Rodeo Days

We had another year of celebrating our favorite local holiday- still without ever having seen the actual rodeo.

 

Kindergarten celebrations are just the best. 

I was a less-than-helpful parent volunteer with Felix in tow. It was fun to see Isaac interacting with his buddies and being so excited to see his little brother at school!

His teacher, Mrs. Chittum, is so cute with all the kids. After their activity stations, she gathered them around a paper bonfire they made together and had a fun make-believe night under the stars. We cracked open cans of baked beans for them to try some cowboy food. Most of the kids were not into it, but Felix couldn't get enough of them. 

We happened to be at the Clubhouse for Elder's Quorum pickleball the morning of the Rancho Rodeo Days celebration. It strangely didn't align with when the kids had school off for the holiday, so we didn't realize that we were showing up early to the event. We got to be first in line for things before it got crowded!

Isaac opted for the "gentle" setting on the mechanical bull. Annie did an impressive job of hanging on with the more challenging level- those gymnastics muscles and balance skills are helpful in bull-riding!

The classic train ride, complete with costumed teenage employees who jump out from behind a bush and pretend they are trying to rob the train. Isaac was concerned. 

The kid in the background unintentionally made my day with his facial expressions. I love a good petting zoo!

Pony Rides!

He's ready for the open range. Those eyes are perfect for gazing over distance vistas.

Before this, his horse experience was mostly from the book "Little Blue Truck." Rodeo Days was educational for the little guy!

Timmy Visits

Timmy came to visit! He melts in heat over 60 degrees, so February was pushing it. We were all wearing jackets at least part of the time, but he managed to get a pretty good sunburn.  

It's hard to capture Timmy in pictures, but I did manage to document his presence a few times! 

San Xavier, which was followed by yummy tacos

I get immense joy out of forcing people into Dunce Cap photoshoots in the old schoolhouse at Tubac Presidio. 

My sweet batch of dunces <3

I could spend all day in Tubac. I love wandering around looking at all the weird statues and cool art. 

Timmy was very helpful at corralling the kids at the library maker fair, and won a game of giant chess (not against Felix. Felix is a baby and sucks at chess.)

Other adventures included going to the Phoenix Renaissance Fair with Stephen's family (we opted out), and coming to volleyball with me. Volleyball was fun because he was friends at BYU with the Sevys, who ended up being our good friends in Sahuarita. I got to see their reunion at volleyball. There were twirly hugs. It's fun to see Timmy outside of Blood settings. He's also tight with my parents after staying with them in DC several times, so he got to hang out with them at the new AZ digs for a family dinner. 

Timmy is great to have around. He's an excellent Uncle to the kids- he was willing to read the same book to Felix on loop with impressive stamina, and was far more patient at getting to the root cause of some of the tantrums he witnessed than I tend to be. He's an all-around great guy. 

Pinewood Derby- Saga of the Puzzle Car

These three kids built some awesome pinewood derby cars this year!

 

Isaac was very excited about having a puzzle car. Mimi sourced him a dollar store puzzle with smiley faces that we glued on a basic wedge car. I almost didn't put in the weights or do the axel polishing stuff because he didn't care much for performance- the aesthetics were were it was at for this kid!

Annie wanted a gymnastics themed car, which was dubbed "The Cartwheel." She had a great paint job and modge podged some decals for a smooth finish. 

Elliot opted for a fire theme with hunky weights on top as part of the steam punk design.

In an unexpected twist of fate, Isaac's puzzle car ended up being REALLY FAST. He won 1st place in the Lion's den and 3rd place overall for the whole pack. The cubmaster had told the kids that the louder you cheer, the faster your car goes. Isaac really took this to heart and takes full credit for his victories. I can confirm that he was an extremely loud and enthusiastic cheerer.

Ashley's 35th Birthday

I spent my birthday becoming acquainted with a new friend, the brittlebush. 

 

I put Felix down for a nap and spent a few glorious hours wandering around the desert with the plant ID book that Aaron got me for Christmas. I would use my Seek app to ID a plant, then look it up in the book. I also got some bird watching in. It was overwhelmingly pleasant. I am for the most part a very extroverted person, but I also enjoy doing stuff like this by myself from time to time. 

I gathered a haul of barrel cactus fruit while I was out, and baked it into a nice cake the next day. I've realized that I generally don't much like cooking unless it is with some strange ingredient, that was preferably hard to obtain. It makes it feel like more of an adventure. 

After my morning wanderings, I elected to check out a new Indian food place by the airport. It was delicious!

Felix heartily approved of the tikki masala and mango lassi

Life at 35 is pretty good! I have a fun group of friends who do silly things like making a cake using only grabber claw sticks:

We also had to eat the cake with the claws. It was hilarious. 

