Stabbing Wood with Grumpa

We got to spend some days in McLean before and after the beach. Elliot was super pumped to "build things with Grumpa and color with Mimi" and they did not disappoint! Elliot and Grumpa built a wood car and boat. After that, Elliot got super excited about filing. He filed a super deep cut into a block of wood. The project he was most attached to was sanding this L-shaped block of wood from Grumpa's junk pile. Elliot even brought it in the van so that he could sand it on the drive down to the beach. After he got it "as smooth as fabric" on at least one side, he colored the whole thing with crayons. He poured a whole lotta love into that block of wood. Now that we are home, he asks to "poke wood with screwdrivers" which is the closest we can come to the glory of Grumpa's shop. 

Can you find the carpenters in the woodshop?

Working on this neat erector set we found in the toy box 

Mimi got him this awesome color by number book!

Reading all the books

We hiked to Scott's Run waterfall with Clint

We accidentally parked at a different parking lot then what I'm used to, so we got to take a trail that took us by the ruins of this old cabin. Only the chimney was still standing. For some reason, Elliot found this really scary. 

The Potomac River

We told Elliot that a part of the trail would have circles for us to walk on to cross the water. When we got here, he angrily told me "Mom, those are not circles, they are cylinders!"

 We braved DC traffic to visit the Air and Space Museum. We were hoping it would be less crowded because it was a rainy day, but that place was still PACKED. It was still neat though. I haven't been since I was a kid, and I definitely appreciated it it more after getting an engineering degree. 

Touching some meteorites

That capsule was in SPACE

The bloodlings absolutely adore Mimi and Grumpa's house. There were even a few times at the beach when Elliot said he would rather be at their house. I'm so lucky to have such awesome parents who love spending time with my favorite little humans!

Holden Beach 2019

Holden Beach is definitely one of my favorite Blood traditions! This year we had two sides of a duplex on the second row from the beach, and a bigger house a five minute walk away. Elizabeth and James were the only siblings who didn't come this year. My Mom and Dad ended up taking the room that was originally for Elizabeth before she found out she was going to have a baby this summer. It was fun having another Blood-Johnson crossover vacation.

This is going to be a classic family picture forevermore

Striking an unintentional Sasquatch pose

A babe on a skimboard

Learning fast under her father's tutelage. I'm ashamed to say that Annie and I are on the same level when it comes to skimboarding.

My talents lie more in the realm of finding beach critters

Teaching my nieces (mainly Catherine and Rebekah) how to find clams and sand crabs was a big highlight of the trip for me. Brianna was my most enthusiastic wave jumping buddy. 

The big daddy sand crab

Rebekah named about 20 clams before racing them in our clam arena.
How do clams race? Well, you wait a few minutes and then one of them will decide to dig down into the sand. That one wins the prize, which was lavish praise from the race officiators.

Annie was a big fan of the water and seashells. Elliot wanted to play in the sand the whole time. 

True to form, my mom broke her toe two days before we went to the beach. Luckily (or not) she already had a designated beach boot because she has had major foot/tendon injuries for the last two or three beach trips. 

Hottie alert

Annie loved going in the ocean with me- even when the waves were so big that I had to lift her above my head and jump to keep her head out of the water

Rebekah buried Seth. That's his face under the hat. 

Our Sunday night walk on the beach where we were "not going to get wet"

Everybody loves Beachy Glen! My dad spent hours launching Rebekah on boogie boards in the ocean. He said he was getting serious flashbacks to when he taught me how to boogie board.

Megan was awesome and arranged a meal schedule so that we could take turns cooking lunch and dinner. My Mom went first and chose a very complex Peruvian dish called causa. We cooked Tacos when it was our turn for dinner, and Aaron convinced me that Little Ceasar's Pizza was not a cop out for our lunch. The big house was big enough that we could all eat in in it between the two tables in the living room and the one on the deck. It was a great place for us to all hang out. 

Grandma Blood playing the ring swing thing game on the deck

Aaron and Stephen doing what uncles do best

A very short notice family picture

The bloodlings loved picking the firewheel flowers between the big house and the duplex

We were definitely spoiled by having Mimi and Grumpa around to watch our kids for us!

Stephen teaching Blood Rage to the next generation

It rained on the Fourth of July, which prevented us from going to the beach at low tide that day. Fortunately we could take shelter in the hot tub

A family across the street set off some fireworks in their driveway. Annie yelled "FIREWORKS ON" between every one. Hopefully they were amused instead of annoyed at the very enthusiastic audience across the street. 

It started raining again, so we did our sparklers under the duplex deck. Both my bloodlings were too scared to hold them. Elliot even ran away to the upper deck to get away from them.

Luckily, Grandma Blood brought some glow sticks for the younger kids. Elliot was thrilled until he realized Benjamin had a red one. Then he was dramatically devastated. It turns out that he has better cousins than he deserves. Brianna brokered a deal between Elliot and Benjamin. I could tell it was really hard for Benjamin to give up the awesome red glow stick, but he did it. 

The baby barricade to restrain Annie and Ethan from falling off the deck while we packed up the cars to head home. 

Tent Poles Optional

This blog post is dedicated to the Allsop's tent. They staked it down before realizing that they left their poles in Utah over a year earlier. Eric wanted to drive down the mountain to buy a new tent, which would have taken 2 hours. Alyssa and I came up with a genius plan threading a rope through the pole hole and tying it between two trees. We then put their two pack and plays on either side of the tent, giving them all the floor space they needed with enough head space for the adults to maneuver. They reported that it was hard to get Riley in and out of the pack and play to nurse at night, but I still think it was better than driving all the way down to buy a new one.  

An engineering marvel

We got up in time for a delicious couscous salad with bread and cheese spread for lunch provided by the Knells. We were originally planning on doing a hike after the post-lunch nap, but the Allsops needed to start their delicious stew, so we opted to wander around the campsite woods instead.

Bagel baby in the wild

We discovered water! Arizona kids are have such a low bar for stuff like this 😂

The coolest thing is that we found multiple hut things that someone had built. There were no nails, just very sturdy stacking.

Who built the mystery huts? Bigfoot?

Annie's enthusiasm for rock climbing is severely impeded by her lack of balance

Elliot has no such limitations

I'm so glad my kids love camping. They just love being outside

Elliot getting some more hut time in. We could see it from our campsite, so we let him enjoy hitting the hut with a rock for about an hour while we cooked dinner

Elliot was a very enthusiastic campfire helper. I am ashamed to say that I had to have Aaron help me get the fire going

How cute is this baby? Annie is OBSESSED with baby Riley. 

Dirty, happy kids

A very large portion of this camping trip was dedicated to preparing and consuming delicious food

The next day we hiked Marshall's Gulch, or as Elliot called it "Marshall's Gulp"

Elliot was super enthusiastic about the foliage