Friday: Best attempts at blowing bubbles!

Saturday: We had been waiting all month for the “Owl Walk and Talk” hosted by the Desert Audubon society. There is a park in Gilbert that has a large artificial habitat set up for burrowing owls, and each month a volunteer guides tours at sunset to talk about the habitat and see the birds returning to their nests.

Nature had other plans for us. We rolled in to the parking lot just in time to see the wall of dirt coming from the east.

We even had bought a new wagon to use for this trip. We thought we had a few moments to check out the park with the guide.

Maybe not!

The gust front hit so fast! Bill sprinted the boys back to the car!! Good thing the wagon had seatbelts. On its first run, it did a great job.

Made it to safety!

We waited for the dirt to clear and thought we could still go see the owls, but a second wave was already approaching with some rain behind it. Time to go!

Sunset in the dirt.

Swirls of dust blow down the street.

Sunday:

In order to beat the heat today, we took the boys on a short road trip to higher elevation. We checked out the Tonto Basin Fish Hatchery where they raise fish to stock ponds and streams for sport fishing.

The “incubators” in the back are tumbling thousands of eggs each.

Giving the fish their “fish chow”

We continued up to the Mogollon Rim to stand on the edge and watch the storms roll by.

What to do in the forest on a hot day? Ice cream sandwiches!

And running

As we drove back in to town, we could see another dust wall moving across the city. Monsoon season has definitely arrived!