Isaac turns 6

 Our Zicko is now a six year old! 

He had a very clear vision about what he wanted for his cake. It was chocolate with vanilla frosting and peaches on top. Annie helped arrange the peach slices into a big number 6, and Isaac took charge of the sprinkle, chocolate and butterscotch chip, and candle placement. You will not be alone if you question his thought process for distributing those 6 candles. 

With his candles lit and the whole family ready to sing, Isaac had to skip a few laps in excitement before Breezy was able to reel him back in. 

Note his leis and birthday necklaces from school. This kid had a great day feeling appreciated, and got to stay for a sleepover at his happy place (Casa Johnson)

The next day was his birthday party at Get Air. I took a grand total of 0 pictures, so readers will need to use their imagination to picture Isaac having a great time with buddies from church and school at the trampoline park with some ice cream sandwiches in the lobby at the end. 

His favorite activity in the world is snuggling up to Breezy and watching videos with her. He is an imaginative kid who spends a lot of time pacing around in his own little world. He does like building toys, and the day that some teen employees at Mindforge built this marble track with him was legendary for him. 

Turning this box into a Felix bus was all his idea!

It's been a year of big changes for him as he started school and got generally more capable at life. He's still very much a head in the clouds type of kid who is very affectionate, and definitely has a trickster gremlin side to him. He has extremely strong opinions about a small amount of things, and is completely ambivalent about everything else- like clothes being backwards or his shoes being ALWAYS on the wrong feet. He hates almost all dinner foods and would prefer to eat charcuterie boards for every meal. He loves non-fiction books and learning about new things. He frequently gets so excited about something that he has to hop a lap around the house with his elbows and knees going every which way. He really likes numbers and loves to play with timers. He has a great sense of direction which allows him to very slowly get wherever he needs to go. This kid goes at his own pace, which frequently leaves him contentedly walking far behind everyone else on the walk home from the school bus. He's a one of a kind kid, and we love him to pieces!

Assorted Spring

 

The weather was so nice that we moved playgroup from the church to the park for several weeks. Felix is lucky to be growing up with a great pack of kids, and I'm lucky to have such a great pack of moms to hang out with!

The Tucson Festival of Books happened to be on pi day this year. We found a booth that was giving away pi related items, including a tape measurer thing that shows digits of pi. Elliot was able to blow away the volunteer by rattling off 56 digits of pi. 

Isaac and Annie earned some Book It pizzas at Pizza hut. Usually we use those for Daddy Dates, but this time the whole family went along. 

I invented this game to try to help Isaac with his writing. Quite a few of his letters were backwards all the time. He's made some good progress!

The Priesthood Commemoration campout was at Calabasas this year.

All my boys at the zoo playground! Annie was off doing cartwheels with Ellie. 

I tried a new foraging adventure: Palo Verde Flower Jelly. I'm fairly certain that the Palo Verde pollen is responsible for my seasonal allergies, and thought that maybe consuming some in a processed form might help. It's the same idea as eating local honey. I can't say if eating the jelly helped at all, but picking hundreds of flowers and getting coated in pollen definitely made things worse in the short term! If I make this again, I'll try twice as much flower extract and sugar for more flavor. 

Here's my breakfast in bed Mother's Day crew. I am so blessed to have them!

I Like Big Trucks and I Cannot Lie

One of my friends organized a trip to the fire station for preschool aged kids. We tagged along since Felix is a big fan of firetrucks, although he was daunted by high-fiving the firefighter with all his gear on and by squirting the hose himself. He now demands that we draw him firetrucks and tries to tell our smart speaker to play the "Hurry, Hurry, Drive the Firetruck" song all time.

We somehow had never taken our truck loving Felix to the mine museum for a dump truck lunch! He was duly impressed with the ore cart and various machinery. 

Annie found some graffiti that said "Elliot" on it and apparently was not impressed. 

We went to an RV show at the Pima County Fairgrounds to fuel our dream of owning a camper van. We love camping and road trips, and something like this would help us build the family culture we want. We decided that the Winnebago Solis with the rare sofa bed configuration would be the only one on the market that might actually work for us. It would be so cool to have a camper van, but we don't want anything bigger than a delivery van and need it to have 7 seatbelts. It turns out that people with 5 kids usually want bigger vehicles. We made a Codex program to scan the internet for options that might work for us. Stay tuned to see if we ever find a viable option!

Our last wheel-related news item: Isaac has made great strides with his pedal bike! He rode all the way to the skate park with Dad one day. 

Vistors

We had a number of Visitors this spring! The most unexpected was my friend Jon Richards. We grew up together in McLean 1st Ward. His family was driving from California to a wedding in Texas and was passing through Tucson. He texted me if I knew any good areas to stay, so naturally had to have him over! It was great to meet his wife and kids. I always love talking to old friends and having the feeling like we can pick up where we left off, even though it has been years since we've seen each other. 

