Oma and Opa got a VW Jetta SportWagon and the kids loved playing in it. Although we did have an injury from the roll up cover in the back, Ellie got hit in the eye when it rolled up. She now has an eyelid that is a lovely shade of red/purple. Maybe we should put some eye shadow on the other eye to match.
One of our new favorite Christian music artists is JJ Heller. She had a free concert at Northridge Community Church in Cave Creek on Friday night. The kids love her music and were very excited. They didn’t like having to sit through 45 minutes of opening acts but they loved it once JJ was on stage. JJ sings only with an acoustic guitar (that her husband plays) and she plays harmonica. Eve some how slept through part of the concert even with all the yelling and clapping. Ellie was so relaxed she fell asleep at the end. We even got to meet her which the kids loved. Nate wants her to come play with us someday. Overall it was a great concert.
Nate made this potato head at Garden camp. It is a real potato that has been hollowed out and filled with dirt and grass seed. He is growing a nice head of hair. Nate was super excited about the shells and that they were really from the ocean.
On Saturday we saw Toy Story 3.
Also on Saturday, we had a picnic in Thorpe Park and then played. It is always nice when they find nice kids to play with.
On Sunday we went to the neighborhood park. On our way we saw C.J. (our neighbor’s grandson) sitting on the end of their driveway and invited him to the park with us. He was great to have along because he showed Nate some things about basketball, helped Ellie with basketball, and let the kids try his long board. Nate made three baskets. Ellie asked Opa to go down the slide with her so he did (see slide pic).
On Monday we stopped at the West Fork of Oak Creek (one of our favorite places when we lived in Flagstaff). The kids had a great time wading in the water, throwing rocks, and watching sticks and leaves flow downstream.
The not so fun part of our trip was that the air conditioning stopped working just before the Crown King exit. We pulled off and I took a picture of this cactus while Paul looked at the car. I think this cactus might have been some of the only shade around. Luckily we were not far from Anthem and we had water in the car and a spray bottle so we kept as cool as possible. We recharged the A/C at the Wal-Mart and were shortly on our way with cold air once again.
Nate, Oma, and Opa went to Francis Short Pond to take some pictures. Nate took these pictures. He was fascinated with a guy that was fishing and the fish he caught. He also really liked taking pictures of the dead crawdads.
They went to Lowell Observatory and got to see Saturn and some of its moons and the International Space Station (through two different telescopes). Nate got to look through the same telescope that I (Mandy) saw Hailey’s Comet through in 1984. Nate also got to push the button that turned the top of the observatory so that they could see something new.
The view from Mars Hill just below Lowell Observatory.
They also went to the airport and saw the slurry helicopters that were fighting the Schultz Fire.
While at the observatory, they saw a bit of flame pop over the ridge (see left side of picture).
