Some of my Johnson cousins came to visit! Savannah Williams and Rachel Larsen came back, and this time Andy Johnson was able to come with them! I seriously love my cousins and am glad to have some in Arizona that I can persuade to visit occasionally.
We took the crew to Pena Blanca lake for some swimming and cliff jumping. There was a big tree branch sticking straight up out of the water that I swam out to and climbed on to. Once I was on it, it started to roll and sink until I was on a tiny little tip of the branch. It felt like that scene in Pirates of the Caribbean where Jack Sparrow arrives at the dock just as the mast from his ship finally sinks.
Savannah taught us how to feed the fish with our toes! The proper technique is to put bread between your toes and then stick your foot in the water and sit still. Apparently fish love soggy foot bread and we love having fish nibble our legs so it was a great arrangement.
I am so glad that we were able to extend this vacation another week to hang out at Elizabeth's house! It is such a peaceful, beautiful place. It was extra fun with Jonny's family, Grandma Blood, and Joanna & Rayne there. Elizabeth is a champ for hosting the invasion.
This picture captures Annie's deep love of Elise and Hazel. These three cousins were inseparable. They spent hours playing in a little fort under a tree in the corner of the yard.
One day, Kade offered to take the three girls with him as he drove the baler around the hay field. The girls brought purses full of lip gloss and other important accessories. Kade said they didn't stop talking for the entire hour.
Annie's review: "It's just so RELAXING."
Here Annie further demonstrates her relaxation Skills.
Catherine had 0% relaxation in the pool. There were some wasps around and she took her pool protection duties very seriously.
One night Kade convinced us to go for a night swim after we put all the kids to bed. It was cold and invigorating, and the post-swim hot tub soak felt great. This is why the Bloods need a Kade around. Kade also convinced Aaron and Megan to go on a mountain biking adventure with him. I am quite content to remain at my "can bike on paved surfaces" level, but they had fun. We went running a few times too. The Bloods are good motivators for me, I was really struggling to keep up with them. I was also disappointed to find that I still could not pull back Elizabeth's bow. One day...
A big favorite: the zipline! Elizabeth's house is nestled in the tall cottonwood trees behind me in the picture.
The launch pad is so cool looking! Kade built it out of a chunk of a cottonwood tree and some logs that he found.
So majestic.
There is even a toddler seat! Isaac loved the ride, and liked being pulled back up even more.
Elliot and Aaron spent hours playing games with games with squishy animals. I could never quite figure out the objective of the game. All I know is that there were many rules and numbers for them to happily keep track of.
It was Grandma's birthday while we were there. This was excellent news for us because it meant that we got to eat an extra chocolatey cake made by Elizabeth!
Action shot of Seth being attacked by his Grandma for teasing her. Her reach is impressive.
This kids Jeep got quite a bit of use between the little boys and the Annie crew. Seth and Catherine got to have their first driving lessons on Kade's side by side out on the dirt trails.
When the mini and normal sized vehicles get to be old news, just ask Uncle Kade and he will give you the tour of the gigantic farming equipment! He drove some loop-de-loops with this bulldozer and then let the kids climb on it.
Next, Kade played his trump card- letting the kids sit on his lap to drive the excavator! They got to take turns scooping rocks and water out of a gravel pit while the others watched in amazement and looked for obsidian and dirt bombs. It was incredibly cool.
The next favorite uncle (to be!) was Rayne. The kids wasted no time initiating him into the family by piling on him whenever he sat down. Little Hannah hardly talks to anyone, but she referred to Rayne as her boyfriend. Rayne is going to fit right in with the Blood clan.
Elizabeth took us to a creek with enough water to kayak in and crawdads to catch! Catherine and I had many unsuccessful attempts to catch them using shopping bags. Eventually some random dude gave us a demo on how to grab them in the right place. We mustered up our courage and soon had quite a collection!
We call this "The Crawfords' Crawdad Kayak"
Another day, another creek. I loved getting to spend so much time outdoors.
This bonus week of our trip was made possible by Aaron working at Elizabeth's house. This remote work thing definitely has it's benefits! Aaron had a sweet view. He got to watch the girls zip by on their mini jeep with all their accessories and was able to sneak off to play with us for most of our outings.
We only stayed at Elizabeth's house for less than a week, but we sure packed in a lot of adventure! I love having a place like this in our lives.
After our Utah week was done, Mary's family headed home while the rest of us drove to Elizabeth's house for the after party. I realized that our route was taking us right past the Salt Flats. None of us had ever been there before, so I figured out a truck stop on the way where we could drive right onto the flats.
It was worth the stop for this picture alone
I love this family of mine
It felt like being on an alien planet. There were a few salt crusted pebbles that Elliot diligently gathered and made into a heart. A few made there way home with us to Sahuarita.
My forever adventure buddy
These goofballs are developing some serious moves lately
Next on our Utah agenda was a tour of BYU. Seth and Rebekah are now in high school, so we wanted to give them a taste of what our college experience was like. We started with the basics- walking through the Wilkinson Center and the athletic buildings. Then we split up for lunch. We sent Aaron and Jonny out to get take out from our favorite Provo restaurant, India Palace. Then we put my memory of south campus geography to the test by trying to meet up with them at a place I remembered had picnic tables on those trails by the duck pond. We meandered quite a bit, but none of the kids seemed to mind- Catherine had her Seek app freshly downloaded and was identifying all the plants and animals along the trail. The kids seemed more interested in playing in the grass than touring campus- the call of academia was a little beyond them. We eventually managed to meet back up and ate our food at some benches. This was a little challenging due to the saucy nature of the indian food. And then the sprinklers turned on. I had a split second decision to save the food or Isaac and the strollers from being saturated. I chose the food. Sorry little buddy.
