The day didn’t go quite like we originally planned, but that is OK because it was still quite busy! The boys were supposed to have a “bike party” or riding playdate with their friends but it got cancelled because the host’s boy was sick.
The big boys went out of town for some target practice to take care of some old data for secure hard drive disposal. 🙂

After lunch, we went to the IDEA museum. Their theme this month is “Build It” and they have numerous areas dedicated to construction of all types. I had everything together to go to the museum but ended up forgetting my camera! I only had my poor old scratched-lens cell phone.

The boys have played several hours on this game (Endless Alphabet) at home over the last 2 years, but put it on a really big touch screen and it is all new!

There was even an outdoor building area

Brendan is in a “beaver den”

There was a dome with lots of log-pillows to use for building

The “Construction guy dress-up zone” was my favorite part. Brendan wanted the whole costume. That helmet!

There were so many stations to sit and build with different types of blocks

Museum selfie!

After an exhausting day at the museum it was time for dinner. Trevor was telling Jon about a restaurant where they sold spaghetti, meatballs, and ice cream and Jon said that sounded like a great idea! Old Spaghetti Factory!

This is what overtired, overstimulated boys do after sitting and behaving so well in the restaurant!

Uncle Jon has to leave first thing tomorrow. We really look forward to seeing the whole PA family again.

We had a busy week and I have a lot to post to catch up!

Sunday and Monday, we spent working on trying to complete long-running projects. The boys “helped” to paint.

Brendan crawled on the ceiling

There is a muddy boy at the door, should I let him in?

Look, they still can fit!

Yesterday, Uncle Jon fought weather delays and ended up arriving in Phoenix about 4 hours later than scheduled. Even though it was late, the boys got to go on the airport run to pick him up in the dark!

Jon had his conference and presentation this morning, but then he was available the rest of the afternoon, so we took him to the Science Center. We wish Shannon and Kieran could have been there, we thought of them often during this visit!

The boys still love the water play area.

Uncle Jon makes cool robots!

Trevor makes hammers

And immediately bops his uncle on the head!

There are so many neat things to do here

Uncle Jon on a bed of nails, and Trevor has the controller?

It took all of his might, but Trevor was able to pull over this lever and ring the bell

Silly museum selfie

The boys are super excited to have family here to visit. We have another big day planned tomorrow!

I guess this makes up for a slow posting week. I have a ton of photos. Happy Valentines Day!

We spent a nice day as a family enjoying the beautiful weather (sorry, freezing family). We drove the boys up to FR201 again and went to find a waterfall. The boys could have spent hours throwing rocks into the little creek.

They were regular mountain goats too

The truck made it down some rough road to get to this beautiful spot.

Really rough!

More throwing rocks in the water

We found a waterfall. The bigger one that we were looking for wasn’t really flowing and the truck wasn’t going to get there anyway.

That’s Bill’s coffee floating down the river…

Serious climbers!

(The reality, it’s all in the angle)

I am not sure what made this print.

“Pick me, Daddy!”

Spider on a rock

Trevor thinks he is fishing

Trevor found this outcropping where the silty pale sand had dried and cracked. He said that he was on the moon!

Only one thing to do on the moon, dig it up!

Time for a picnic

More tracks. These must be squirrel because they are so little. It is funny how they look like tiny human prints.

Poor Brendan walked right in to the end of a tree branch and it got him right over his left eye. It is developing a nice bruise.

We kept them dry the whole time, but at the very end, we told them that they could go ahead and get wet. They immediately did!

Ooops!

Warm and dry, time to go

We were still on the super bouncy and bumpy dirt road and Brendan fell asleep

That can’t be comfortable!

Trevor had a little accident tonight riding his bike. He wasn’t paying attention and he slammed into the side of Bill’s truck. The bike kept going under the truck and Trevor got laid out on the driveway with a shoe knocked off. He has some scrapes and was rattled, but he is OK. He was wearing his helmet and we are glad! He is getting too fast on that bike!

Bumps, bruises, scrapes and scratches… just the norm around here.