As I’m doing the ‘end of school year’ dance, I figured now was a perfect time to share a few of my End of School Year Tips that make my life a bunch easier. I call them my ‘thanks past Joules’ tips… because once September hits and the kiddo goes back to school, I’m sending my past self all the hugs and kisses.
Tip 1: Wash the Backpack and Lunchbox
Very, very, very important. Grab your kids backpack and the lunchbox that they’ve used all year, empty them out completely and then throw them in the laundry with a few towels. I don’t know why, but the backpack just picks up a funky, stinky school smell, so the sooner you get that cleaned the less time you spend with it fermenting in your house. As for the lunchbox, even if there is a plastic interior, if the outside is any sort of canvas you can throw it in the laundry.
Once they go through a normal washing load, just let them air dry and they’re ready to go for next year!
Tip 2: Wash the PE clothes
This could almost be a subsection of the first tip, but I’m sure I’m not the only parent who has found old, stinky PE clothes shoved into a bag at the bottom of the kids backpack. Even if they didn’t wear them ONCE during the year (so glad I paid for them…) they still get that school funk. Throw them in the wash ASAP and save yourself the retching of finding them after 2 more months.
Tip 3: Do a School Supplies Review/Purge
My kid brought home two backpacks full of school supplies and crap that was in his locker. Put it all in a pile on the table. Then, have your kid go through everything and separate it into trash and keep piles. Then, you go through it and re-separate it into trash and keep piles.
I’m typically able to reclaim at least a few binders that are in good shape, some folders, scissors, pencil sharpeners, and an assortment of pens, pencils and markers. Those go into the ‘use next year’ pile that gets put away in the closet until August. Then, the stuff that is okay but not trash, gets absorbed into the house stuff (like mostly used post it notes and notebooks that still have a little life left in them). Anything broken, empty or gross goes into the trashcan or recycle bin.
BONUS POINT OPTION: As you’re sorting through the school supplies, make a list of items that can’t be reused for school next year. Keep this list in your phone. Over the summer as you are out and about and see things on sale, buy the things on your list. Or, if you’re an Amazon shopper, stick each item on a ‘wish list’ and then check to see if any pricing dropped for the Amazon Prime Day sales — this year’s sales run from July 8 – 11th (here’s a post about how I use their sales to my advantage here).
I’ve done yoga in a studio. I’ve done yoga in a greenhouse. I’ve done yoga while following along with a Peloton instructor while Ollie tries to tackle me. But this weekend… I did yoga with alpacas.
Yes. Alpacas.
And it was fun. And a little stinky.
I signed Travis, Jack and me up for a yoga class at Black Barn Alpacas, which is exactly what it sounds like… yoga surrounded by fluffy alpacas. Typically, the class is offered outside in their fields; however, since it was a rainy day, our class was held in a large indoor alpaca barn.
Before class started, we had some time to mingle with the herd and get over the initial ‘why does it look like every middle school boy’ feeling.
Then, we rolled out our yoga mats and a nice instructor put a little pile of alpaca food at the end of each mat to encourage them to chill with our group.
Spoiler alert: They were NOT interested in us.
Instead, we enjoyed an hour-long yoga class and the group of alpacas that they let out of their pens just kind of swarmed around and moved from side to side of the barn. It was a weird mix of relaxing into stretches and hilarious when you’d accidentally make eye contact with an alpaca.
Fun fact: it’s a little hard to do deep breathing through your nose and out your mouth when it smells like alpaca poo. Just saying.
Anyways, Jack lost interest about halfway through the class, so he went and played with the alpacas. Which was SO MUCH better than having to listen to “is it almost over yet” a million times while trying to hold yoga poses. 5 out of 5 stars… highly recommend!
After the class, they handed out little cups of alpaca feed and let us go wild hanging out with the alpacas. We were allowed to go in any of the pens, feed them, pet them, and laugh at their silliness.
Family Verdict: WE LOVED IT! It was a fantastic, slightly ridiculous way to spend a Saturday afternoon and I highly recommend trying it out!
For part three of our Arizona Family Adventure series, let’s talk about Prescott! Why did we decide to stay in Prescott? Well, Sedona is expensive. Instead of staying in Sedona like we did last time, we looked for a spot that was within easy driving distance to both Phoenix and Sedona — with a bit longer (but totally manageable) drive to the Grand Canyon for a day trip. Prescott quickly rose to the top of our list, and I narrowed our VRBO searches to Prescott and nearby Prescott Valley.
We ended up renting a house perched on the side of a mountain in Prescott, complete with absolutely gorgeous views from the deck and hot tub. If you’ve only ever stayed in hotels, let me wax poetic about the magic of renting a VRBO for just a moment:
You get your own house, which makes it feel like you’re truly part of the community.
