Our friend Pete has a little 125cc quad and has been waiting for his boy Landon to get big enough to ride it. He and Bill took all the boys out to the open desert to try it out!

Brendan has a new helmet and he is ready to go!

They picked a really nice spot!

At this little pond they were catching a million little frogs.

Something else with big feet had been by

The boys brought their bikes to ride while they waited their turn on the quad. Trevor has a new helmet too!

They all had a great time with the rides!

Brendan has been working on a carrier for his favorite stuffed animal named “Turtson”

You can see inside there is water and a food dish. He has thought of everything.

Brendan earns new Lego sets when he has challenging doctor appointments, like getting bloodwork done.

We cracked open some geodes from our last trip. We found some with Amethyst.

As soon as I split this one, Brendan thought it looked like an owl! (Of course)

We heard that Pinetop, AZ was getting hail and rain and cold weather and that sounded heavenly. So we went for an overnight to check it out!

We drove up through Salt River Canyon. The scenery is gorgeous but the windy roads were not kind to Brendan’s car sickness. We had to stop a few times.

We got checked in to our hotel and then found a great little playground nearby. The weather was really nice and clear. But all the lakes were totally dry! Can you find Brendan on the playground?

There he is!

Sliding Trevor

Another sliding Trevor

Peeking Trevor

We stopped at our favorite rock shop and picked up a few more geodes to cut open.

Since we were in the area, we decided to stop at the Meteor Crater

This picture is for scale. That little white patch in the middle has a cardboard cutout model of an astronaut that is 6ft tall. You can see him with binoculars.

The full crater

They are building a big addition on to the visitor center

Revolving doors were like a ride – so fascinating!

That night, we went swimming in the hotel’s indoor pool while it was about 40 degrees outside. It was raining with strong winds and we floated in the pool. What a cool experience. Brendan LOVES indoor pools. He always asks to go to hotels with indoor pools.

Happy 4th of July!

Yesterday, we spent the morning doing the “Laser Maze” at Odysea in the Desert. Once the door opens you have exactly one minute to try to get through the room without interrupting the beams. Three beams touched, you are out. There are two buttons to push and you have to push them simultaneously with your partner. The whole thing is a great idea and fun. But if you succeed, your game is still over. 60 seconds no matter win or lose. That part is kind of lame.
The boys LOVE it but it is way too expensive for 60 second turns!

We had lunch in the aquarium after petting sting rays for an hour.

For the fourth, we just had a swimming party/BBQ at a friends house.