Page, starring Paige Allsop

 In March, we ventured up to Page, AZ to meet up with the Allsops and have a four day adventure together. We originally planned to camp, but realized that it was going to be freezing cold and that Alyssa is pregnant, so we opted to stay in a hotel and have adventures together. It was a wise decision. They had a 2 room suite next to our single room, so we could hang out and chat after the kids went to bed. The Allsops are great, we love hanging out with them.

A Blood-Allsop picture!

Felix was a great hiking buddy. Next time I'll have to remember his hat...

The kids had a great time digging in the sand. When it was time to go, it was revealed that they had buried Isaac's shoes. No, they did not remember where they buried them. "Somewhere on a hill next to a plant" was what we had to work with. We retraced steps and dug up the hillside until we finally found them.

Later, we ventured to lone rock beach, which was one of the places we had considered camping. The combination of sand, mud, cold, and no shade made me even more grateful for our nice hotel room. It was great to visit for a few hours. Mud cakes were made in abundance. 

This time, we actually left Isaac's shoes behind. We didn't realize it until we got back to the hotel room. 

Hanging Gardens. I found some mormon tea growing on this hike and brought it home to dry! 

We also explored the Glen Canyon Dam and the marina to ogle at the house boats. 

Horseshoe bend! We live in a beautiful world. 

You can't really get a picture with both us and horseshoe bend in it at the same time, unless you walk out on by the cliffs that we did not trust Isaac near. 

Me, the love of my life, and our son's butt crack. 

Parties

It seems like there have been an awful lot of parties lately!

Annie's 100 day of school

Art Festival at Sahuarita Lake. Note the casual acrobatics display.

 

For my birthday, we went to lunch at La Chaiteria with Breezy and my parents. It was delicious! I did my best to do an "Ash Tango" next to the Ashtanga Yoga studio sign next door. 

Breezy got me this picture for my birthday. I love it. 

My friends threw a karaoke party for 3 of us who have January birthdays. I thought it would be not my thing, but it turns out that with this group of very silly friends it totally was. I'm very blessed with a full social life these days. 

We were all highly amused by Grumpa pinning the "58" over this birthday banner for Mimi's birthday

The birthday girl!

Papa's birthday is on St. Patricks day. We leaned into the theme for him heavily this year. I have no idea how my mom found so many things that said "Happy Birthday" with shamrocks or leprechauns on them!

There have been so many baby showers lately! I was in charge of games for a joint baby shower for my very competitive friends, Becci and Alyssa. I was very amused by these little baby trophies that I made for prizes for the pregnant lady Olympics. 

I hosted another baby shower for Amanda Hatch. Some other ladies put up a balloon arch for it. I kept it in the loft for a while afterwards, and couldn't resist having a baby photoshoot with it.

It seriously doesn't get cuter than this.

The Harry Potter Book Club was carried all the way through book 7 with increasingly elaborate efforts by my friends. There was a Triwizard Tournament for book 4 and a Horcrux Hunt for book 7.

This sandwich Nagini with a sword chopping off it's head is a work of art. 

The whole Horcrux hunt was a hoot. Part of it involved finding Becci who was dressed as Harry Potter and shooting a killing curse at her. 

Me drinking the potion in the cave to retrieve the locket. It was pure vinegar and far more disgusting than I thought it would be. 

Fun times all around!

Rodeo

Another year, another time to contemplate why we still have this local holiday!

 

Isaac's preschool had a rodeo party. On the walk home that day, Cooper yelled "HOWDY FOLKS" to random people walking their dog across the street. Isaac talked with a low, gravelly cowboy voice and called people "Partner" for a day. It was adorable. 

Annie found that Isaac's church shirts make the perfect tight-fitting cowgirl shirts for her

Annie's 1st grade performance was cowboy themed. She belted out instant classics like "Billy the Bad."

She knocked it out of the park with her memorized line!

Annie and Nellie

Cubscouts had a regional rodeo day event we went to. I love the layers of this picture- Tristan pretending to be the venomous creature, James watching out for him, and Elliot jumping out in front yelling "tuna sandwich!"

After the scout event was the Rancho event. Plenty of hot sun for us that day!

Riding the classic clubhouse robber train. 

Yeehaw, y'all. 

Birds

 This year, one of my main New Year's Resolutions was to learn about the local birds and be able to ID at least 4 by sound. Noticing the birds has brought me a lot of joy. Sometimes I'll wake up in the morning and hear birds chirping outside, and whip out my Merlin app to ID them before I even get out of bed. The kids are into it too. Walking to preschool or hanging out at the park is more fun than it used to be. It's added a layer of richness to my life. I'm still very much a newbie, but I totally get why people get so into birdwatching now!

There's a birdwatching lodge in Madera Canyon that is one of my new favorite places on earth. There's almost always a flock of giant turkeys there. 

Why hello, you acorn woodpecker

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.