My First Time on the Red Carpet, Visiting the Oval Office, and Clubbing Some Woman after my Husband...All in a Days Work at Madame Tussauds Hollywood!!

Disclosure: Madame Tussauds Hollywood and US Family Guide provided my family with tickets to visit the Wax museum to share my experience and review with you.  All opinions stated here are my own.

My family and I found ourselves in Hollywood this weekend to visit Madame Tussauds Hollywood Wax Museum.  We made our way down Hollywood Boulevard and the walk of fame when we came upon Madame Tussauds which sat right next door to the world famous TCL Chinese Theatre!

The TCL Chinese Theatre rises 90 feet high and two gigantic coral red columns topped by wrought iron masks hold aloft the bronze roof.  Between the columns is a 30 foot high dragon carved from stone. Guarding the theatre entrance to this day are the two original giant Heaven dogs brought over from China. The Chinese Theatre is the most sought after theater in Hollywood for studio premieres.  fans often flock to these events to see celebrities arrive and walk up the red carpet into the theatre.  Rich in movie tradition, with it's cement hand prints and footprints in the forecourt, the Chinese Theatre immortalizes the biggest stars.  More than four million visitors from all over the world visit the Chinese Theatre every year!

So we became five of the four million this year and checked out all the hand and feet print of some of the greatest stars before proceeding to Madame Tussauds!

 Harold Lloyd

 Marilyn Monroe

After we were done looking around the Chinese Theatre we stepped into madametussauds!  Upon entering we walked down the red carpet and was greeted by none other than Joan Rivers!  There was so much press and paparazzi we didn't know how to act so we just threw up some peace signs it was all a little intimidating being so famous and all...we were a pretty big deal!

Next we took an elevator down a couple floors to The A-List party!  It was the hottest party in town that day.  We were bumping elbows with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pit, Simon Cowell, Rihanna, Beyonce just to name a few!

                                               My husband even joined in on the dance floor!

After the A-list party we went on to meet some other great folks like Betty white, she was such a nice lady!

I hung out at the bar with Morgan freeman and Judy Garland seemed to have had too much to drink!

Then to my surprise Some lady by the name of Raquel Welch from like One Million Years B.C was trying to pick up my husband...so I clubbed her!!

Next I was called into the Oval office to go over some current events with The President!  Our country is in turmoil and we needed the help of some super heroes, so I called in some of the best!

Iron Man

Captain America

                                                                         Thor

                                                                          Spider man

OK Maybe I wasn't on the red carpet, and maybe I didn't REALLY meet all these stars, but we sure had a lot of fun pretending!!  The Madame Tussauds  is a famed attraction in Los Angeles premiere Hollywood destination offering guests the worlds only opportunity to interact with over 125 incredibly lifelike iconic figures from celebrity worlds of film, TV, music, sports, and politics!  This year alone Madame Tussauds Hollywood is launching 12 new figures in 12 months more than ever in one year!

After we interacted with all the great wax figures and took literally hundreds of photographs, we went on to Madame Tussauds latest attraction!  Madame Tussauds and Marvel have collaborated to bring a new 4D theater and superhero film for attraction goers!

On July 11, 2014, Madame Tussauds Hollywood announced the grand opening of their brand new, multi-million dollar Marvel super heroes 4D theater expansion bringing their most legendary super heroes to life!  The innovative 4D experience with Multi sensory entertainment includes water, smoke, and trembles in your seat, allowing visitors to come face to face with the action!  My family thought this was really cool!  You really feel like you are in the movie!!  It was amazing!  The Theater is equipped with 74 seats and a screen size of 25x17 ft for maximum viewing.

Well I can talk all day about the great time we had at Madame Tussauds, but these movies are not going to direct themselves, so I better go!

Madame Tussauds Hollywood is the ultimate fame experience...who do you want to meet???

Camping with the kids...time to pack the kitchen sink :)

The best way to get out of the house in the summer time and make some good old fashion family memories is to take a good old fashion camping trip!  We live in the Arizona Valley, and the only way to be outdoors in the summer is to pack up and leave.  I have been camping all my life, so you would think I'm a pro by now.  The problem is, going through life your camp packing list changes.  As a child I just hopped in the car, the riding in the car was the hardest part because someone else did all the packing for me.  When I became a teenager and young adult camping with my friends, a warm jacket, cooler of beer, and some chips were about all I needed.  As we grew older we bought our own tent, camping stove, flashlight, some chairs, and hot dog skewers.  And then we had kids....

With our first child we would take her tent camping and each time we would notice more and more things we needed.  Blankets, lovies, toys, warm clothes, cool clothes, PJ's, potty chairs, sunscreen, hats, more toys...you get the point!  Our second child came along and we started staying in more hotels, because our vehicle could not hold all the camping gear and necessities of two young girls.  Third child came and we purchased a toy hauler trailer.  Don't get me started on camping in a toy hauler!  Because now you have all your camping gear and necessities plus adult toys and all the gear you need for those!

Our kids are a little older now and unfortunately their idea of fun is staring at their Ipad for twelve hours straight.  YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, video games.  Time to get them out of the house and away from the Internet!

