July and August '08

Lenora celebrated her 6th birthday with a princess party in early July. Games included: pin the crown on the princess, a treasure hunt, and freeze dance. It was a great success.

Later in the month, Benjamin's vocabulary has exploded, along with an attachment to his stuffed pooh bear. This happened to be the thing that his father became attached to at that age, "like father, like son."

August was a great time for another trip to Forrest Lakes near Payson. From the moment we pulled up, Lenora was busy collecting wild flowers...

... and Benjamin was busy digging holes (big holes).

The next day we went to the Mogollon Rim Visitor Center and Woods Canyon Lake. A patio was built out over the side of the rim. It was a great view!

Check out this family pose. Benjamin couldn't keep his eyes out of the loaner binoculars.

Lenora was thrilled to try her hand at fishing for the first time, with her very own Barbie fishing pole. She earned the whole whopping $12 that it cost with odd jobs around the house. She was very excited.

At first it seemed like Benjamin was only interested in bugs, like this ladybug, and in throwing rocks into the lake.

Later on, Benjamin decided also to try the family fishing pole himself.

Amazing enough, some folks around us were catching fish, but the only thing we seemed to be able to catch were crawdads (Lenora caught 3).

Forrest Lakes is still our favorite place to go camping. Hopefully we'll find ourselves up there at least once more this summer.

Dance Recital and Time Away

Last Friday we attended Lenora's summer dance recital. Lenora loves to be on stage with her friends. She had a great time showing off some of her new moves.

The following morning we were off to California for a Jex family reunion. The afternoon was spent at the beach enjoying waves and water. Benjamin was still a little timid of the waves this year, but there was plenty of sand to dig up.

On Monday, Eric and Dawnette went to Long Beach for some one on one. We took a few great tours, first of the retired Queen Mary Cruiseliner and then of a Russian Submarine.

Here is a shot from the deck overlooking Long Beach harbor.

Following lunch, we took a free bus to the Long Beach Aquarium on the other side of the harbor. It was amazing! There were over 40 aquariums of exotic fish, sharks, jellyfish, and brilliant coral and anemone.

After our tours, we took in the ocean breeze and visited shops along the harbor walkway. We also tried a couple of great seafood restuarants with seats next to the water.

We all had a lot of fun.

Forest Lakes

Last weekend we made our 3rd attempt as a family to go camping. It was a great success! We went to Canyon Pointe Campground up by Forest Lakes on the Mogollon Rim northeast of Payson. It was a very nice campsite with spread-out sites and showers. The high for the day was 80 degrees with clear skies.

Just after we arrived we were met with an unexpected suprise. Stephen, Melinda, and Abby drove by with Melinda's parents. They just happened to come up the same weekend and were staying 3 campsites away from us. It was fun to see them. Stephen brought Abby over later that evening and then we stopped by after dinner for some dutch oven cobbler. Later the next day we all took a stroll around the camp ground.

Friday night the quisine was a hearty tin foil dinner. They all turned out pretty well with the exception of a few burn marks from the butter getting too hot inside.

Lenora and Benjamin spent most of their time exploring the new environment. It was funny to watch them pick up all kinds of things and be fascinated with it. They also found a stump that they used as a platform to jump from.

The next morning our hair was all a mess, especially Benjamin's. Despite the strong winds that night, we all slept really well... pulling off about 9 hours of sleep (we were tired!).

The next day following our stroll we went to Woods Canyon Lake. It is a great spot for fishing and enjoying the cool breeze from off the water. There is a full convience log store there and small boat rentals. The lake is stocked with trout from a nearby hatchery. We may try our luck at fishing next time we go or just cruz around the lake.

There are paved and dirt trails and several other campsites running all over the area. There are also many places to take in a spectacular view of the rim dropping 1000's of feet off into the horizon.

We were beat when all was said and done. Benjamin kept saying to himself: "[I] like camping, like camping, like camping..."