Happy Tuesday, Y'all!

 "Hey guys, how do you make a tissue dance?"

  "Put a little boogey in it!!"

"Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all day."

A Sweet Good-Bye

Last week I started my training through my/our school district. It was the first time in over a year that I left for work without bringing Owen with me. When I told him that I was going to work again, he replied, "all day long, like the old days?" *insert mom guilt face here*

He was bummed but understood. Plus he was going to spend "boy time" with dad which helped with the transition. The first day Owen wanted to watch me leave. This was the sweet image I had in my head driving to work.  I must admit, I snuck a look at this picture on my phone a couple times during work. It made me smile each time.

New Friend

After two years of patiently trying, Owen finally caught a lizard in our backyard. It's a small lizard, but now that he's caught one, I anticipate his efforts will be redoubled.

Owen has declared the lizard his best friend, much to Roland's dismay. Although he followed that with Roland and Nala also being his best friends. I don't think it helped Roland's disposition any.

As the lizard got closer to Owen's head, his jubilant outlook waned a little.  It's right about this point that he decided a lizard in a jar would far outweigh a lizard by his head. 

I'm not sure this little guy is going to last in captivity, but we'll give it a shot. If anything, the little guy's experience, for good or ill, will help reinforce caring for our animals, which I'm sure will sit well with Rollie and Nala.

Dog Days of Summer

The boy and his dog just hanging out on a Friday night.

Sanctuary

At the last minute, we decided to leave the sweltering heat of Phoenix and head to the cool breezes of this:

Big Lake, Arizona, 4.5 hours northeast of Phoenix.  It's at about 9000 feet, which results in a 35 degree drop in temperature. We were happy to have 4 days of 75 degrees.

Our campsite was shaded and overlooked the lake. It was perfect because we got some shade, some sun and even a thunderstorm or two. 

Owen was able to do some fishing, which he picked up from Grandpa Cooper. He didn't get any bites. We are, however, stressing the tranquility of simply spending some time near the water with people you love. Five year olds don't really get that.

Unfortunately (or not, if you are a vegetarian), we only caught a crawdad. Owen still loved fishing.  This guy was lucky we don't eat shellfish because he got thrown back. We later read that they're an invasive species and should be killed if they are caught. Double lucky!

We went on short hikes through the ponderosa pines.

Owen really loves camping and he's in good spirits whenever we go.

The dog too.

Owen made a buddy who was nine, meaning he was the most awesome person on Earth. He was a really sweet kid who looked out for Owen and they went on adventures. I suspect he rather enjoyed being the most awesome person on the planet to Owen.

This was our favorite activity in between cooking, hiking, fishing and skipping rocks (enjoying each other's company, not drinking beer).