorite parts about the festival is that anyone is allowed to dress up, this year the whole family dressed up and it was a lot of fun. There are several performers and acts that walk around the festival freely who stop to interact with guests and take photos. Over all we had a great time, at the end everyone was slightly "grumpy" just due to the rising temperature and being exhausted but it didn't spoil the fun we had and we highly suggest you head out to check it out before it is done for the year.

Disclaimer- Tickets to the event mentioned above were provided by the Arizona Renaissance Festival through the US Family Guide 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.

A night of games with the family.

It's game time! Last week I posted a review of two fun games from Goliath games, today I'll be sharing two games with you one from Jax Games and one from Pressman Toys. For those of you who aren't aware Goliath games recently acquired Jax games, I was sent all four games together but since they are available on separate websites I thought it would be best to post the reviews separate as well.

Like most families we own a gaming console, tablets and cell phones that we enjoy using but it is nice to disconnect from our devices and sit down as a family to enjoy a board game, so we have a large game collection. Some games are only good for a few plays because you'll start to remember the answer cards and other games like the two below will always have a different outcome so they are able to be enjoyed over and over.

Sequence (Retail $11.99); Recommended for ages 7+ and allows 2-12 players at a time. This game can get pretty fast paced and it is a lot of fun, it reminds me of a super charged game of Bingo mixed with four in a row. To play you'll place a card from your hand down on the table and place a matching chip on the corresponding board number, once you get five in a row. Sounds easy right? It would be if the other players didn't get the chance to remove your chips, blocking you from being able to win. My kids have a lot of fun playing this game and even our youngest was able to pick this up quickly.

Do you think you have what it takes to make it to five in a row?

Rummikub (Retail $13+); Recommended for ages 8+ and allows 2-4 players at a time. I am not going to lie on this one, their website talks about how easy the game is to learn but between the four of us playing it was a bit confusing at first trying to figure out exactly how the game is played. The game is played using a number of tiles with different colored numbers and a "Joker" tile which can be played in place of any color tile or number. The objective of the game is to play every tile on your rack, the first to do so wins. Tiles are played in "Runs" such as 1-13 all of the same color, or all the 13's and Groups which are three or more tiles with the same number but different colors. We've only played this once so far but I look forward to trying it out again! The set we received game in a wooden box with wooden racks but looking around online it seems like most of the games come in a regular cardboard game box with plastic racks, the cardboard boxes of games can be ruined easily so I am quite happy with our wood box.

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Jax Games & Pressman Toys 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.

Goliath Games Review!

**This was not a paid post. My honest opinions were used, they are solely my own & they may vary from others.The products mentioned below have been provided by Goliath for the review free of charge.**

We are a big board game family, we usually play a board game every few days and sometimes we will play a game each night for several days depending on what we have going on for the week. We have a huge game shelf but we are always looking to add to it so when I was offered a chance to work with Goliath reviewing some of their board games, I couldn't say no! My kids and I were sent two different board games to test out together.

Wordsearch (Retail $17.99) - This game is recommended for ages seven and older, however my son who just turned six was able to play it just fine. I think this game is a lot of fun and it helps my youngest (who is in kindergarten) with his spelling and word recognition. Each person gets their colored tiles which fit perfectly into the half bubbles on top of the game board to highlight the words as you find them. The game features different inserts that have an assortment of words so you can switch which sheet you are using. How do you play? You slowly turn the outer wheel to reveal a new word then all of the players race to find the word on the board, at the end of the game the player with the most tiles on the board wins. If you have younger children and they don't want to race for the words, you can just have them take turns looking for each word. We kept our tiles in the bags but you can also place them in the corner pockets of the board to access them easier.

Googly Eyes (Retail $19) - This game is recommended for ages seven and older but again if your child is able to understand the game and are younger they are more than able to play this game. This is a big favorite for when we get together with extended family for a family game night because it is pictionary with a twist. Instead of just getting a word and having to draw it out to make people guess, you have to wear a pair of glasses with inserts that slightly distort your vision so drawing and guessing are a bit harder. This game needs to be played in teams of at least two, however you can have up to sixteen people playing. At this point though we've played the game enough that we know all of the words so it is easy to guess what everything is, I wish I could find re-fill packs for this game so we can keep playing. Some of our doodles didn't look anything like they should have which produced a lot of laughs and good times, the glasses have a Easy, Medium and Hard inserts to make the game exciting. When you are wearing the glasses you will kind of look like a mad scientist! The glasses can fit over regular glasses but depending on how comfortable the fit is you may want to take off your regular seeing glasses when using these. I like that they have different categories to draw such as characters or objects. If you win or not is up to how well you and your partner can doodle and guess! It is always fun to see who ends up winning. Depending on how many people are playing and how the dice rolls go we can get through a round in about half an hour.

Experience a bit of the old west desert life with MacDonald's Ranch!

**This was not a paid post. My honest opinions were used, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. I received tickets to their pumpkin patch for my family which was provided by MacDonald's Ranch free of charge.**

It is always a lot of fun visiting different attractions that are specifically decorated and designed to look like different periods in time, towns or themes and one of our favorite is MacDonald's Ranch located in Scottsdale, Arizona on Scottsdale Road just south of Jomax Road. As soon as you arrive you are will feel like you stepped into a western town complete with buildings, horses and more. The caution watch for snakes sign is also helpful towards making it really feel like you are on a cowboy adventure, but don't worry! Out of the several times we've been out to the ranch we've never actually spotted a snake at the ranch though when we went horse back riding we did hear one out on the trail.

During the fall they host a Pumpkin Patch from late September until the end of October and though the fall season is over they also offer horse back riding, Stagecoach rides, Birthday parties, Cookouts and more. I honestly think they could open during the cooler spring months as well as just an explore/adventure type location. If you visit during the Pumpkin Patch season or host a party at the ranch they have a ton to offer you and your guests.

Activities wise they offer several different western themed games such as bean bag toss, horse shoe toss, pan for gold, cow milking, hay mazes, rubber duck races and more. One of our personal favorite activities is their petting zoo! I love animals however I usually am not a big fan of most petting zoo's because let's be honest a lot of the animals are overly dirty and seem like they never get a bath or groomed. However when it comes to the petting zoo here all of their animals are extremely well cared for, none of them seem over feed, over worked or unhappy plus they get groomed often and are quite clean plus almost all of the goats, mini horses and donkey are quite soft.

Another plus about the ranch is that they offer actual bathrooms (located in the front), I've been to other farms and family attractions where they only offer port-a-potties and that can be a real drag during a fun day out with the family. We also like that you are free to explore the grounds to discover all of the different games and activities they have for both kids and adults. If you were to check out each activity, game and do the add-ons you need to pay extra for (horse back ride, pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, stop to get lunch) you could easily spend 3-4 hours here which is wonderful for tickets only being $10 a person (M-F, $12 on weekends).

 

I haven't personally stopped to get food at the ranch as we normally visit shortly after breakfast but I can tell you that the food smells delicious! They also offer shaved ice, Kettle corn and more which is conveniently located in the middle of all the fun. While they do have drinks for sale I do suggest bringing a bottle of water with you because it is Arizona and can suddenly get hot out of no where so you want to stay hydrated.I wouldn't forget your camera either, they have a lot of fun cut outs to take photos with, cute animals and more that you'll want to catch on film.

Head over to their site now to see all the options they have for visiting their ranch!