Brendan loves the eye of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings, especially the one that was in ‘The Lego Batman Movie’. If you ever hear Brendan saying “Shaka-Laka-Loooooow”, that is where he heard it. We sat and created our own Tower of Barad Dur and eye of Sauron out of Lego. He was very proud. He even made a label for it.

February 4th –

The boys really loved the road trip to the Sycamore Creek and wanted to do it again but we wanted a little less driving time. We decided to go to the Salt River instead and they brought their friend Blake. Hanging out under the road in the shade was perfect.

The water was cold, but Trevor didn’t care!

Trevor loves his navy hat that he got at the military vehicle show. He wears it any time he can.

Trevor found a shoelace and a stick in the river and made himself a “fishing pole”. The other boys were green with envy, so I went to the car and got anything else we could use to make more. Brendan’s is made out of a piece of oxygen tubing and I made one for Blake out of a twill tape trach tie. (Ah, the stuff we keep in the car)

It did not matter that there was no chance of catching anything. The boys all fished and fished and fished.

February 10th –

Earlier in the week, Brendan got a cold. He had one scary night where is saturation dropped to the 70’s and he was so tired and wheezy. Lots of breathing treatments and sleeping with some oxygen helped tremendously. He felt so much better the next morning, but we saw the doctor anyway and Brendan was put on antibiotics.

We were so worried he would have to miss the “Hopekids Fun Day” but he was better! It was hosted by Scottsdale Bible Church. (more like a small city than a church, the place is amazing) Look at the slide they have! See the boys at the top?!

Volunteers set up so many little carnival games and everyone got little prizes

Then some dinosaurs showed up

Trevor got to climb a rock wall – or at least try to. He is just barely big enough to use the harness. The grips were far apart for him.

There were a number of bounce houses

There was a delicious lunch followed by a Lego building room where they were playing ‘The Lego Batman Movie”. Shaka-laka-loooooooow!!

We listened to a very young girl speak about losing her leg in her fight with cancer. She was a great speaker for someone so young. The church really provided such an awesome day for all of the families.

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.

The road home. The boys had a full day of adventure. I hope the swing is still there next time we go back!