American Family Whipple (as opposed to Swiss Family Robinson)

We planted a couple of $50 five-gallon twig-trees when we moved here 5 years ago. They are just big enough for a tree fort now. They are Chilean Mesquite trees and will never be large enough for a proper tree house but this crow's nest lookout tower will suffice.

You can see Shaw's mug between the branches in the "Y" there. It has a rope ladder, a pulley attached to a small bucket for raising and lowering equipment and treats and stuff, rope bridge type hand rails and a zip line with another pulley and a bucket in case any green army men need to make a quick escape. The water you hear in the background of this video is from our fountain near this tree.

That's not all folks!

There are two things you should know about Shaw... First, he likes to dip everything in ranch dressing: pizza, fries, corndogs, fried chicken. We usually try to get two packets of ranch dressing where ever we go so he can even dip some of his ranch dressing in ranch dressing!

The second thing is that he loves LOVES water and swimming. He and I drove about 15 minutes up to Fountain Hills after school on Friday- to celebrate the end of a successful second week of school. You've seen pics of it in this blog before- it's the tallest fountain in the world. I'm about a half mile away from it taking this shot. There is a water playground adjacent to the fountain. If I turned the camera about 15 degrees to my left, you'd see the spout.

Fun times!

Endless Summer

The Beach Boys said it best! I know school has already started but we still have some time for more fun. My buddy Scott came for a visit from California and he and Shaw and I went back up to Fossil Creek for a Saturday swim. If you look closely at this pic, you can see a diver just about to enter the water from having jumped off of that tallest rock above the falls and to the right. Just click the photo to enlarge it. Shaw and I are standing to the right in that row of people. I'm wearing a black t-shirt and Shaw is in front of me. Thanks to Scott for taking the pic. Here's Shaw swinging on a rope swing.

Below the falls you'll find a several swimming holes separated by little rapids. We did some exploring intending to stay for a couple of hours and swim away from the crowd at this particular diving hole. Shaw got a bit too close to some rapidly flowing water and got sucked down a chute and got pretty banged up on some rocks. Both Scott and I saw it but neither of us were close enough to grab him. Once Shaw realized that the white water rapids were in his future and that there was no help for him, he accepted it, gave up the fight with grace and courage and turned himself around and went down feet first and avoided what could have been horrible injuries.

He was wearing a t-shirt and when I got to him, he was holding his side with his arm kinda twisted. I thought he may have broken his arm. He had scrapped his side pretty badly. We gave gratitude to God for the protection in an accident that could have been really bad.

Up in the mountains near Strawberry Arizona on the way to Fossil Creek is a goat and llama farm. We stopped in to buy some goat milk chocolate fudge and some goat milk peanut butter fudge. Deeeeee-LISH!

Knockin' out his 5th Grade year!

The handsomest kid in the history of 5th grade!
Gotta start things off properly for the first day of school with a well balanced breakfast... The facial recognition software in my camera even recognized this as a face!

I know you are asking... that's maple bacon for the eyebrows, powdered donut eyes with a cocoa puff for the pupils, buttermilk donut cut into a triangle section for the nose, apple slices with some carmel sauce to make the marshmallow teeth stay in place. It seems to have achieved the desired effect... it's just like he was looking in a mirror!

Stick a fork in it... Summer '11 is DONE!

Like James Brown, the Godfather of Soul said, "I cain't do no mo!" School starts in two days and tomorrow will be spent doing a little bit of back to school shopping so we'll have to call it a summer!

You'd never believe it if we just told you about it but many of the summer activities are posted here as proof so let's review: (in no particular order)

Visited Meteor Crater, Waputki National Monument (NM) Sunset Crater NM, Tonto NM, Montezuma's Castle NM, Walnut Canyon NM, Petrified Forest National Park, Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, Canyon De Chelly NM (we also hiked to the bottom of the canyon to The White House ruins) Navajo NM, Four Corners Landmark, Monument Valley in Utah, Legoland in California which included a visit with Gramma and Grampa Ross and Aunt Lindsay, and visited both the Gilbert and Phoenix Arizona Temple construction sites.

As if all of that wasn't enough, we went to Roosevelt Lake, Roosevelt Dam, Roosevelt Bridge, Tortilla Flats for a cold Sarsaparilla, toured the Arizona State Capitol Building, saw a wind farm near Holbrook AZ, toured United Food Bank, visited Sweeties- the largest candy shop in AZ, played miniature golf at Castles and Coasters and played at Jumpstreet indoor trampoline park. Went to a Diamondbacks game against the Cleveland Indians, Dbacks lost 6-2...

Played the Wii, earned 6 Cub Scout Beltloops and 7 Cub Scout Pins. Attended the Bass Pro Shop Summer Camp which included archery and shooting. Built a pencil box and a tool box at Home Depot.

Survived the Haboub (dust storm) of July 5th, 2011.

Saw several movies at the theater including, Cars 2, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Shrek Forever, Alpha and Omega, Cats and Dogs, Yogi Bear and 17 Miracles.

