Big shout out to Bree for being the photographer for our fun and cheesy Felix birth reenactment! The following pictures are a PG version of the events of July 24. They really capture Aaron's acting abilities.
Aaron pulls over on the first side street that we pass and throws the car into park.
He flings himself out of the car
and races around to his distressed wife.
He opens the door...
and there's a baby!
Felix and I in the passenger's seat where we first met each other.
I am confident that this is the most exciting thing to ever happen on this patch of gravel on Camino Hopa.
We really needed to have a family picture with our Hyundai accent in it.
He's one special baby! (Elliot think's so too, don't let his sneer deceive you)
Maybe we should have made "Hyundai Accent" his middle name. Or "Camino Hopa." Missed opportunity.
The 4th of July fell on a Friday this year, so we started the day off with Stake Volleyball. We ended up with enough people to field a Blood family team with Me, Grumpa, Claudia, Stephen, Bree, and Eowyn against everyone else that showed up. We went home for a lunch break, then headed over to Casa Johnson for a pool and BBQ party! Mom had made red, white, and blue jello jigglers which we ate poolside. We had a contest of dramatic jumps into the pool (Ethan won the belly flop round) and worked on catching balls while jumping into the pool.
After a DELICIOUS dinner, we whipped out the smoke bombs before it got too dark.
We relocated to the front yard for a view of the sunset. Here's my red, white, and blue Blood boys
Karina's family joined us for sparklers! We also set off some of the fountain style fireworks. They were shocking loud, which Felix hated. Grumpa took him inside to watch through the window.
We decided to watch the town's drone show from the Las Quintas church building, which is right next to the soccer fields where the show was. It was way less crowded, but it meant that we had to read all the drone messages backwards. The best was when the drones formed a bald eagle with sparks flying off their wings. I thought it was only going to be a drone show, so I was surprised when it segued into a good quality fireworks show!
When the first really loud firework went off, a dark shape burst out of a bush about 10 feet away from us. Another followed hot on it's tail. It was a couple of very concerned javalina! Luckily they ran away from us.
Felix is so lucky to have his Mimi watching out for him and his sensitive ears. After all, he's just a little guy.
We went camping in June with the Gunters and other Bloods at Rose Canyon Campground on Mount Lemmon.
Behold, Elliot's terrifying stick mace
Elliot's priority was getting his hammock set up
I love Felix casually holding Elliot's ear. All these kids love camping.
Felix's only other camping experience was frigid cold. He liked this one much better! He napped in his carseat in the shade since the tent got too hot during the day. We had to keep moving it to follow the patchy shade between the pine trees.
I realized with some surprise that our tent is a 4 man size... and all 6 of us were sleeping in it! We will likely have to upgrade soon as Felix won't be able to sleep in his car seat much longer, and the other kids keep on growing.
A Black-Headed Grosbeak! I had a great time identifying some birds, and discovering Elliot's talent for lip syncing bird calls.
Camping with the Gunters means that there will be ALL the gear. They had slingshots, bb guns, a dishwashing and handwashing station, and all sorts of stuff. They also had a full laser tag set. We told them to "look tough" for this picture, but they all just look sad. Their favorite was when they had a game of all the kids vs Scott Gunter.
Elliot found a dead crawdad and gave it a proper funeral.
I've realized that when we go camping, I usually feel pressure to fill the time with hikes to see the coolest spots. I'm realizing that the kids like to just play at the campground more than we usually give them time for. Camping for 2 nights gave us way more time to hang out. It was the first time where I found myself with nothing to do but swing in a hammock and relax- very strange! The kids were much happier when they are not being dragged on hikes.
Here we are by Rose Canyon Lake. Apparently they have been scooping up water to fight forest fires recently, so the water levels were way low.
Handstands on a cool rock
Our skunk friend! Note the tail sticking out of the trash bag that we hadn't quite gotten around to taking to the dumpster yet. It was so close to us at the picnic table! We had to throw a rock near it to scare it off. Fortunately it didn't spray us.
