Random

 Here's a smattering of random moments from the beginning of the year:

We are still doing cousin dinner with Stephen & Claudia every Sunday. I love Annie's static hair on the trampoline.

Artwork by Annie. "AAAAAAA" indeed. 

Aaron did cardboard crafts with the Deacons for a couple of weeks. Elliot was so impressed when he saw their carboard shields and swords that he immediately wanted to make a cardboard sword when they got home. 

We ordered a wardrobe to beef up our guest bedroom in preparation for Breezy to move in with us over the summer. Elliot was legitimately very helpful with the assembly! It ended up being a fun evening with Elliot, Aaron, and me listening to music while assembling the wardrobe. 

Even better- the wardrobe came in a huge box! Elliot turned it into a craft center. He drew pictures of each craft supply so everyone would know where everything belongs to keep it organized. What a champ. 

Stephen came over and gave me a two year grape vine pruning plan. I had to use a multi-colored annotation to capture his vision. Year 1 we ended up getting more grapes than ever before, so I guess he knows what he's talking about!

We have been regulars at the Wednesday afternoon activity time at the library. I invite a couple of Elliot's friends and consider it to be his extracurricular activity. 

Elliot's school had their annual musical performance. It's fun having a kid in the public school for stuff like this!

A gaggle of princesses at the Tucson Festival of Books

We discovered something - a cool plant that we call "pop pops" because they pop when you squeeze them like little bits of bubble wrap. It is actually called Milkvetch. We had a couple fun family walks hunting pop pops. 

My friend Michelle Nelson moved away. Here's our last playdate picture in memorial. 

Having a 8 year old boy is great. 

The kids are still into gathering every pillow in the house to make cozies. 

We hiked Sabino Canyon Dam with the Sevys

For a while there were mushrooms growing in the field down the street. Biking over for some mushroom destruction was a fun activity.

What a love note. Thanks, Elliot. 

Annie made this pet rock named "Scarlet." There was an accompanying bed and other accessories involved. 

Annie also made me this nice name tag and had me pose by some balloons on the stairs. 

Rachel hooked me up with some owl pellets being dropped by a nest of owls at the park near her house!

Here's a picture of the pellet-dropping owl chicks and a bit of mama owl taken by my talented friend Melony! These guys were up in a HUGE tree, and it was hard to get a shot of them through the rustling branches. 

Life is pretty good. 

Spring Break

 Elizabeth and Mary came to visit during Spring Break! We had Mary and her boys sleep at our house. Mary was going through some rough medical treatments that week at a clinic here in Tucson, so we got to hang out with her boys pretty much the whole time. Rebekah and Allie were both with their dads. 

Spirographs

Cousin Charcuterie Concoctions

The whole crew minus Mary met up at Madera canyon

Isaac was starting to get pretty sick, so I kept him home for the rest of the week's adventures. 

Aaron, Elizabeth, and Claudia took the kids to the Desert Museum. 

Unfortunately, Eli was slain by a giant rattlesnake. 

We cooked our signature Coconut Korma and Naan for everyone. I love it when the Bloods get together!

The last day they were here was St. Patricks Day. Elliot donated some green origami to decorate the table. 

We celebrated with what Aaron calls "too much food dye"

Green popcorn! It's fun!

I thought the kids would love using some green streamers to build an obstacle course.

Annie did not agree.

Chiricahua, Dying Bat Edition

 The Gunters organized a camp trip with us and the Nelsons to Chiricahua in March! We got our favorite group campsite.

There was a lot more water in this creek than last time due to snow melt. The parking area is across the stream from the campsite so we got to cross it many a times. 

Isaac got straight to work playing with rocks.

And throwing rocks into the stream.

Working with the dads to build a tossed rock dam

The Gunters are fun to camp with because they bring a lot of toys with them! They had a laser tag set and a mosquito net enclosure with a portable heater for luxurious board game playing at night. The highlight of our game night was the ever diplomatic Cherise saying "That's a choice!" in response to a truly idiotic move one of us was trying to make. 

A bat randomly fell out of a tree right in the middle of our campsite. It had a big gaping whole in its wing between it's legs and seemed to be paralyzed, stuck with it's wings outstretched. We got some video clips of it- it was super creepy looking! We could see a blue jay up in the tree that the bat fell out of. Our theory was that the blue jay attacked the sleeping bat and mauled it for funsies because blue jays are jerks. 

I told the kids to check to see if they have any magical connections to fire. It turns out that all three of these guys can control the flames if they focus their mental energy and move their hands around. I was highly amused. 

Also, why is the firepit the exact right size and shape to hold a human body?

Me and my little buddy on a chilly morning

It is very typical for Elliot to go around in a t-shirt and shorts while everyone else has jackets on. 

Look at those boulder-holding muscles!

Annie was a bit less convincing 

This one's just adorable

The best family picture we managed to take on the trip.

I always love a good campout, and this one did not disappoint! The kids always seem most alive when they are climbing rocks and building stuff out of sticks and rocks. It's good for the soul. 

Sahuarita Snow! In March!

We had the biggest snow day we have experienced in Arizona! It was doubly crazy because it happened in MARCH when it is usually toasty roasty already. I woke up to this scene out our window:

Gotta love the sprinkler lines in the snow. It didn't stick to roads or sidewalks at all, but the grass was coated and it was still coming down!

Elliot had already left for school. I wish I had gotten up earlier. I would have let him play in the snow and go to school late. He reported back that the kids were playing in the snow at the bus stop, and there was still a little bit of it left at morning recess. He declined Aaron's advice to wear pants so he spent his snow day in his shorts with just his classic black hoodie. 

The rest of us had a fun morning outside! We don't have great snow gear for the kids, because we would hardly ever use it. Annie had had some gloves that weren't water proof, and Isaac had wool socks on his hands. I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did!

Our peach tree had already blossomed! Aaron heroically hosed it down to try to keep the buds from freezing. He was successful, and we went on to have a record breaking peach season. 

Our little snowman! It used up all the snow on our little turf patch. It was almost as tall as Isaac!

With our turf snow consumed, we set off into the grassy area behind our houses for further adventures! Annie was so excited, it was just a magical morning. We saw our neighbors the Mittons jumping on their trampoline and had a snowball fight with them over their back wall. Rachel managed to nail me right in the neck to give me a shirt full of slush. Ruthless. 

That weekend we decided to take a long overdue trip to ski Mt. Lemmon! We went up to Flagstaff to ski last year for our 10 year anniversary and remembered how much we love it. It was just too far away to practically do. Mt. Lemmon was close enough (about a 2 hour drive) that we could get a babysitter and spend a half day up on the slopes. My only complaint is that there are no bathrooms, only porta-potties in the parking lot with cracked roofs, so you get snow melt dripping on you when you're in there. We observed several skiers finding outdoor alternatives. Regardless, we should have gone years ago - it was a blast! It is a small resort, but Aaron and I have humble aspirations and were more than satisfied with their runs. We hope to take Elliot and the older cousins next year, it would be fun to teach them. 

Here's the view from the top of the mountain with Tucson below. It was a beautiful day on the mountain! We listed to Hozier's "Blood upon the Snow" on our drive back. It adequately captures the majesty of our skiing.