You can be as introverted as you want! No hotel registration lines. No awkward elevator small talk. No sharing walls with strangers and listening loud conversations as people walk down the hallways while you’re trying to sleep.
A full kitchen and laundry room are a must. We always make sure our rental has both, so we can eat meals at “home” and travel with just carry-on suitcases — doing laundry halfway through the trip.
We like to add a little extra luxury, renting places with a spectacular view, hot tub, or private pool whenever possible. Honestly, it’s amazing how much further your money can go renting a whole house instead of a hotel room!
On our Spring Break 2025 trip, we spent 2 ½ days in Prescott – day 2, day 4 (Easter) and the afternoon of day 5.
Day 1: A Donut Stop before the Grand Canyon and Red White Brew After
Okay, I’m going back in time a bit. We already talked about our Day 1 adventure to the Grand Canyon. However, I wanted to make sure to tell you all about Outlaw Donuts. We stopped there for breakfast and ordered coffee, homemade donuts, and even a breakfast wrap and everything was delicious. If you are staying in Prescott (or even driving through), it’s a fantastic hole-in-the-wall that needs to be added to your itinerary!
After our Grand Canyon visit we pulled back into town hungry, so we stopped by Red White Brew because the menu looked good and they were open until 9pm. I ordered the chicken parmigiana to share with Jack and Travis ordered the chicken marsala. The food was great and the portions were so huge that we not only enjoyed dinner, but had plenty for lunch the next day.
Day 2: Shopping and All the Weather
After a long drive to the Grand Canyon and back on Day 1, we decided to take it easy on Day 2. The weather forecast was calling for chilly temps and a bit of rain, so it felt like the perfect excuse to throw on our comfiest clothes and spend the day exploring downtown Prescott.
We drove to Courthouse Plaza on South Montezuma Street, where there was lots of free parking and easy access to a bunch of stores, restaurants and bars. We then wandered around and poked our heads into pretty much every store around. Some of our favorites were: Prescott Trading Company, the shops in Whisky Row, Arts Prescott Gallery and Drawn West.
We headed back to the house to heat up our leftovers from Red White Brew, watched a little TV and then decided to head out to explore some thrift stores. We ended up checking out a Goodwill and two different locations of the Disabled American Veteran’s Thrift Store (DAV). You can learn more about the DAV thrift stores and their mission here. The thrifting in Prescott was excellent with great items and really low prices. You can see my thrift scores here, but Travis also ended up with some tee shirts, a super soft plaid flannel shirt and an Under Armour hoodie.
When we were driving around thrifting, we were SHOCKED when the rainy weather turned into giant flakes of snow! We decided to check out a nearby tapas restaurant, El Gato Azul, and had a delicious dinner while watching the snow float down. I love a fun, tapas menu and it’s a great opportunity for us all to taste some different things (even Jack). We ended up ordering: artichoke & spinach dip, Mediterranean nachos, fried artichokes, and carnitas.
It actually ended up snowing a few inches, so we woke up to a winter wonderland the next morning… before it all melted and it was 70 degrees again.
Day 4: Hiking The Granite Dells at Watson Lake
Day 4 was Easter and I knew that we wanted to stay away from the ‘touristy’ areas like the Grand Canyon or Sedona, so we planned to have a Prescott hiking day. I was really excited to see the Granite Dells at Watson Lake, and the hike did not disappoint. In fact, it may be one of my favorite hikes that I’ve EVER done!
We parked at the Flume Trailhead and then hiked the Flume Trail to the Watson Dam Trail. Basically, on our way out every time we got to a split in the path we would stick to the right. The path was marked extremely well with white dots to follow. Some of the hike was sticking to a path, but then other parts were climbing over gigantic rocks or up the side of a mountain. It was surreal and it felt like we were on another planet. We saw less than a dozen people out and about while we were hiking and it was absolutely beautiful. Once we got to the top of the trail, we were able to look down into the Watson Lake.
I cannot stress how much I loved the hike. In fact, when we were trying to decide what to do on Day 5 (Sedona or another Granite Dells hike on the South side of the lake), I was kind of leaning towards a second Dells hike.
Since that evening was Easter, we didn’t want to depend on a restaurant being open to feed us, so we stopped by Trader Joes to pick up some more food and ended up having some delicious home cooked steaks for Easter dinner.
Take a ball and throw it around on the courthouse lawn. Jack had an oversized hacky-sack and had a great time stretching his legs on Day 5 after the ride home from Sedona.
Bigger kids/teens – Jack LOVED the Granite Dells hike. I mean, there was not one complaint from him the entire time!
Here are some photos from hiking the Granite Dells at Watson Lake:
This is the end of my three-part series on our Arizona Family Adventure – Grand Canyon, Sedona and Prescott. Let me know if you have any questions or need any other tips!
