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!

Brendan had a test in Nuclear Medicine today at the hospital. They are testing motility in his gut, all as part of the big picture to get him eating real food.
They filled his tummy with his formula mixed with a small amount of radioactive medicine, and then they watched it move through his system.

The problem is that it meant being trapped in this machine for an hour and twenty minutes.

The camera stayed at that angle the whole time, and Brendan was strapped in with three really wide velcro pads.

He really did not like it. He kept saying, “I am stuck.” and “Let’s get out of here!”

With enough Youtube videos and playing with his Iron Man guy he brought, he did relax some. It was a long wait.

Trevor stayed home and played Legos with Daddy.

Now we wait for results.

Bill and I are both tired. He is still fighting the cold. The boys are bursting with energy though, so we have to have exercise time. Today was the ninja hour. (Plus, we got a soft new area rug! Wooo!)

We are still trying to beat the heat. It involves lots of water. We went for dinner by the mall and the boys ended up spending an hour running in the splash pad.

This doesn’t get old. Getting outside for evening bath time helps disrupt the “cabin fever” feeling of staying in all day.

We have not received a final date yet for Brendan’s procedures. They are jumping all the insurance hoops and once that is done, we will get it scheduled.

Bill has a yucky cold and we are hoping the rest of us don’t get it.

Brendan is trying to become a Playstation addict. The girls gave us a Lego Marvel Superheroes game while they were here and Brendan loves it. He has mastered the controller and actually can drive his character with a great deal of accuracy. I am impressed.
He would play all day if I would let him. He only gets to play when he is stuck to his chair for feeding time. Spiderman was his favorite at first, but now he will always pick Iron Man.

When we first started singing the song, Trevor liked singing “And he does exercise” as the line instead of “Catches thieves just like flies”. Brendan was getting the versions mixed up. It just makes it cuter!