 

Two McLean kids, all grown up

Felix greatly enjoyed sharing the wagon with his new buddies as we walked around the neighborhood. We also took them over to swim at the Casa Johnson pool to get them all tuckered out so that they would sleep well on the next leg of their trek. 

Grandma Blood came out to visit for Ethan's baptism! She was newly returned from her mission to the Philippines. It was great hearing all her stories. It was very apparent that she loved it there, and was actively trying to recruit replacements for her office missionary position when she came to church with us. Claudia's house was full with her cousins and their families visiting from California who also came out for the baptism. Her mom was also there. I'm always happy for opportunities to practice my Spanish!

By coincidence, Blake decided that he wanted to come down for a visit with his girlfriend on the same weekend that all the Bloods were in town. Max heard that Blake was coming and had some spare time, so he decided to take the train over from LA as well. Sahuarita was packed with relatives! We spent the week bouncing back and forth between Blood and Johnson activities and we tried to show everyone around town. Fortunately it was great weather for a trip to the Desert Museum.

Why do kids love carrying around rocks when it is already hard to get them to walk around?

Let the record show that we did find the real javelina in addition to these cute statues! Felix saying "javelina" in his tiny little voice was a highlight for me. 

Unfortunately, I didn't have a pickaxe big enough for this rattler and Annie was lost. 

Our other big outing was to the Museum of Miniatures. Felix was OBSESSED with the animal dudes riding motorcycles in a loop. Grumpa was very patient in escorting the little lad as he repeatedly bolted from other areas of the museum back to the motorcycles. 

Felix was also terrified of walking on the glass floor over the Christmas village. It took some serious persuasion to get him on there, but he eventually loved saying hi to Santa!

Our last visitor was quite unusual. We found this dead hummingbird centered on the little table outside our front door. At first, I thought it must be an offering from a neighborhood kid, but all the likely suspects denied any involvement. I think it must have just chosen this spot to elegantly breathe its last breath. When I told Breezy about it, she immediately decided this was an omen and looked up the meaning for me. Apparently, dead hummingbirds symbolize the end of a difficult or fast-paced phase of life, signaling a time to slow down and start anew. That sounds like a perfect message for this pregnant lady over here!

Rancho Sahuarita

There have been a lot of happenings in our town this spring! Fiesta Sahuarita, our annual town celebration, gets bigger every year. This year we embraced parking at the clubhouse and riding the school bus shuttle to the event. The school bus ride might have been the highlight of the whole thing for Felix. We suspect that he now thinks that his older siblings go to Fiesta Sahuarita every day since that is the only place he has experienced a bus going. 

We somehow missed the memo that the rides were mostly waterslides this year and were not properly prepared with swimsuits or any towels. Luckily it is hot enough that you dry off quick! You can see the two giant slides in this picture that were the size of our house. Aaron, Elliot, and Isaac braved the big slides while Annie wanted extra time with my "too pregnant for fun" self at the booths. Her goal is always to spin ALL the "free stuff" wheels, and we both bought some cute earrings. 

It's hard to say which of them has a better facial expression here. 

There was also a zipline!

Elliot Blood, master of earth and air. And also tape. 

On the day before Mother's Day, Annie and I went to a "Moms and Mermaids" event at the clubhouse. It was adorable! They had aquatic tattoos, hairclips, and bracelets for us and this cute photo backdrop set up. Then we got in the pool for some mermaid-themed water zumba that fortunately did not induce labor. 

After that, the "real" mermaid showed up! She read a book to the kids and had bubbles to give to everyone. Then she scooted to the pool where she swam about dropping "mermaid gold" for the kids to dive for. As expected, Annie and Ellie got thoroughly distracted doing flips in the water. A good time was had by all. 

Another thing worth noting is that a woman in our ward opened a business called Mindforge at our local shopping center. It's awesome! You can drop in and check out board games, puzzles, STEM activities, and lego sets to play with there. The tables have intricate lego scenes covered in resin. It's a really cool place and our kids keep asking to go back!

They even have a toddler play area to keep the littles entertained while the older ones play. A local art teacher painted the giant mural. It's really cool to see this one woman's dream come to life!

Easter & Rattlesnake Battle

We had another good Easter season this year! I really liked pulling out our Easter decorations and candles, and doing activities at home during Holy Week from the packet we had from last year. 

Our ward did an excellent job of supporting Easter celebrations. They started things off with a Potluck and Egg Hunt at the church. We did some prep with our crochet eggs at home, so Felix was properly prepared and delighted to be collecting eggs. 