We stopped for a bit of scampering on the way down at Windy Point Vista
Having Elliot climb on a cool rock is the best way to get a genuine smile out of him.
We had one chill week after school got out before we jumped into summer camps. First up was VBS.
All the kids still love VBS! Annie especially hit it off with her teen leaders. She found out that some of her buddies were volunteering at another VBS the following week and sweet talked me into signing them up for the second week.
Later in the summer, the Stake Primary decided to put on a Book of Mormon camp which we unofficially called VBOMS. It's always an impressive feat to organize so many kids. They had 4 days with a focus story from the Book of Mormon each day.
Annie and Isaac taking a moment of meditation by the Tree of Life
The three older kids all did Be Well Summer Camp at the clubhouse again. We opted out of swim lessons for Elliot and Annie because they are such strong swimmers. There wasn't a convenient time for swim lessons offered at Isaac's level at the clubhouse, so we ended up swapping for swim lessons with Hannah Gardner at the pool at Casa Johnson. He made a lot of progress, but didn't make it to full swimmer level yet. We will hit it harder next year!
I finally figured out how to stand up on Grumpa's shoulders! All the kids love it and are far more graceful than me up there. We spent a lot of time in this pool over the summer! Mimi learned that it is very easy to lure us over with any offers of dinner, and we usually jumped in the pool before or after. It feels like instant vacation mode whenever we are over there. It is still very new and exciting having them so close by!
Anamax park opened a new splash pad as well. Arizona is a great place for wet summer fun.
We remembered that Home Depot does free kid crafts on the first Saturday of each month
Annie loves a good playdate, especially ones that involve dance performances. Luckily she has several friends that are always willing to bust a move (with several outfit changes).
Felix carried on the noble tradition of being a baby with a nest on his head. We find this VERY amusing.
We even found a little volleyball keychain to be our perfect little egg!
The kids moved into the closet under the stairs the same day that Joanna & Rayne moved out- they had been using it to store their stuff. They labeled it the "Kids Club" and spent the rest of the summer taking turns sleeping in it. This was a bit surprising to me since there's no ventilation and it smells like shoes in there. Every time it was Annie's requested to sleep in the closet, she asked Aaron to take a picture of her sleeping. We have a whole series of pictures of kids asleep in the closet now.
Here's a tender video of the first night in the kids club. Sure enough, the two of them sleeping together was fun for about 2 minutes and then we decided on a taking turns model for closet sleeping.
"You are only allowed to come in if you are a kid or a grownup saying something to the kids or telling them we're going somewhere and other than that no grown ups allowed!
Snuggle time grown ups are allowed."
Look at this very loved Dad on Father's day!
Annie got a sweet gig taking care of a bearded dragon while it's owners were on vacation. Apparently it's hard to find kids that are willing to coat live cockroaches in calcium powder. Annie had no qualms about picking up the cockroaches and mealworms.
Elliot started learning the violin! It has been a pleasure teaching him. Annie has had a few lessons too, but it's huge on her and she's the busy one in the family so I'm focusing on the Oat. He's picking it up quickly!
He also dropped it quickly. Luckily Grumpa has every glue in existence and was able to fix it up.
Grumpa also hauled an old but very nice wheat grinder across the country with the intent of grinding up some mesquite flour together. This is 100% my love language.
The cub scout pack had a summer activity where we dissected owl pellets, roasted marshmallows, searched for bugs and scorpions in the dark, and looked at the stars. I really like the family oriented feel of scouts.
We spent a weekend visiting Mary. I decided to take the kids to the mini Legoland in the Tempe Mall to give Aaron and Mary (and napping Felix) some time for good chats. It was a blast!
There were two rides, both with short lines. They were small but fun.
Legos, Legos... all I see is Legos
That Lego unicorn was quite tricky to build!
This station had earthquake simulation plates. There were also ramps to test out car creations, and a pinewood derby style ramp for racing wheeled creations. There was also a Lego Police themed play structure with tunnels and slides. It was like everywhere we turned there was a new thing that could entertain them for hours.
