On Friday, our full day to have fun, we did something unusual for us. We went to town! Show Low, actually. We wanted to visit a lake and recreation area there called Fools Hollow Lake. We stopped at Safeway and you can just imagine how fun it was for the 10 of us to go shopping there for picnic food! We chose some fried chicken from the deli, some salad, drinks, chips, it was ridiculous how much food we had. I went a little crazy. But it was fun to do something totally different, so no regrets.
When we got to the lake, we stopped at one of the first picnic areas, and prepared to set up near the bathrooms (essential these days!). I noticed right away that the parking lot was all but empty, and there were maybe two other families amongst all the picnic areas we could see. The benefits of coming on a weekday! After helping us unload and get situated in a large Ramada, Jacob and the boys wandered down to see the lake, and before long they came back insisting that we go down to a single covered picnic table they found right by the shore. When I saw the steep stairway down which we had to go to get there, with cooler, baby in stroller, diaper bag, grocery bags, and camera backpack in tow, I was reluctant to put that much effort into moving, let alone to stray so far from the (essential) bathrooms, but many hands made light the work, so I let them have their way. It was truly a gorgeous location for our picnic. Never-mind the 6 times somebody had to run up the hill to take Ellie to go potty – still happy we found such a secluded and scenic spot! No regrets.
The children were enchanted by the tadpoles and dragonflies down by the water, gleefully disappearing into the trails through the tall cattails and wild sunflowers along the lake’s edge. Ruben, though under the weather with a cold, enjoyed dabbling his feet in the water, but was less thrilled when sitting on the prickly grass. He remained content to be held or sit in his stroller.
Fools Hollow Lake was a wonderful find, and we all hope to explore more of it on future visits. (Click any photo to go to full size slides)
