Feats of Strength in Yellowland

Max, Breezy, and Blake were able to come visit for Thanksgiving! We were sitting around the table chatting after they first rolled in when Max calmly stated that he was the fastest Johnson on land. Blake and I were unwilling to let that stand, so we went and had a race down the middle of the street at 10pm. Blake outright cheated, and we decided sprinting in the dark was too scary, so the fastest on land title is still undecided. Afterwards our feats of strength included clap push ups, finger jousting, and various forms of stick wrestling. It was unlike us but very amusing!

Max and Blake very intensely trying to not let go of the stick. 

A scene from Thanksgiving morning: Breezy entertaining the kids with her collection of rings, Elliot and Max solving some math mobile puzzles, and Aaron fixing Breezy's laptop.

Best of all: Blake doing most of the feast prep! I helped and did all the grocery shopping, but he was definitely the mastermind behind everything. We had bacon wrapped turkey, savory stuffing, creamed corn, honey habanero rolls, and bacon mac and cheese. He dubbed it "the year I add spice to Thanksgiving." Everything was sooo good, and we were able to eat it for days.

Poor Annie was sick. She fell asleep, but I woke her up for feast time. She was pretty out of it and hardly ate anything. 

Sick Annie + Blake's hate = major vibes

Here's one of the many videos I took of the odes to Yellowland! Yellowland is the area of the backyard with yellow leaves from the peach and pomegranate tree. I love it when Max and Blake do their synchronized improv singing. Annie has been watching the videos over and over, and Elliot keeps making Yellowland references. We also played the game where we make up a Yellowland story where each person says one word as we go around the circle. Elliot played but added quite a lot of chaos by saying some form of "explodes" every time it was his turn. Despite that, we soon had an impressive amount of lore concerning the king and his crocodile horse captain, Sulfurious. 

Blake went on a walk around the lake with us the next day while Breezy and Max did homework/work. More feats of strength were demonstrated. I remember the glory days when I could wrestle little Blakey and win. Now he's all grown up and doing pull ups. But not as many as Aaron, the family jock.

Elliot modeling by some awesome yellow leaves by the lake. A Yellowland colony perhaps?

Max stayed a couple days longer than Breezy and Blake. He got to read Isaac this book a thousand times and eat our agave stick in the back yard. It was a dried agave stalk that had been in our yard for over a year. He said, "hmm, I wonder if this agave stick tastes like agave" and ripped off a bit and started chewing on it. Before long we were all chewing on stick bits and it actually did taste really good! He brought most of his custom games too which I always love. 

We certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year. We were able to spend lots of time with our family and friends and the people we love. All of us are learning and growing, and we have a happy household over here. 

Joanna and Rayne get Married!

JUST LOOK AT THESE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE! 

Aaron's sister Joanna married a really cool guy named Rayne Baer on November 19th! We flew up to Utah for the big event. We got in on Friday and headed to the Airbnb that we were sharing with Stephen's family, Mom Blood, Jonny, and Daniel. The rest of the family came over to hang out and eat pizza that night. I wish I had gotten a picture of the mass of Bloods standing around the kitchen and doing that cute thing where they bounce a bit while they are talking. 

The next morning we headed to the Payson Temple for the sealing! Samantha and I stayed in the lobby with the bloodlings. I was grateful for that time- it was my first real conversation with my sister-in-law! We don't get to see her too often since they live in Alaska. 

Waiting for the newly weds to emerge

Here they are! And they looked so happy!

We had a break for lunch and a very much needed nap for Isaac. I miiiiiight have dozed off on the couch as well. 

Then we were off to the venue for the ring ceremony and reception! 

This tribute to Dad Blood caught me off guard. I wish he could have been there in person.

Rayne has been obsessed with Jurassic Park since he was a kid. Joanna walked down the aisle to an orchestral version of the Jurassic theme song. If that's not love, I don't know what is. 

Timmy gave an awesome speech. He brought me and most of the room to tears with some tender memories about when Joanna was born and how she always stood up to James and how she was the first person that Timmy felt he could come out too. Then he acted kind of flustered and said, "I lost my place in my notes. Actually.... nevermind, I never had any notes. This is just a picture of little Joanna with little Rayne photoshopped in." It was masterfully done. 

Then they announced that it was open mic time for people to come up and share memories of Joanna and Rayne. Several of Rayne's supporters got up, but the Bloods had a total deer in the headlights reaction. Someone should have given them prior warning, and we would have gotten some beautiful thoughts out of them. Aaron says that he could have come up with something coherent if he had just 10 more minutes. My excuse is that I was barely containing a very grumpy Isaac. A visibly agitated Elizabeth finally got up and managed to get out some Blood support for our beloved Joanna. The Bloods have many talents, but on the spot public speaking is not one of them!

