We recently went on a mini break to Butler County, Ohio. We certainly ate our way through the county, but we also played our way through, too! There are just so many fun things to do in Butler County. Seriously, you need at least a week to even scratch the surface. I mean, you could go sky diving, kayaking, stroll though a sculpture garden, check out a festival, hit up a golf course. Countless activities! But, we only had a couple of days for this trip. Don’t worry. We will be back!
Here are our some of our favorite, family-friendly attractions from this visit.
This place is right up there in my top favorite activities ever. It’s just so unique and fun I would absolutely love to take a mom trip and go back! I really didn’t know what to expect when we walked in. We had heard about it and I told the kids we were going to check out this candle place and make our very own candles. They were game, but not too excited. They thought it was going to be like the old time reenactments at some forts and field trips that we’ve taken, and they envisoinsed women in bonnets and aprons stirring hot wax and dipping candles in an old cast iron pot over an open fire. haha. This was not that!
This is a clever place run by the sweetest couple. They owned a flower shop first and wanted to combine it with a custom candle shop. And Petals and Wicks was born. You do make your own candle, but you get to choose your favorite scents, from a wall of over 100! And then you get to choose your favorite container from her cool stash. (You can even bring one in that you love from home, something with meaning or an heirloom.) You can choose as many scents as you love and then you sit down at the fragrance bar and you get to smell a few of them together to come up with your very own signature candle! You blend the oils that you chose and make your custom creation! It was such a blast. I absolutely love my candle. And then you make a label for your candle. It was like crafting, but with smells. And you get to enjoy your smells for 120 hours afterwards! WE LOVED IT!
Hours.
12 PM – 7 PM Tuesday – Thursday
12 PM – 8 PM Friday
10 AM – 8 PM Saturday
CLOSED Sundays and Mondays.
One room. One hour. One escape. Challenge accepted.
My kids were SO EXCITED to try an escape the room challenge. I mean. Beside themselves!! I’ve been to a few escape rooms with friends and family and have always loved them and have always escaped. They have always begged to come. This was my 4th and I was a little nervous to do an adult one with only two adults and two kids. I had very low expectations that we would escape. It takes communication, teamwork and trust to do figure out the clues in just an hour. Did we have what it takes? YES! We escaped. They kids did sooooo well. I was pretty impressed.
We did “Uncle Ernie’s Millions” designed for 6 players and has a 25% escape rate!! (I know, we’re basically geniuses.) All the clues were hidden in Uncle Ernie’s game room. This room had two windows to the outside of Ernie’s house. Basically looking out on his screen and neighborhood. They were computer screens. SO flipping clever. Some clues were built into the monitors. People would walk by and talk to us sometimes. It was really, really cool.
“You find yourself locked in the game room and now you have just one hour to find the Will and get out or you’ll miss the reading of the Will. Then instead of Uncle Ernie’s Millions…you get nothing!”
They have three other rooms and we got to take a peek inside and hear a little bit about them.
Esmerelda’s Curse, sounds really fun and a little creepy and up to 10 players can play at once.
In Escape the Mob, you get trapped in a warehouse and have to find clues to escape before the Giganti family returns.
And in Double Agent Dilemma, you can play with up to 12 people to figure out who is the double agent before a bomb goes off!!
WHAT! SO fun. I want to do them all. This place was really fun and unique. They make their own props and write their own stories. It was the best of the escape rooms that I have been to. The waiting room was even fun! They had neat little word puzzles to get your brain working before you went in. Nice touch and I think they really helped! 😉
Location at….
7391 Squire Court, West Chester, Ohio 45069. Book here.
3. The WEB Extreme Entertainment
Third up on our list was The WEB Extreme Entertainment. They really have it all under this one roof. Seriously! Everything you (or a 9 year old boy) can think of. Perfect for a rainy day or a super birthday party. They have Cincinnati’s largest laser tag arena, a mini bowling alley, Cincy’s only indoor electric go-kart track, nine-hole blacklight mini golf, an escape room, an augmented climbing wall and one of the largest arcades in the area. There is so much to do, that we couldn’t even tear the kids away to leave for dinner, so we ate at the cafe’ there! And it was all great.
We have so many rubber duckies now, thanks to this play till you win game!
Classic ski-ball is always a favorite.
The glow mini-golf is called Jurassic Par…..get it?! hahaha
Sam loved the glow mini-bowling.
This boy was in sport and game heaven.
Dinner was great. They have a nice selection of pizza, chicken, burgers and fries.
Sam got his favorite…a huge BLT. TASTY.
And then he got to do his favorite activity….GO KARTS!
We all had a great time. The favorite activity ended up being the augmented climbing wall, Cliffhanger. The wall incorporates rock climbing with projected graphics and body tracking to provide a fun and competitive full-body gaming experience. It was so neat.
If you find yourself near by the WEB Extreme, put it on your list. So fun!
Located at…..
7172 Cincinnati Dayton Road West Chester, OH 45069
4. Jungle Jims International Market.
OK. It might seem odd that 4th up on my list of fun activites…..is a grocery store. I don’t really enjoy grocery shopping in real life. But, honestly. It is sooooo much more than a grocery store. It certainly is a destination. We always bring out of town guests here. And my husband absolutely loves spending way too long combing through the beer isles. SO MUCH BEER.
It’s been featured on the Travel Channel, The History Channel, The Food Network and Good Morning America! Can your grocery store say that?
This place is over 200,000 square feet of crazy grocery shopping. There are over 180,000 products to chose from! Including their own line of products and more hot sauces than you can imagine.
They carry crazy wild meats and even have a fresh kombucha bar.
This all may seem excessive and over the top. But, tell that to a family that has moved to the Cincinnati area from another country and just wants a taste of familiar home. Jungle Jim’s has whole entire sections of the store dedicated to different countries. My mom’s family is from Holland and we are always excited to pick up some of her childhood favorites.
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