Examining the loot

Naturally, Annie finds every way possible to be upside down

At the potluck, they announced that they a couple of people in the ward with laser cutters had made a beautiful wood cut Easter Nativity for each family in the ward. Each day during Holy week, there was a table in a ward member's front yard with a piece to add to the scene, and a page with some activity ideas and suggested reading for all ages. Our ward boundary is small enough that we were able to go on daily walks to collect our pieces and put it together. We loved it. 

On Palm Sunday, a woman in our ward organized a prank on the men where all the guys would show up with the same tie. The plan was that each family would tell their husbands and sons that since General Conference was on Easter, we were going to take a cute Easter family picture in coordinated colors at church on Palm Sunday. Aaron immediately suspected something because I would never actually think of a plan like that, but he played along with it. Elliot figured it out in the parking lot walking into church, and Isaac didn't realize that he matched everyone else until we pointed it out. 

I actually do like the cute color coordinated family picture we ended up with!

I decided that I wanted to snag some live palms from Casa Johnson on our way home from church. We were walking to the backyard... and I almost stepped on a rattlesnake right outside of the door! Grumpa jumped into action to dispatch the rattler while we watched through the window. He couldn't find the flat tipped shovel, so he went at it with what turned out to be a very blunt hoe. He couldn't get the head off. He had it pinned and very mad. I went to see if I could find the flat shovel and also failed, so I came out with a pick ax and finished him off with that. 

Elliot requested the rattle as a keepsake of our unanticipated encounter.

I told this story on a group chat with some friends, and Hannah plugged it into AI to make this glorious picture of me fighting a rattlesnake with a pickaxe. 

My other friend chimed in that it would be more accurate with an easter dress and pregnant belly. 

Needless to say, this was one of the highlights of my year. 

After that, we went back to some more traditional Easter activities. We tried using a marker and tinfoil method to color eggs, but didn't like that some of the marker got to the egg beneath. We all survived the contaminated devils eggs, but will skip out on it next year. 

Easter Dinner was a lovely event at Casa Johnson with Stephen's family and Papa. I love celebrating this holiday and having an extra dose of the Savior in our lives!

Spring Break in LA

The highlight of our Spring Break was visiting Max and Morgan in LA! This was an overwhelmingly delightful trip. These guys are great planners and very gifted at knowing people well enough to suggest what activities to do. They planned a visit that was tailor made for our family, complete with a slide deck  to get us hyped before we came. 

We made great time on our drive and got to their house earlier than expected, which meant we had time to go to a nearby park after dinner. 

 

Felix loooooves Morgan!

Somi Somi ice cream in Koreatown was so creamy and good, especially the Ube flavor! They are famous for their fish waffle cones. 

Isaac refused to hold anyone's hand except for Max's for 90% of this trip. 

Annie requested that we pop into this ultra pink store. I didn't think much of it, but she asked if we had time to go back to Koreatown to "look at more cool stores... also can you show me what anime is?" several times. 

The next morning, Max took people to his rock climbing gym while I failed to get Felix to take a nap. The gym is built in an old brewery with cool old brick everywhere. 

Isaac had qualms, but ended up having a good time!

Annie had no qualms, but ended up bruising her butt!

Elliot did ok regarding both qualms and butts. 

Lunch was at a Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown. This was one of my favorite meals -although everywhere they took us to eat was delicious! They also did a great job of picking casual hole in the wall type places where we wouldn't have to be too worried about our kids being the heathens that they occasionally are.

Zoom in on Aaron for some comic relief, because we couldn't snap a picture of me mispronouncing "pho" a bajillion times.

Oh, Isaac. 

The next stop was some cool tidepools. Getting there was a bit of an adventure- we were on the highway when I noticed that one of our tires had pressure down to 14psi. We took the next exit and put some air in at the first gas station we came to, then looked for a tire shop. There was a super well reviewed one only 3 minutes away. The guy pulled the nail out and patched it in 20 minutes for $20 and sent us on our way! It could have been a far bigger disaster than it was- luck was on our side this trip!

Rocks and water will always be my happy place. It was a perfect day to check out the tidepools. 

Aaron gets a shout out for carrying a squirmy Felix the whole time without busting an ankle on the loose rocks. 

Check out the colors of that anemone!

We hiked all the way to the far distant rocky outcropping. We had very disparate paces but all made it there and back in one piece. It was probably good for my 6 month pregnant self to have to go at a slow Isaac pace. 

Annie happily joined Max and Morgan's family picture

Look closely! Literally every crack in the rocks had a wee little crab hiding in it. They were so cute!

It turns out we couldn't get the wee crabs and Annie in focus at the same time, but I do love her face here, so it gets to be immortalized. 