Annie kept wandering off to make petal angels on the floor. Also, look through the doorway- they had a board of glazed donuts with a cute sign that said "A Hole Lot of Love."

We didn't think we would make it until the start of the 8pm reception with how tired the kids had been, but with an infusion of donuts and then ice cream we kept deciding to stay a bit longer to see this or that activity. Then they announced a dance party and pulled out light sticks. It was a blast! I haven't actually danced like that in a long time. Elliot surprised me by joining in the thick of things and dancing his little heartskee out. We stayed until 10 and saw the happy couple off with sparklers. It was a great way to welcome Rayne into the family!

Life as we know it

Time for a smattering of daily life pictures!

Elliot has been REALLY into origami lately. He had a good sized box filled with his folded creations. We got several library books that he promptly memorized, and he has taken to inventing his own creations. Here he is modeling his "Thinking Cap" while playing this online puzzle game called "SolveMe Mobiles." The puzzles are a fun way to practice algebraic thinking, and Elliot really likes them. He's gotten to hard levels with fractions and negative numbers. I love that this kid still likes to play with math!

Elliot has no interest in any extracurriculars. Instead, I invite James and Kelton over frequently. That always ends up being "build cool stuff" time. I also take them to the library after-school activities sometimes. The favorite so far was when they made tops out of marbles hot glued to CDs. There was naturally a battle bots type showdown on the steps outside afterwards. 

Annie is always wanting hairstyles. This is partially because I let her watch a video to keep her head still, but also because she's a fancy lady. It is her absolute favorite when her cousins come over and play salon with her. 

We have been teaching Annie how to ride a bike! It is slow and painful with plenty of tears. We are making progress thanks to heavy bribery. 

Annie with her buds playing primary during volleyball

This is my favorite picture Annie has ever drawn! The red lips kill me. She drew this after we watched the old batman at the beach. I think she missed most of the part of Poison Ivy being a bad guy and focused on her killer fashion sense instead. 

Meanwhile, Isaac has been keeping us all quite entertained. It is amazing how funny kids can be before they can even talk very much. He definitely has a sense of humor and loves to tease us. 

Isaac's ball obsession was replaced by a lengthy Magna-tiles phase. He is constantly begging people to build (he pronounces it "biw") with him. These stairs are an Aaron creation, but the little guy has gotten pretty good at building houses for his toys.

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of Isaac. I love having a little buddy to help me stop and acknowledge how awesome sprinklers are. 

He's a big fan of walks. We get in some good ones after dropping Annie off at preschool. 

Elliot and Annie still love making "Isaac entertainment centers." Bumbo by a fan with a ball was a big hit.

He loves his cousin Bree. Who am I kidding, everyone loves Bree. 

We spent a lot of time at the park this fall! Aaron takes the kids to the park a few evenings a week. He's way more fun than me and will race them down the slides. I don't know how he does it, slides hurt now that I'm an adult!

I prefer the "talking with the moms while the kids play" approach to the park. Luckily we have lots of people who are always willing to hang out at the park! This is our new neighbor Rocky. He kept on asking me what my name was, so I told him it was Ooda Ooda. He and his sister now call me Ooda Ooda all the time, and we are great buds. I'm Rocky's grasshopper catching buddy. 

A bunch of Bloods at a Barnett party

Aaron went to Chicago again for XR Day! His work took him on a boat tour of interesting architecture around the city and gave him lots of yummy food. 

XR Trading also sent Aaron a fancy pretzel box for his 1 year work anniversary. It was delicious! We heated them up in the oven and had multiple sweet and savory topping options. The french truffle mixed with sour cream to make a dip was my favorite. Aaron brought pretzels to his Rings of Power guys night and to a few other places- he got good mileage out of them! XR had their 25th anniversary of existing, so they sent each employee a really nice Yeti cooler. Aaron teases me because whenever we talk about how great his job is, I always reference the cooler. 

Prickly pear jelly is way easier with Stephen's juicer! I juiced in advance and then had a jelly canning party with Rachel Sevy again. 

My friend Hannah Gardner has a homestead nearby and invited us over to see her animals! There were baby chicks, kittens, roosters, and turkeys. 

Life is good over in this neighborhood!

