Recent Happenings July/August

Here is a sampling of recent events in our home.

Food for junk food day. Coincidentally, our junk food day was on National Junk Food Day. Who knew such a day existed?!? We were not required to eat only junk food, but could partake of the food we had when desired. We also had a birthday party and the swim team party that day so there were lots of options for junk food! Megan doesn't want to repeat this day, though, as she got sick.

Matthew with the flying police car that he built during the free build Lego mini build.

Megan with the very comfortable jet plane that she built.

Snuggling in mom's new infinity pillow.

It rained and it rained and it rained. Not as much as a few years ago when we received 5-6 inches in a few hours but enough that the greenbelts were quite flooded.

Matthew got some strange disease. (Actually, it's part of an old costume flaking off on him.)

Megan's feet are getting close in size to mine.

U's travel backpack.

Look what's inside!

Matthew's penny collection sorted by year with the oldest on the left.
Stats: Oldest: 1957, Newest: 2018, Mean: 1994, Median: 1996, Mode: 2006

Megan's penny collection, sorted by what the penny looks like. Categories are new, new old, shiny coper, coper, instring (interesting) and old.

In sad news, Matthew's fish John Henry died. We will miss him and his funny way of swimming vertically. We will also miss how he would jump out of the water to grab his food.

Campout

Last weekend, we headed up to Payson for our ward campout. It was nice to get up to some cooler weather! We enjoyed roasting marshmallows, watching a movie, eating dutch oven cobbler and visiting with friends. After the campout, we went by a nearby fish hatchery. (Sarah thought we were going to a fish hat tree and wasn't sure what that was. I think it is a Dr. Seuss invention--doesn't it sound like something out of his books?) We also went to Tonto Natural Bridge.

The new tent we bought for the occasion. It has two rooms with one of which is a dark room.

Megan loved playing with the fire.

Hayley found this large dinosaur tooth that she wanted to show U. (He'd been one of her nursery leaders.)

Megan, Matthew and Sarah eating breakfast.

Sarah relaxing on the tree.

Megan enjoyed sitting on the tree as well.

At the fish hatchery. Matthew was very concerned about the electric fence and stayed far away from the tanks once he saw the sign.

So many fish!

Matthew concerned about Me--he did not want her getting close to the electric fence.

Some fish were jumping up where the water was pouring into the tank.

Matthew feeding the fish. We learned that the electric fence is only on at night. Matthew felt much safer.

Sarah found some wild blackberries.

So many blackberries! Sarah and U spent quite a bit of time harvesting them.

Me with some blackberries.

Sarah on the Waterfall Trail at Tonto Natural Bridge.

So much green!

Sarah took this photo of all the different colored trees.

Tonto Natural Bridge from up top. It is believed to be the largest natural travertine bridge in the world.

Interesting formations in the travertine.

That's a hearty plant!

Pine Creek with colorful red rock.

A cave that we explored that was a little above the creek.

Megan and Matthew liked having walking sticks. The red stone was slippery at times.

Matthew and Megan at the end of one trail.

Me with the bridge and waterfall behind me.

It's really pretty!

Someone told us that we could hike under the bridge and join up with another trail. Since we'd planned on taking that trail as well, we decided to do that. It was a bit steep and rocky but there were some footholds along the way that helped with the hike.

Me and U, Matthew and Megan after climbing up and over the rocks. (If you zoom in above Me's head, you can see someone holding onto the red wall, starting to make their way over the rocks.)

View of the bridge from the other side.

U on the sacrificial altar. (He thought it looked like an altar and thought he should try it out.) 

Matthew being like his dad.

Science Center and Mirror Maze

A few weekend ago, we went to the Arizona Science Center. We arrived during member hours and were able to spend some time by ourselves in the Get Charged Up exhibit. We also went to the special Mirror Maze exhibit where we were able to explore a large mirror maze and learn about patterns in nature.

Round and round Megan goes.

To the top!

Round and round Matthew goes.

Megan experiments with an oscillating string.

Sarah using her muscles to pull herself up.

Pull, Matthew! Pull!

U was proud he got a sustainable second harmonic wave.

On the bed of nails.

To the top Megan goes.

They brought out a number of blacksmith and wood puzzles that we enjoyed solving.

Fake U in the mirror maze. (We called people "fake" when they were a reflection and "real" when they were actually there. Can you spot part of real U?)

U and Matthew looking at the puzzle in the mirror. There were several in the maze. They would light up when you touched them.

Matthew.

Megan and Me. (Megan had just run into a mirror.)

U and Matthew in the secret room. There are three of the light up puzzles in the secret room, although none are lit in this picture.

Sarah!