I'm also in 2 book clubs, in addition to a now-completed separate book club where we went all out with the Hunger Games series. My favorite was the book club meeting where Becci assembled a nerf arsenal and reaped us into groups to have cornucopia battles. 

Winter in the Neighborhood

 

The Kaze family invited us to build an epic box fort with them in their new house with all their moving boxes over the winter break. I have never seen anything like it!

Our 14th anniversary lunch at Tumerico

On our way to Sunday Dinner at Stephen's house, we came across a neighbor who was letting a group of kids feed his big ol' pet tortoise. 

We continued on our walk and spotted a wild Ethan in his natural habitat. 

Our neighborhood has a robust group of kids, mostly homeschooled kids from our ward, that wander the desert making forts and other shenanigans. I would love for my older kids to embrace their slightly feral side and get out roving with them. One day, I walked out to the desert with the kids and we stumbled upon the neighborhood kids taking turns burying each other in a giant hole. Such 'wholesome' fun!

Winter is prime time to be outside. I remembered that the Desert Meadow Gardens exist and took some people there a few times. 

Annie continues to have a life full of events to be excited for. The high school did a Saturday cheerleading clinic that she loved. 

Ellie is Annie's carpool buddy to most of these sporadic events, as well as Gymnastics and Dance class. They beg for play dates on all the days in between. 

There was a cat's cradle craze that swept the 2nd grade. Annie took to wearing a yarn necklace for several weeks, and taking extra yarn to school to share with friends at recess and on the bus. I was cool near the start when they were all beginning and I could teach them the few string tricks from my childhood that I remembered, but they all soon passed me up!

There was an art festival at the lake on a January morning that ended up being SUPER windy, which meant that not many people were there. Annie took full advantage of the short lines to do as many flips on this trampoline-harness thing as possible.

There were people milling about on stilts and doing cool tricks. It was worth braving the wind!

Here's a candid shot of Isaac getting distracted by counting something. It happens quite often. We love our tender-hearted chill guy, even though we wish he would be a little more aware of keeping up with the group. His kindergarten teacher very kindly phrased it as "He doesn't seem to have much of a sense of urgency."

I had excellent helpers when we trimmed the trees this winter. 

Here's a cute video of Felix chatting about oranges. 

We attended an un-superbowl party for non-sports fans. It consisted of a bunch of marble races that we were supposed to cheer enthusiastically for, which is what we are pretty sure sports are about. There was also a half-time show choreographed at the party by whichever of the kids wanted to participate. It was surprisingly good!

Winter time in the desert is hard to beat!

Elliot turns 11

Elliot the Great has turned 11! 

This is sadly the only picture we took at his birthday party. He took a group of friends to Main Event for laser tag, bowling, and pizza. I asked him just now (4 months after the party) about what he remembers. He response was "Uncle Blake was annoyingly good at laser tag. He would hide behind the obstacles and shoot you before you could do anything. I did win one round though. I beat YOU, Mom!" At that point he leaned in close with his trademark crazed wide-eyed look. 

Just a couple of weeks after his birthday, January rolled around and this guy moved up to the wild world of the Young Men's program at church! I have seen a huge development in him since then. He gave a lesson in Deacon's Quorum on Jacob & Esau, and a talk in Sacrament meeting. He did a great job of coming up with content, organizing it, and practicing for both. He's always been independent and capable, but his willingness to take on assignments like this has blown me away. 

He has some awesome youth leaders. The picture above was taken at a stake youth hike up Picacho Peak, which was the hardest, steepest hike he has ever done by a pretty wide margin. He has also been camping on an island that they accessed by boat, gone backpacking, built and launched rockets, did an iron chef competition, and has been on a temple trip- all in only 4 months as a Deacon! 

It was really cool taking him to the temple for the first time. 

He is still a creator. We find paper filled with symbols only he can decipher, and his school work has an abundance of doodles. Here he is making a robot that can draw at the Library Maker Fair. 

Elliot crossed over from Cub Scouts to the full Scout program. I think the program is a great fit for him, and he's pumped about going to Camp Geronimo with his troop this summer. 

Possibly my favorite side of Elliot comes out when he's playing with Felix. He'll read to him or try to get him to say funny things. It brings out his caring and responsible side and is so sweet to see. 

Elliot is a one of a kind kid! I love playing board games with him and chatting with him while driving to his increasing number of activates.  He keeps his homemade "Story Cards" in the van, and I love it when he is sitting back there with friends and they are busting a gut listening to him make up crazy stories. He loves giving cryptic comments and then refusing to explain them. He has a strong sense of justice, and is the only one who can reliably keep track of how much screen time Isaac lost on the previous day. He reads a TON, and we struggle to keep him stocked with reading material despite weekly trips to the library. 

Happy Birthday, Oat!