Pumpkin Friends

I saw a post this year about letting kids take baths with their pumpkins for an easy halloween activity. I took it to heart and added other wholesome activities for our pumpkins to take part in.  

Pumpkin makeover! Annie chose this makeup kit as part of her "learn how to ride a bike" sticker chart. We have deeply regretted letting her pick it. She's a bit obsessed with it, and it makes a big powdery mess whenever she gets it out. 

She got pouty when I explained that eyeshadow doesn't belong under her eyes. The random marker by her mouth really is the cherry on top of her accidental vampire look. 

Bringing the pumpkins to the park is an activity I'll definitely keep doing with my toddlers! The pumpkins went on the swings and down the slides. Carved pumpkins rot so quick after carving them down here, so playing with them uncarved lets us get some more mileage out of them. This year we carved them on Halloween day and then tossed them in the compost a couple of days later. 

Just a boy on a playdate with his pumpkin friend!

XR Trading did another virtual kids Halloween party. They wore costumes and made monster treats. 

Isaac made several where he dipped the pretzel rod in the melted candy and added a single eyeball sprinkle to the top. 

We went to two trunk or treats (one at our ward, one at Mary's house) and actual trick or treating this year. Isaac alternated between the doggy costume and the clownfish depending on the weather. 

Mimi hooked Elliot up with this Ender Dragon costume as an early birthday present

I greatly enjoy making endless variants of the "I can tell you are an experienced nose picker!" joke while dispensing candy through my Frankenstein head. 

Playa Bonita

 This was our fifth trip to Rocky point, but this time with several twists! The biggest was that we stayed at Playa Bonita RV resort instead of our usual rental houses. I have been hearing about people camping at the RV resort for years, so it was good to finally check it out and explore a different stretch of Rocky point. 

Our classic "lets just walk down to the beach right when we get there and not get our clothes wet" picture. I adore this shot of Isaac. 

Elliot got right to finding hermit crabs in the tide pools. I love playing with the little critters

We went with the Flythes and Allens. They really know their way around! They know which beaches are the best for snorkeling and which ones are most likely to have awesome conch shells. AND they had kayaks! They got there a few days before we did and chartered a fishing boat to have a fish taco extravaganza with some other folks who left before we got there. 

The highlight for Annie was her BRAIDS! She used her Grandma Blood birthday money to pay a lady on the beach for an awesome hairstyle. It was pretty practical too- it kept her hair out of her eyes and lasted the whole trip. 

The kids were constantly asking to hang out at the Jacuzzi pool. They were not swayed by my argument that the most important part of going to the beach is GOING TO THE BEACH. At least I usually had good company to chat with while hanging out poolside. 

I'm a total sucker for chilled mangoes on sticks. 

Feeding the wildlife

Isaac was very skeptical about the mango Elliot kept trying to get him to bite, but as soon as he tasted it he had a death grip on the stick.

Aaron discovered Hermit Crab City, a rock in some shallow water that had a crazy amount of hermit crabs clinging to it. We had challenges to see how many hermit crabs we could hold in our hands before the tickling got too bad. 

Level two of the challenge was lining the crabs on shoulders and the ticklish parts of our legs. There was also a diligently constructed hermit crab prison. 

pollo luuuuucas

A dead sea turtle washed up on shore one morning. A science dude on an ATV showed up and said that the turtle was probably around 60 years old and died of old age. Some people nearby said that they had seen some live ones while snorkeling nearby. My goal for the week was to find an octopus. The Allens found a little one hiding in a seashell the day before we got there so I diligently checked shells for days, but no luck this year. The quest continues. 

I adore rocky point, but I'm not sold on the RV park. The thing I like about camping is that there is space for the kids to run free and that it is so scenic and peaceful. None of that is true when camping in an RV park. It was literally a big parking lot. It was convenient being so close to the beach, and the amenities were good, but I wasn't a fan of dealing with noisy neighbors right next to my tent. I had to get out of my tent and yell something weirdly similar to "get off my lawn" to a group of kids who were playing tag and literally tripped over our tent at 10:30 at night. We also had crazy wind one night. It knocked the rain fly pole out of its grommets 5 different times. After the fifth time, I moved the van to be right in front of the tent hoping it would somewhat block the wind. It was still whipping the tent around after that, but not quite enough to get the pole out of place. 

Our camp setup next to the Flythe's van. The under table drying ropes was a great hack we copied. 

All in all, I would pick a Playa Bonita RV vacation over a weekend at home if the company was good- but I would definitely rather pick a luxurious rental house and save our camping for the mountains.