The big event was a tour of the Structures Lab where I had classes and worked for a while. I have a friend named Kendrick Shepherd that was on the concrete canoe team with me back in my BYU days 10 years ago. Now he's a professor at BYU! I reached out to him and asked if he could get us into the lab so that I could show the kids my old stomping grounds and see the old canoe hung up on the wall. He over delivered and set us up with a tour from Rodney Mayo, the lab manager.
Rodney was awesome. He explained what all the machinery does and let us see the fog room, the concrete mixers, the sulfur crock pot- all the things that were staples of my time in concrete canoe.
He showed us some mangled steel from an underway project. Version 2.0 of the experiment was set up. They added one bolt, and the steel grid was suddenly able to withstand the earthquake forces that wrecked version 1.0.
Then we descended to the basement fluids lab where he tossed a Ken doll in the flume and showed how the design of the weir determines if Ken gets caught in the undertow or pushed out to safety.
Rodney did a great job of making Civil Engineering sound like the coolest field ever. I had an absolute blast remembering all the coolest parts of my major (somehow all the math and free body diagrams were left out of the tour) and catching up with Kendrick.
Aaron took Elliot up to see his old lab rooms as well. This one is the clean room where he had a class.
Here Elliot poses oh so naturally by the door to the configurable computing lab where Aaron was a research assistant. There is a fancy new Engineering building next door that connects to the old Clyde building. It was cool getting the nostalgia of the old and the excitement of the new right next to each other. It is cool seeing BYU grow.
Other stops included the sculpture garden by the art museum and the exhibits in the Eyring Science Center.
Last stop: Bean Museum and the Creamery for Ice Cream! The bird right behind Elliot's head was an "Elliot's Pheasant" and the one on the top left was a "Blood Pheasant." Meant to be? I think so.
The highlight of our time in Utah was our trip to Lagoon! We got there right as it opened and beelined it to the biggest roller coaster in the park, the Cannibal. The plan was for us to do a kid swap with Jonny and Megan. While they were on it, we realized that Elliot was tall enough to go on it. He didn't have any experience on roller coasters, but he loves water slides. We told him that this would be much more intense than anything he had experienced before, but he said he wanted to give it a go.
Note how it bends you upside down before dropping straight down. You can't see the tracks at all and it feels like you are plummeting to your death. It then zips you around at high speed, frequently upside down. We had Elliot between Aaron and me and were holding his hands on the bar and trying to project "this is fun" vibes because he was clearly terrified. His face was white when we got to the end. His review: "I don't want to do that again." Fair enough, buddy.
Elliot was brave to be willing to go on the unknown roller coaster, but he was even braver by being willing to go on other roller coasters and rides after being traumatized by his first ride. His one rule is that he didn't want to go on any rides that would put him upside down, which was entirely reasonable. He went on a few others that were deemed "a bit too much." His sweet spot was was a roller coaster called Bombora. He must have gone on that one at least 6 times.
Elliot requested a picture by the giant revolving toilet by the bathrooms. He thought it was a solid decor decision.
Taking Isaac to the kiddie land was outright adorable. Something about a little boy on a little boat is just precious. I remember this ride from my childhood!
Isaac and Elijah with their pew pew guns
Annie loved being Isaac's buddy for the ones where you can pull the lever to move up and down.
It was fun bumping into Bloods all over the park. Rides are even more fun with cousins. My favorite was teaming up with Megan to pressure Rebekah into going on the big rides with us and wandering the park with Elliot, Seth and Little Aaron.
In the afternoon we took a break at the water park. 3 laps around the lazy river had a wonderful restorative effect after a morning of walking all over the place in the heat. The water slides were a delight as well.
There were several peacocks wandering around the park, making a cute Annie even cuter.
We stayed at the park until closing and rode rides until the very end. We were there long enough that everybody got to do plenty of rides on their level. I was proud of my kids for being brave, and I was glad that I had an opportunity to have some true fun.
Next stop was Cottonwood Heights. A large portion of the Blood Clan rented houses in the same neighborhood for a week long reunion of sorts. Mary, Jonny, Elizabeth, and the twins all made it, with Mom Blood joining us after she got stuck for a couple nights in North Carolina on her way back from Peru where she had been with Claudia's family. This trip was extra fun because we got to meet Jacob's fiance Natalie and spend more time with Joanna's fiance Rayne.
Isaac was a huge fan of Jacob's skateboard. Having a park right behind our house was very convenient. There was a shaded ramada for eating some of our meals together.
Cool kids hiking club! We found a very creepy hole in the wall near the waterfall.
It's the perfect place to hide a dead body- or have a photoshoot!
Andrew was so sweet with Annie. He held her hand for all the steep parts and was generally chivalrous. He has always been great with younger kids.
What a champ
We spent a day at a nearby rec center. There was a splashpad, some slides, and a huge cliff jumping wall! Megan persuaded me to go off it with her. She is my favorite companion for adrenaline activities that require us to pump each other up. We also got to pressure teenage Rebekah into jumping with us. Good times were had all around!
These boys were all tuckered out from their water slide adventures. A big storm came shortly after this. One of the huge shade umbrellas got picked up by the wind and smashed against the wall of the rec center.
The kids slept so well on this trip. We played hard!
