January | 2018 | Brendan and Trevor's Story

As soon as I saw an ad for the “Arizona Military Vehicle Show”, I knew we were going to have to go. It is put on by private collectors and this is the 27th year! We invited a couple of friends and enjoyed a day in beautiful weather.

The owners of all the vehicles were friendly and many of them loved to let the kids climb in.

Every kid had to “crank the horn” but Brendan found it to be very loud

Landon, Brendan, Graham, and Trevor – a flock of excited little boys

Trevor had to dress the part. He was not the only kid all in camo!

The boys got hats and grenades

At the controls of a big digger

After the show, we had to get sliders for lunch

Because they serve big steak fries and little string fries, we were able to make “fry people”. Or Fry-Guys.

The boys had the day off of school for Martin Luther King Jr. Day so we made a little day trip to Sycamore Creek.

The outer video is from the Dash Cam on the truck. It makes the road look like smooth sailing. The inset video is from my phone as I tried to video the boys’ reaction to the VERY bumpy road. I lined them up with the audio track so the reactions match up to the road.

The creek was basically dry, but it such a cool place to go anyway

We brought some donuts for breakfast

Trevor found a stick with a split in the end and shoved a stone in it to make his own pickaxe. (Just like Minecraft) Since I had brought some crocheting to work on in the car, I had some yarn to use to stabilize his creation.

They hammered rocks and dug holes

We love this rock. I am not sure what it is made of, but it is so bright and different from everything around it.

We call this one “bacon rock”

We did find a stagnant pool in the shade – all that is left of the creek right now

Throwing rocks in water – still ranks high on list of favorite activities

I saw a bunch of little things squirming quickly around one of the puddles. I thought maybe it was tadpoles at first.

Then I got closer. I am guessing it is some kind of fly larva. They swim and twist and wiggle around.

There was something else at this puddle

It was a couple of these water striders. I thought maybe the larva belonged to them, but the images I have looked up online don’t really match.

Brendan didn’t care about the bugs. He went back to throwing rocks.

Trevor wanted to climb and explore

We left the creek and went back up the road a short way to a shady place to park

Brendan looks comfy

Bill found something that caught the boys’ interest. A SWING! Someone that had visited here before us tied up a very tall swing with a branch for a seat. We all figured it was a forest swing fairy.

It was about 25 ft up and not quite straight so it swung in an odd curve

Trevor wanted to swing really high!

While they were waiting for their turn on the swing, they got to practice with their old Daisy BB gun. We set up some pop cans for them to shoot.

Brendan has a hard time just holding the gun up straight right now. But Trevor is a little sharp shooter. He was really excited when he hit the can three times in a row.