Goldfield Ghost Town

Today we decided to visit another must-see Phoenix attraction, Goldfield Ghost Town. Goldfield is filled with authentic looking buildings, includes underground mine tours, and the only narrow gauge railroad in operation in Arizona.
To learn more about Goldfield Ghost Town click here.

We started our adventure by scoping out Main Street.
A lot of things were closed for the summer...

The bordello was closed so no tours were being offered by the "floozies" today, but Kayley did stop to pose as a bird in a "gilded cage."

We also decided to tour "Arizona's largest live display of venomous reptiles and invertebrates."

When we got inside the snake lady was having trouble getting one of the displays closed. She was hollering for a "Man to help." So James wandered in there to see what he could do. It involved him holding this door closed for a while so the ginormous snake couldn't escape while she made a phone call to figure out what to do...

Eventually they decided that it needed to be swept near the hinges so it would close better, which they did...and they did ultimately get it closed. (shudder).

Kayley was pretty stressed out this whole time... Ok...Mommy was pretty stressed out the whole time too. The snake was huge! The snake lady told us that he wasn't venomous (thank goodness) and we wouldn't have to pay to look at the museum...(thanks).

We spent the rest of the time checking out the other creepy reptiles in the museum. I was ready to go after they got that snake door closed, but I politely waited while James and Kayley oooh'd and aaaahh'd over the creepy spiders, snakes and Gila monsters. (shuuuudddddeeerrr)...

This snake is taking a drink! I have never seen a drinking snake before...have you?

Hello there snake.

Kayley took this picture of us in the reptile house.

A turtle!

Kayley knocking on the door of the Jail. It was closed too... Good thing there were no drunken miners or other criminals on the loose in Goldfield today.

It started to get pretty hot outside, even though it was one of the nicest days of the summer. It was actually quite windy too.

We rode the train while we were there. It was the slowest moving train we had ever been on... It crept along at like, maybe, 2 miles per hour....

Waiting for our train.

Still waiting....

And more waiting...Kayley got tired...so she sat down. We didn't want her to get her bum dirty so we told her she couldn't sit on the ground...so she improvised and sat on my foot.

I guess that works.

Yay! We finally got on the train!

No smoking on this train!

I tried to tell James that taking pictures from this angle gives us all double chins....but he didn't listen. How many chins can you find in this picture?

The last thing we did was go on the Goldfield Mine Tour. We actually got into one of the creeeeeepy mine "buckets" and went way down underground to tour the mine. Kayley kept kicking dirt all over me and she wanted back up as soon as we got down there. I heard they were supposed to do a mock "dynamite explosion" down there but they didn't. I speculate it was because of Kayley and the tour guide didn't want to scare her.

My shoes got really dirty. Thanks to Kayley kicking mine dirt all over me.
I even have one of her footprints on my shin.

Overall, Goldfield Ghosttown was pretty cool.

The Mighty Wurlitzer - Organ Stop Pizza

Since we will be moving from Arizona pretty soon, we are trying to fit in all the things that we didn't get to do yet into the next few months. We had heard about this fun restaurant in Mesa called Organ Stop Pizza. We went there to check it out and here is what we found!

Organ Stop Pizza boasts the worlds largest theatrical pipe organ in the world called The Mighty Wurlitzer! While you eat your pizza an organist astounds you with his intense ability to play whatever you request! It was incredible! I have posted some videos toward the end.

If you want to learn more about Organ Stop Pizza and the Mighty Wurlitzer click here.

Kayley thought it was neat. They had dancing kitty puppets at one point, birds singing from the corners of the room and bubbles floated down from the ceiling. The organist played everything from Disney favorites to Star Wars medley.

A really bad self-portrait. It was challenging to get pictures without using a flash.

We sat on the upper level so we had to watch what was going on through the bars. I think next time we'll sit on the floor so we can catch some bubbles. I think the view might actually be a little better too.

The History of Kayley and her "Kankets"

For a lack of something to blog about today...since we decided to stay home and hang out...I thought I would do a cute flashback and give you the history of Kayley and her Kankets. You will see lots of never before seen photos...since Kanket photos were never published on the blog or on Kodak... Enjoy!

Uncle Steven and Aunt Jenna gave Kayley this cute yellow Pooh blankie when Kayley was born. It quickly became a favorite.

I worried though, because I couldn't find a second one like it...and I always heard that you should have more than one blankie in case it got lost..or when you wanted to wash it...and so it didn't get all scummy like other blankies...

So, while she was little enough not to care too much, I went out and bought a pink fluffy blankie in the hopes that she would forget about Pooh and focus more on the pink one.... She loved the pink one, although it backfired and she couldn't go to bed without BOTH the Pooh and Pink "Kanket" as she started calling them. I was lucky though in that...she only drug the pink kanket around the house...and Pooh usually waited for her in bed....

Pink Kanket goes went everywhere with Kayley...EXCEPT, I put my foot down and from the very beginning insisted that Kankets are for AT HOME only...which caused a few tears initially, but I was so glad I did. We set up a special place by the door for her to put her kanket so she could pick it up as soon as we walked back in the door...

When Kayley decided she liked the pink Kanket I went back to the store to buy a few more... Can you believe they didn't have pink anymore? So I bought blue... She never seemed to care that it was a different color...so everytime I switched them out she just rolled with it.

Now I have to admit that Kayley has 6 Kankets. Her Yellow Pooh...which is her favorite Pooh...and an alternate pink Pooh in case of washing or a lost yellow Pooh. We have 2 regular pink kankets and one blue kanket...we also have a different pink Kanket...which is not quite the same. One of the pink ones is packed in our 72 hour kits...(pretty wise I think)...the others stay in her drawer and she only has 2 out at a time. A pooh and a regular kanket...

Well...that is the history of the kanket...oh...which Kayley has since started telling me...it's a "BBB-lanket..." oh... and she rarely drags them around the house anymore...they pretty much stay in her bed. I guess it won't be much longer and she will put them away for good...
My baby is growing up.

Play Date at Chick"play"

Today we had a play date with Kayley's cute little friend Alison at the Chick-fil-a playground. (Kayley calls it Chick-Play, I guess she has the right idea). The girls are so cute and fun together. I don't know what it is about little girls but they squeal and screech at the top of their lungs while playing. Enjoy the photos.