Camped at Lake Ashurst, stayed at Little America Resort in Flagstaff, went swimming at Uncle Garry's, in Apache Lake, in the Salt River, at Stapley pool AND finished off the summer today swimming in Fossil Creek near Strawberry Arizona, which included some cliff jumping!

Here I am (Curtis) jumping of a rock about 15 feet above the water.

Splashdown!

Here's Shaw getting ready to leap from about a 7 foot rock. It's a beautiful bridge in the background too.

and he's IN the water!

Lesa and Shaw look like a couple of seasoned explorers here. Lesa is not a big fan of water activities so it's doubly cool that she's in the water here.

Finished off the day at home with a Family Home Evening lesson on the attributes of Christ that we are trying to better emulate and then took a walk across the street to Sonic for some treats. That's happiness!

Miniature Golf

I mentioned in an earlier post that I recieved a few tickets to local funspots as a gratuity from a corporate DJ gig. We played some minature golf last week at Castles and Coasters out on the west end of Phoenix. When we pulled up, the parking lot was kinda deserted and we actually wondered if they were even open. They were, but what kind of a nutcase family plays miniature golf on a hot day?!!!?! Well, we do!

Legoland scenery

There's a posting below this one of our smiling faces having fun at Legoland last week with Gramma Ross, but there were a few more photos of the landmarks created out of lego bricks that you might find interesting but that didn't fit/belong in that posting. As we looked at these and had all of our fun, I could see the wheels turning in Shaw's head about the fact that somebody actually makes a living designing and building these things and that he could do it too if he was good enough.

Here's Mt. Rushmore. The funny thing is that the facial recognition software in my digital camera (the thing that helps it focus the picture automatically) recognized that there were faces in this shot and focused right in on them. If you look at George Washington's left ear, there are some tiny Lego workers cleaning his Lego ear with a Lego Q-tip. The Eiffel Tower- 120,000 lego bricks!
The New York City skyline with the Statue of Liberty in the harbor and the new Freedom Tower on the left that will replace the fallen World Trade Center. Yep, all Lego bricks!
The famous Hollywood Bowl. We've been there a few times for various concerts and fireworks shows.
The Syndey Opera House.

The Temple is taking shape!

Another first Sunday visit to the Gilbert Temple site.
The first time we visited the site, we saw lots of these power poles. They are gone now; re-routed underground in the vicinity of the temple. I only theorized that they would be sent underground in previous posts but it's been confirmed now that it's done. This allows the Temple to appear architecturally as the beacon to the world that it is spiritually. The steeple won't be obstructed by such unruly power poles. You can see that the power lines terminate at this pole about a quarter mile away and move down the pole out of sight.

I zoomed in on this to show the beautiful clouds in the distance- we are gearing up for a monsoon this afternoon.

Here are a couple of elevator shafts rising above the structure at this point. I did some counting and it appears that the building will have 3 floors plus a basement where the baptistry is located. The steeple is supposed to be about 130 feet high, relative to what will be about a 60 foot high building.

This crane will probably hoist the Angel Moroni statue at the top of the steeple. The Angel Moroni statue is a rendition of an angel with a trumpet sounding the Gospel to all nations- very fitting for a temple of God. Shaw thought the crane was kinda big guns for such a small project but I pointed out that lots of construction materials weigh more than a ton and can't be hefted by construction workers. Plus, the height of this crane allows for movement to just about any point on the job site from where the trucks pull in with construction material each day.

I'll be travelling for DJ work in San Diego on Labor Day weekend so we'll visit the Phoenix Temple site on the second Sunday in September.

California here we come!

We travelled across the desert this week to southern California for a visit to Legoland with Gramma Ross. That's her in the left lane, Lesa in the middle and Shaw on the right. GO!
Gramma off to a late start...

Lesa wins with Shaw in a respectable second place and Gramma had a good excuse for third... she had to hold on to her sun hat.

Shaw and Lesa rode this on a level 1- slow and no upside down rotation.

Lesa and I rode it on level 4- fast and upside down shaking and jerking your brains out. That's my feet flailing about.

Shaw visiting the Star Wars miniland- this is Hoth, the ice planet from "The Empire Strikes Back"

Driving a boat around the lagoon.

Lunchtime.

We rode on this coaster with our hands in the air, including Shaws hands. This is actually after we rode- trying to get a shot of the next group behind us.

Shaw piloting the jet boat. There are underwater cannons that are controlled by the spectators and Gramma learned how to time it just right to blast Lesa and Shaw.

After a long day, a ride in the tour boat around the lagoon with all of the Lego creations of world architectural landmarks was just the ticket.

Shaw and Gramma Ross with the San Fransisco skyline in the background.

Couldn't have asked for better weather. It was sunny and 75ish. Great company. I was impressed that Gramma Ross maintained about 85-90MPH to Shaw's 100MPH for the day. I would have thought that she would find a bench under a tree and rest a fair amount of the day. My time on the brain shaker gave me a head ache that didn't go away for the rest of the day. I was glad when she finally had had enough after 6PM... I love you guys! Thanks for a great day.