Disney with the Phillips

I am not one of those Disney bloggers who have spend hundreds of hours in the park and know where all the bathrooms are and have memorized the show schedules. I have no expert tips. There are literally hundreds of those blogs and this is not one of them. I am just going to share some fun trip memories and cute photos so my kids can't claim I never took them to Disneyland. See, boys? I did too take you, now stop asking to go again.
This was all part of the Phillips family reunion of 2017, which was a very fun, full week. Since we got home Paul has been asking about his cousins and whether or not Disneyland is "closed" (yes. the correct answer is always yes) so I guess he had a good time.

First stop: California Adventure! I think Paul liked the Little Mermaid ride the best, but he also loved the wilderness explorer playground.

Me and my two Space Rangers.

Just waiting around for World of Color to start...

We spent two days just in Disneyland, here are our adventures there in no particular order:

The whole gang is here!

Paul's favorites were the little rollercoaster in Toon Town and the Buzz Lightyear ride where he got to "shoot ALL the robots!"

Pro tip: You can get these ride photos for free via email!

 Paul was so certain he could open this little door and get into the White Rabbit's house. He asked me to try the knob multiple times.

Jungle Cruise, wow these guys all look exhausted!

I dreaded the line for this ride, but it turned out to not be too bad.

I am not above taking crappy photos of photos if it saves me 30 bucks. This one was worth having just because we actually filled the whole boat with our group and we are all doing awesome faces.

Obligatory castle photo.

A few of us grown ups also visited Universal Studios while the kids had a Grandma day. I'd never been to this particular park, so it was fun to go on some new rides and the studio tour was very cool.

The biggest donut I've ever seen. Pretty sure I could have eaten by myself...

I am not sure when our travel plans will bring us back to all these theme parks, but I think it was a very successful first visit for Paul and Laszlo. It was twice as fun because they had aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents to share it in the excitement.

How to Not Die of Heat Stroke

So far my goal living in Arizona in the Summer months (May-October) is to avoid dying of heat stroke. I am pretty good at it so far. Here are my secret tips to not dying:


Rule #1: Only go outside during Monsoon storms.

Rule #2: If you must go outside, only do so to travel to another air-conditioned location. Like, the grocery store or the International Wildlife Museum.

This is my new favorite animal.

Rule #3: If you absolutely cannot stand it anymore, leave Arizona. Go somewhere north...somewhere cooler...like Idaho!

I may be a little late to the party on sharing my eclipse photos, but here they are anyway. No one who knows me will be surprised that I was late for something. Not only was Idaho a lot less hot, during the eclipse the temperature dropped rather dramatically. Bonus rule: eclipses make things less hot.

Jordan, Kody, Lee, and Karen Phillips

Sun gazing.

Rule #4: Get wet. Fountain, splash pad, pool, water fight, whatever it takes. These cousins helped us tremendously while we were in Utah.

Grandma treated us to lunch and a fun day at Temple Square!

Renaissance Festival: Thanksgiving Point: Paul picks grass, Uncle Matt
gives Princess Ellie a ride.

Paul joins the water fight at his cousin Liam's birthday.

Laszlo loves his cousin Kimball because Kimball is the Baby Whisperer.

Rule #5: Eat your feelings. Yes, you are trapped in your house, but you can escape! Through delicious food.

Lunch date with Pa Duane: Laszlo also loves Samoan food.

Grandma keeps the boys busy while I make dinner.

Rule #6: Dream of winter time. Paul is always talking about Christmas. His favorite part of the Miniatures Museum in Tucson was their Christmas Village and North Pole. He made up a song about it.

The good news is that the highest temperatures of the year are behind us. We probably won't see anymore days of 110 degrees this year, but that doesn't mean we are done staying inside. I have learned to expect triple digit temperatures through September and daytime temperatures into the 90's until November. Fall is not a thing here so put away your pumpkin spice flavored everything and keep your jackets in storage! We won't be needing them anytime soon.

Impromptu Vacation: Tombstone, AZ

Over the 4th of July, we thought to ourselves, "Wow. Lee has a bunch of days off work and we have planned nothing. Let's do something." So we tossed around various "staycation" ideas, and eventually settled on visiting Tombstone AKA "The town too tough to die." We'd never been, it is a bare 45 minute drive from our home, and due to freak monsoon weather patterns the weather there was going to be in the 90's! Compared to the triple digit temps expected in Sahuarita, it seemed a no-brainer. Let's go to Tombstone for the weekend!

I explained to Paul that Tombstone was a "Cowboy" town, which he thought was cool. What really won him over was the ice cream cones he saw everyone walking around with. It seemed the thing to do so we got an ice cream cone to share. Laszlo is really quite greedy about ice cream and so is Paul so it ended up being difficult to keep one happy while the other got a lick or two.

Surprisingly tasty and reasonably priced!

We cooled off at the hotel pool then grabbed some dinner before being struck by an epic monsoon storm. It felt like hail, because each rain drop was laced with a few grains of sand...very pleasant...

Puny John's BBQ: Definitely get
their mac and cheese.

The next morning, we visited the famous Boothill Graveyard. I got a kick out of some of the epitaphs and there were some very interesting historical tidbits. If you are visiting Tombstone, you gotta visit Boothill. It is an inexpensive and essential part of the experience.

"Here lies George Johnson Hanged by mistake 1882.
He was right, We was wrong, But we strung him up
and now he's gone."

Down the hill, this is the Jewish cemetery of Tombstone.

I just loved how sad Paul looks...

"Here Lies Lester Moore, four slugs from a
44, NO LES NO MORE."

The oldest grave in Boothill.

We took a stagecoach ride around town and our driver narrated the whole thing with terrific historical tidbits about the O.K. Corral, the Chinese Mafia, Wyatt Earp, and a number of other colorful characters.

We ate lunch in the Crystal Palace Saloon...

And, of course we went to the O.K. Corral and watched their gunfight, because we are tourists and that is what tourists do.

Here are our gunfight actors, generously posing for me.

Lastly, we visited the Courthouse museum. It was probably very interesting, but we were going at a "Paul" pace, so we saw everything very quickly. We spent a lot of time ringing some old bells and locking Paul up in the jail.

By then it was time to head home and do an Independence BBQ, like real Americans. Some things we really wanted to do but couldn't this trip: tour the old Good Enough Mine, and the Bird Cage Theater. Both looked wonderful, but not for babies. We'll come back again sometime and check them out. Stayed tuned for future family adventures! Our next few months promise to be non-stop super action adventures! Or, at least, they will be very busy and possible photo worthy.