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!