West Virginia

We were lucky enough to spend two and a half weeks in West Virginia with the Blood Clan over the holidays! We had to fly out early because Elliot turned 2 on Dec 20th, and we didn't want to have to pay for his ticket.

He kept melting off my lap to hang out on the airplane floor

We met up with James and Joanna in the Houston Airport and rode the last leg to Charleston together. We knew Joanna was going to be there, but no one told us that James was part of the plan too. He had shaved his head and we weren't expecting to see him, so I didn't recognize him at first when he came up to us in the airport. They sat in front of us on the plane, and Elliot enjoyed periodically rubbing "Jam-es" head. 

We got there before the rest of the clan, so we were able to help get Stephen's new house ready to be invaded. We painted and moved some furniture around for a few mornings. 

Elliot hit it off with his cousins right away

 Unfortunately, Elliot got super sick a few days after we got there. He pretty much exploded very messily out both ends for half a day. I was glad to have Mom Blood around to help teach me “cleaning vomit off of couches” skills and exploding child containment techniques. She was great at putting things into perspective with statements like “this isn’t as bad as the time I was woken up in the middle of the night by a kid in the top bunk who puked all down the wall and got the kid on the bottom all gross too.” Very good point. I will never think of bunkbeds the same way. Several people got some degree of the bug after that with Joanna definitely being the worst. 

Post sickness Elliot with his glorious trampoline hair

James and Stephen alligator wrestling

 We had to get creative with things to do as breaks from being cooped up in a crowded house all day during the middle of winter. Our biggest failure was when we drove 45 minutes to a go-kart place… only to find out that it had closed. The most successful activity was when we got the keys to the church to go play dodgeball. We made a rule that adults had to play left handed so that it was actually somewhat even with all the kids.

Wii playing cousins and their observers

Mom Blood attacking a bag of frozen cheese with a hammer

Like Father, like Son

 Another great activity was a trip to the Clay Center. Elliot and all the kids had a BLAST. 

This kid is so weird about food. Being offered food is his #1 tantrum trigger, but he loved the fake food at the Clay center and at Mom Blood's house. 

This great activity ended tragically when Elliot somehow got his finger stuck under the belt.
I'm impressed that I didn't fall when I waded out to rescue him!

The water washed away all the smashed-finger sadness

 Jumping back to the Blood House:

Pie Face!

Elliot turning the Christmas lights off and on while Aaron rubs his hair.

Elliot discovered olives and fell in love.
Olives and Mac n' Cheese were pretty much all he was willing to eat the whole trip.

Elliot & Katie hanging out in boxes. Katie is one month younger than Elliot.

 It was fairly nice the majority of the time we were there, even going up into the 60's for a while. We did get one morning with snow, but it didn't stick around for long.

Elliot's first experience with snow

He probably would have been fine if we left him in West Virginia forever!