We will be camping Fourth of July weekend, in the California Mountains, in the town of Big Bear.  I will be honest in saying we are going to our families cabin, but will be pitching a tent in the backyard with all the cousins!  This is kind of cheating, but will save the hassle of packing everything including the kitchen sink....so I thought...

Here is our packing list...

~I was excited to pitch a big family size tent and all of us have a big family sleepover!  It then came to my realization this was not going to happen.  My husband and kids thought it would be cooler to have two tents, a kid tent and a grown up tent.
~They then decided they all needed padding AKA blow up mattresses for comfort.
~ It will be dark at night so we better get little lights for the inside of the tents!
~We will bring sleeping bags to lay on top of their air mattresses, and then each of their favorite pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals.
~Now that there won't be any Internet what in the world will they do??  We got coloring books, water balloons, water guns, books.
~ We plan on fishing so we have five fishing poles, a few tackles boxes, and a net.
~ It IS Fourth of July so we can't go camping without, Americana outfits, accessories, decorations, sparklers, and fireworks!
~five chairs for watching fireworks and a big picnic sized blanket!
~two coolers.  One for drinks and one for food.
~bathing suits! beach towels! sun hats and sunscreen.
~Children's Claritin, inhalers, Motrin, and Adult allergy medicine, motion sickness bands, and a bucket.
~flashlights
~five suitcases with our clothing, toiletries! and extra shoes.
~jackets for when the sun goes down.
~and my camera!  Wouldn't want to miss a good Kodak moment!

Now I'm sure this will not be my entire list and I'm sure I WILL forget something super important, but we will survive!

So if you get behind a white minivan driving slowly up the mountain looking like something  out of the Beverly Hillbillies honk and wave, because it's probably me!

Enjoy your weekend and be safe :)

Camping with the family "Box Wash" at Vulture Peak Wickenburg, Arizona!!!!

Memorial day weekend my family and I had no plans for the weekend.  Saturday morning I started becoming antsy to get out of the house, so I started looking up places to visit that were not going to be overly crowded with people.  We live in Buckeye, Arizona which is about 35 miles west of Phoenix.  Everyone and their grandmother it seemed were going to the nearest lake and there were Wildfires burning in the local mountains, so both of those were out.  I came across Box Wash which is about seven miles south of Wickenburg, Arizona.  There was not a lot of info on it, but what I had read is there were good riding trails, it was close to town if you needed anything, but far enough from everything to find serenity.  We packed up some food along with our Rhino in the back of our toy hauler trailer and headed for Wickenburg!

Most of the drive was on a two lane road, I think we passed about three cars the whole drive.  There were lots of cattle guards, we did see a few dead cattle along the side of the road.  So if you are heading out that way keep an eye out for cattle!  Hitting a cow is a good way to ruin your weekend!  We continued up Vulture Mine road and actually came across Vulture Mine which was perched up on the hill on the left hand side of the road.
 Vulture Mine was a gold mine and settlement which began in1863 and became the most productive gold mine in Arizona history!  From 1863 to 1942, the mine produced 340,000 ounces of gold and 260,000 ounces of silver.  The mine attracted more than 5,000 people to the area, and is credited with founding the town of Wickenburg, Arizona.  In 1942, the Vulture Mine was shut down for processing gold.  This was a violation at the time because all resources were to be focused on the war effort.
Today the Mine and Ghost town are privately owned, and tours are offered!  There is a two hour, dirt path, guided walk tour at the historic Vulture mine and through the remaining buildings of Vulture City, a booming mining town.  While we were there for the weekend the Vulture mine tours were only running on Saturday mornings form 8:30-10:30.  Unfortunately we were unable to visit the Vulture mine, but plan on going back and making this part of our itinerary!  The Vulture Mine also was part of the travel Channel show the Ghost Adventures as one of the Lock Down sites for the show!!

Approximately seven miles north on Vulture Mine Road, on the right hand side you will find Vulture Peak Road!  This is BLM land.  Vulture Peak road is a well maintained dirt road with lots of big pull outs and areas for rigs as well as some nice secluded areas for tent camping. There are no restrooms or facilities in this area!

I think we saw about three other campers our whole weekend!  We drove down to Mile marker 1 and there was a really nice big open area with lots of trails surrounding and easily accessible with our trailer.  This land is littered with mature mesquite trees that offer shade, as well as lots of beautiful Saguaro Cactus!  Memorial day weekend all the cactus and trees were in full bloom!  There were wild flowers everywhere!

The weekend was very peaceful.  We did a lot of trail riding in our Rhino, and a lot of star gazing at night!  We drove into Wickenburg which is only 7 miles up the road a couple times to stock up on ice!  While there we walked around the town and looked at all the sculptures along the streets.  We stopped in The Chaparral Home made Ice cream shop for a sweet treat before heading back to camp.  The Chaparral is the oldest homemade ice cream shop for miles and a MUST stop in Wickenburg, AZ  My son had Prickly Pear Ice cream and LOVED  it!!

We returned home Monday.  The whole drive from Buckeye, AZ to the Box Wash BLM campground towing a trailer only took us an hour!  It was a nice getaway, It was free, It was not packed with people, was close enough to town for supplies, but far enough away to find that Serenity!  A great star gazing area and OHV playground!  My only complaint is during the spring everything is in bloom which means lots of bugs!!  I hope everyone had a beautiful Memorial day!