Dinner that night was Aunty Mailie's Hawaiian food. We slept well that night!

Friday morning was spent at Griffith Park, which is HUGE! First we checked out what used to be the Griffith Zoo. It was a small zoo in operation from the late 1800's through the 1960's, when they built a bigger and better zoo nearby. They moved all the animals over, but decided to turn the nicely landscaped zoo exhibits into a park accessible by the public. They took down the fences so that you can walk straight into the old exhibits. Some even have picnic tables in them! 

"Rar, mom is making us take pictures in an abandoned zoo"

Here we are channeling the energy of the ancient polar bear that used to live here.

I think I win the monkey contest

My wild ones <3

Elliot was delighted to point out that I lied to them. I had promised there would be no animals there anymore, but there was a big, black stick bug living there (much to Felix's delight). I'll never live it down. 

Max took the big kids climbing up behind the exhibits to check out the zookeeper access staircases. Some police came up to talk to me and Morgan right after they started climbing, and we thought we were going to get in trouble. It turned out that the police were using the park for some bike training. They very politely asked us to move so that we wouldn't be hit by the very fresh recruits. Next time we will seek to be rebellious enough to have a more exciting police encounter. 

This is a good time to highlight some of the slides that Max made before the trip. They crack me up.

PS- the sandwiches were yummy.

After our abandoned zoo picnic, we drove to another corner of Griffiths park to see the observatory. There was a great view of the Hollywood sign and all of LA spread before us from this awesome vantage point!

I feel like we don't build pretty buildings like this anymore.

The entrance to the observatory had an elaborate mural painted on the dome ceiling. It features characters from celestial mythology. Aaron looked up at Saturn, the Titan who eats his lil' god children in Roman mythology, and decided it is a pretty accurate representation of Isaac at dinnertime grimacing at whatever torture we put into his bowl. 

The planetarium was refreshingly cool on a hot day! Felix wouldn't stay still though, and he fell while climbing lap to lap. I had to take him out partway through. I hear the rest of the show was inspirational. 

We headed home for some rest and naps, featuring the movie "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" to fill Annie's anime desires. It was actually super good. 

Note the taco related fun fact. Tacos Al Cabron had the most delicious potato-based Mexican food I have ever tasted, and I am bitterly disappointed that I can't find any recipes for what I ate there on the internet. 

Saturday morning featured the La Brea Tar Pits. This place is an active paleontology site with Ice Age fossils still being pulled from natural asphalt pits. There were multiple pits that we could stroll through, and the active excavation pit had a tally board with how many specimens they had excavated, broken down by species. 

Tar pits: the perfect mix of icky and fascinating. 

Snuggling up with the flat faced bear

This might look like a display you would see in a Foot Locker store, but it is actually a wall of dire wolf skulls from the pits!

This exhibit was a highlight of the museum. We all love a good feat of strength. 

I'm glad I don't live in the Ice Age with all the megafauna. The dioramas make mammoth hunting look quite daunting. 

Elliot is pretty sure he could hang with the saber toothed cats. 

Sorting some micro-fossils

There's an impressive greenhouse in the middle of the museum that is meant to be a Pleistocene Garden, representing plants some of the plants that have been found in the pits. The kids soon gathered up some unusual seed pods and flowers that had fallen on the path. 

Elliot with his Pleistocene plant collection

After a rest back at the house, we headed to Isaac's favorite part of the whole trip- Galcos! This is an old grocery store that was converted to be filled entirely with sodas and old fashioned candy. Max treated us to a soda each. 

Aaron was sad about Leninade, and about the sugar content consumed.

After our fizzy delights, we headed over to the Bob Baker Marionette Theater to watch a production called "Hooray LA." This ended up being a highlight of the trip! It was cool having it at the end and seeing many of the sites we had visited highlighted in the marionette show. It was a high quality show that both the adults and kids got a kick out of. 

These oil rig puppets were literally kicking. I was quite amused. Felix was obsessed with the birthday dog puppets and the bears that drove the little cars and kept asking for them to come back. 

Annie got her cheek stroked by the tail of the black cat

There were ghost puppets playing on bone xylophones as a shout-out to the La Brea Tar Pits.

There was an awesome playground with a snake slide right across the street from the theater that we had time to play at before heading over to our novel-flavored pizza dinner. 

Max is known for his love of ranking things, so he collected some data on our last night there. It was interesting seeing how split we were on lots of the activities! The La Brea Tar Pits was the most divisive stop- it was very highly ranked by me, Elliot, and Aaron, but at the very bottom of Max, Annie, and Isaac's rankings. The Marionette show was the the highest overall rated, followed by the Observatory and Tide Pools. 

We will surely be back again!