Felix Food and Haircut

All four bloodlings at 6 months old, showing how Felix's hair is absolutely a fluke. 

 

Here's a collage of the blooper reel trying to get his picture for the other collage

Childhood Aaron sucked his fingers backwards and twirled his hair until he was around 11. Somehow Felix instinctively does the same thing!

This kid laughs a lot, but this one was the hardest laugh ever

Annie made him a pacifier pinata

documentation of his trademark happy dance

His first food! We brought it over to Mimi's house so that they could share what we thought would be a funny "why are you torturing me" reaction, but he took to rice cereal right away!

Felix is a very loved baby.

Aaron with his mini me

There were a couple days when he was sticking his tongue out non-stop

The day before his first haircut, Annie and I had a hair solon field day with him

You can see how the roots are all blonde while the ends are dark. He has Adolin Kholin hair. 

Albert Einstein

We took advantage of his hair being out of his face to feed him refried beans for the first time. He HATED them. 

The wild, glorious hair was getting in his eyes, so we had to get it cut. He looks like such a big boy now and is all blonde except for a little tuft near the front. 

Life has been greatly enhanced by this little guy joining our family! We love him to pieces!

Flagstaff Snow Park

Elliot helped us plan a fun adventure on the way back from St George. We hung out until lunchtime in St George, then drove to Flagstaff and spent the night in a motel. 

These three can still fit in a queen bed together

We spent the following morning at Flagstaff Snow Park! It turned out to be nice warm weather, which was ok because they make snow for the sledding runs. 

Felix got plenty of compliments on his adorable snow suit that we borrowed from a friend

There were plenty of runs to give us desert rats a good sledding experience. The tubes were nice, and it was fun going down in groups. 

Me demoing one of the runs and forgetting that I can't actually stick my tongue out. 

Near the end, the lines started getting long so the kids opted to play in the snow/dirt while I sat by our large pile of coats and hats that we didn't actually need. 

His creations were equal parts snow and mud by the end

Mining some high quality snowman materials

The perfect snowball

We also stopped at Montezuma Castle National Monument. It is completely related to Montezuma and the Aztecs, and is not a castle- but it was cool! It is a cliff dwelling built by the Sinagua people. It's bonkers imagining being a mom with a baby learning how to walk while living on a literal cliff. They must learn how to climb before they learn how to walk!

All in all, we had a phenomenal winter break with time spent with both sides of the family, and a little adventure of our own. 

Zion & Snow Canyon

We learned the hard way that Zion National Park is now constantly packed. It was the off season which means that the shuttles were not running and you can drive yourself into the park... until it gets full, which happens rather early in the morning. We could only get to the visitor's center and the Watchman Trail, which was right next to the entrance. It was 3 miles long and steeper than I would have preferred to do with the little kids. 

Bree lovingly held Isaac's hand the entire way up. He was absolutely obsessed with her for the rest of the trip. She went ahead with the faster group on the way down, and Isaac called for her literally the whole way down. 

Elliot had hiked up with the faster group. He excited led me to the lookout point when we finally caught up. It meant we got left behind again, but it was worth it for a special moment with Elliot in excited explorer mode.

After reuniting Isaac with his true love, we ate our lunch on these benches that turned out to be the location for a ranger talk that the ranger assumed we were purposefully there for. It was a good rock talk. After this trip, Elliot said that he MIGHT consider changing his future profession from video game designer to geologist. 

At 4:30, they opened the gats to let more vehicles in. We opted to drive through Zion Canyon while the rest of the families headed home. We parked at a random pullout to get a better look at a flock of turkeys we saw out the window. It ended up being a great spot that the kids didn't want to leave!

I love this picture of our heads all crowded together. 

A nice Frenchman helped us take a better shot. I love the friendly vibes of national parks. 

I don't know if this spot is even labeled on the park map. There was a little trail leading from the pull-off down to the river. It was so pretty. 

On the way home, we stopped at the house that Aaron's Grandpa Cox built. I hope that the current resident wasn't too weirded out by the stream of minivans that stopped to take pictures from a distance throughout the day. 

The next day we explored Snow Canyon Park, which was less grand than Zion but way more hands-on fun and less crowded. 

First stop: Jenny Canyon

The walls were so fun for the kids to climb!

Joanna shimmying up the crack like it's nothing

Next stop: Lava tubes. I told the kids to check to see if they could make the lava rocks turn back to molten lava. Hannah's technique was spot on. 

Most of the group scampered down a couple of the tubes

Last but not least was the amphitheater. The consensus was that we should have skipped the lava tubes to spend more time here because it was awesome. This was my view from where I stopped to nurse Felix. 

There's something about the angle of these sandstone layers that makes you want to keep going up. They are fun to climb!

The gals were quickly immersed in a game of snow dogs in the soft, cool sand. 

This trip was a great mix of exploring the great outdoors and lounging around chatting with a bunch of Bloods, which are two of my favorite activities. The kids are always thrilled when they get to run around with a cousin pack. 

St George

 Two days after Christmas, we drove to St George to meet up with a bunch of Bloods. Mary, Elizabeth, Stephen, and Joanna's families were all there. Half of the 10 Blood siblings is pretty good! We had 3 Airbnb's in the same neighborhood. 

Inspired by the Reindeer Games, I put together a competition for the cousins with stuff I found around the rental house. "Cheese Ghost" was definitely my favorite. 

Tauriel smashed the competition at stacking gravel on coasters. We also tossed goldfish into our mouths, used tongs to pick up coins from a board game, and slid the coasters at targets. 

Mary organized baptisms for the dead for the teenage cousins and some of the adults. The rest of us checked out the visitor's center the next day.

As predicted, Thunder Junction was a hit!

Felix did not approve of my great photoshoot idea. 

Stephen and a very lounged Kade

We continued our Dino Day with a trip to a dinosaur museum. 

Felix was unphased by the leaping trilobite

After church on Sunday we appreciated some nature at Pioneer Park. Rayne grew up in St George, so the running joke was to point at a random bush and say "That's the bush that Rayne slept in! That's the bush where he went to school!" 

Elliot's willingness to pose for pictures is infinitely higher when he is on top of a cool rock. He was in full mountain goat mode and we had a hard time keeping up with him!

Rayne dutifully brought his game bag over every night, but it ended up looking more like this

We mustered up the energy to play happy salmon one night. It got a little heated. 

Bree directed, filmed, and edited this horror movie in the rental house.