A few days in McLean

This was my first time being in McLean in the fall in 8 years. Crazy! We were able to catch a leaf raking day, which I found quite enjoyable after almost a decade without a yard to rake. 

Dad bought the "Billy Goat" on craigslist. It dies every 15 minutes or so, but he doggedly brings it back to life to munch the leaves. 

Elliot was quite pleased with his first leaf pile encounter

Also with his first Uncle Max encounter. They hit it off right away. 

This kid had no shortage of attention

The sad head cracks me up

He was pleased to see that Mimi also has some blocks. Where there are blocks to sort, there is contentment. 

I'm clearly not very good at the "Look Natural" face, but I love how similar Blake and I look. We are the oldest and the youngest, but we look the most alike out of all the siblings.

we

Airplanes!

For Thanksgiving, we went on a cruise with my family! It was awesome. 

First step: Flying to McLean. Elliot was appropriately attired in his airplane shirt, and was quite excited about looking out the airport windows at all the airplanes. He has been a long time fan of air transportation.  

Our flight landed at 10 PM arizona time. We tried to get him to sleep on the second leg, but it didn't take. He was clearly trying to get comfy with his blanket, and even laid down on the floor with it for a while. Despite the lack of sleep, he was still pretty happy. 

The return flight was more eventful.  On the first leg of the return flight, there was a mysterious medical emergency on the plane. They didn't say what it was, but they did the whole "is anyone on board a doctor" thing. Nobody was, so the flight attendants got on headsets and were doing something that I couldn't see. They didn't have to land the flight- just cancel the drinks & snack service. We had to wait for some stretcher thing to get whoever it was off the plane when we landed, which caused us to have to run to catch our connecting flight. Elliot cried a bit on the second leg because we weren't able to refill his water on the first leg or the non-existent layover. Snacks make a man thirsty! We landed after midnight, but again he didn't sleep a wink. We finally let him watch a show on Aaron's phone to prevent him from playfully flopping on us so we could sleep. 

Not a Doctor! Shh!

Lately we have been watching a show called Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Elliot is generally uninterested, but at the end of each episode there is a short animation from the show's producer. The audio goes "Not a Doctor" and then the animated doctor guy goes "Shh."

For some reason, Elliot gets very excited about this 2 second clip. Every time without fail, he notices it, perks up, and immediately copies the "shh" with the finger to the lips and everything. He then insists that mama and dada also "shh" in the correct way. 

It is a small thing, but it is very Elliot and I want to remember it!

Videos

No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!

Elliot being kissy and generally adorable. He's wearing my old shirt because he refuses to keep bibs on. 

Rolling sleeping bags down the stairs? MOST. FUN. EVER. After every roll, he would have to either sprint across the upstairs or leap onto my lap to vent some of the excitement. 

Elliot discovered the picture of my sister Breezy that I have in my wallet. He was quite smitten with it and continues to ask for it whenever he sees me get something out of my wallet.

Adventures of a Pumpkin

Elliot is very enthusiastic about pumpkins. We got a Halloween book from the library about a month ago to prep him for the madness that is Halloween, and he really embraced the pumpkin. 

Our first Halloween activity was a party for toddlers thrown at the Clubhouse. Elliot had lots of buddies there and had a great time. 

He was too busy running around for me to get a good picture.

There was a long line for the "Halloween" train, so I stuck him in a car with some friends.
He pulled his usual "suck thumb and pretend to be bored" trick. 

The Hays were kind enough to loan us a Pumpkin costume to wear.

Trying to convince him the hat was fun.
We failed. 

Rocking the pumpkin at the Stake Halloween Party

Oh Daddy

He didn't 100% grasp the concept of bowling, but still had a great time. 

The party consisted of carnival style booths outside and a dinner buffet in the gym. There were outdoor tables for eating. Unfortunately, a surprise thunderstorm hit, and everyone rushed inside all at once. We ended up eating in a crammed classroom with an assortment of superheros and part of the Greek Pantheon. I looked at a clock and realized that it was time for my shift on the snow cone machine. I went outside in the rain, and sure enough there was still a long line for the snow cones. There was a pop up tent covering it, but the kids were all getting soaked and fairly cold while waiting in line for their sugared ice. 

It eventually stopped raining and was actually quite nice. The booths opened back up (the ones that closed- some brave souls stuck it out the whole time) and we hung out for a while. 

Aaron and I were Apple Pi, and Elliot was Pumpkin Pi. His Pi was mostly disintegrated by the end of the night. 

Then it was Halloween night! We set up camp chairs in our driveway and taught Elliot how to give out candy. He was really slow at first because he had to stare at the costumes for a while before he could move. By the end of the night, he would toss a handful of candy into any bag presented to him, and would give a second handful if they didn't move out of the way fast enough. He also sampled a couple of lollipops (his first) and had a nice sticky drool thing going on.

The Candy Distributor

The Saturday after Halloween, we went to a "Pumpkin Smash" in Tucson. It was a fun way to get rid of pumpkins sponsored by a food bank and community garden. The main events were a group of trebuchets that were launching pumpkins 200+ feet into a big compost pile, and an area where you can smash your own pumpkins with a giant mallet. There was also an adorable kids mariachi band to provide some ambiance. It was held on the grounds of a community garden

Flying pumpkins? Awesome! Elliot kept asking for more. 

Community Garden

For the past several months, we have been involved with a project sponsored by the local food bank to start a community garden. I agreed to be the project coordinator and have been able to meet lots of great people in the community. 

The town has a fenced off land dedicated to community gardening that has been abandoned for years. Ground squirrels, bunnies, and insufficient irrigation led to it's downfall. We took a lot of advice from the community garden in Green Valley and decided to invest in metal cattle troughs to plant in. Critters can't climb up the metal edges!

The before picture- abandoned garden plots

 I convinced Aaron to make the irrigation a service project for his 11 year old scouts. 5 of them showed up with their parents, and I was surprised by how hard working they were. 

Trenches dug mostly by child labor

 We had a compost soil mix delivered from a supplier up in town.

Elliot loved watching the tractor. Or at least he did for the first 20 minutes, after which he played with my phone. 

Parks & Rec guys have been really accommodating. It would have taken forever if we didn't have their tractor there. 

 We had some last minute setbacks with only 6 of our 10 tanks being delivered in time for our kick off. That ended up being ok, since a handful of the groups didn't show up. The ones that did had a great time, and hopefully we get into the swing of things with a full capacity of gardeners. 

Going for the coal miner look with his filthy face and rock collection

The after picture! Hopefully this will be brimming with greenery soon!

Chiricahua

We went on a camping trip to Chiricahua, a neat little place about 2 hours east of us. 4 families went, and we were the only ones without a kid under 1 year old and I felt kind of left out. Elliot is growing up too fast!

An aesthetically pleasing cliff by the campsite

The kiddos loved the bridge near the campsite

Hey. You. With the camera. 

Aaron was a simultaneously hilarious and terrifying and Troll

Love my little blondie!

 I think this was the first time I have every gone camping in Southern Arizona without having someone nearby blasting mariachi music. We cooked up some pulled pork sandwiches and blueberry peach cobbler, then played a rigorous round of Bonanza where everyone was nice to Lakin because she was loosing, then she came back to beat us all. Oh the irony.

Rays of sunlight in the morning

It got down to the 50's at night. Not freezing, but enough to get all of us desert folk all bundled up. 

We brought Elliot's chair for a change. He wanted to hang out there most of the time, even when he wasn't eating.

Getting in some puppy bonding time with the Wiscomb's dog

Busily stuffing the cup holder with assorted gravel and acorns

  After a hearty breakfast, we set out to hike Echo canyon, a trail rife with neon lichen and seemingly precarious boulder towers.

It was kind of like a differently colored Bryce Canyon

They both started kissing rocks during a water break. 

Looking straight up at this boulder ready to crush us in the grotto

Elliot was pretty good for the first mile, but then it got close to his nap time and we had to carry him crying most of the way back. Maybe one day we'll do the whole loop. 

The hikers (minus the Wiscombs who had to bail on the hike due to car troubles, and Lakin taking the picture)

Thanks for a fun trip, guys!