Mary and Michael found an awesome rental house in Payson, AZ. We were glad to mooch off their planning and enjoy a little fall getaway with cousins! It was about a 3 hour drive for us, ending with a grocery stop that including picking out a birthday cake and ice cream for Annie!
We pulled in to find the cousins going bonkers over the awesome tree house in the yard.We managed to drag everyone inside to eat some delicious ribs that Michael had smoked at 3 am that morning- the benefits of insomnia! After that, we whipped out the cake and ice cream.
Some happy cake eaters
Opening her new drawing pad
Mimi sent her an adorable backpack!
Elliot with Annie's new drawing pad in the cousin bunk room
Annie had a rough night. She woke up around 3am. Normally she would just cry a little and then fall back asleep, but since her crib was in our room she saw us and it was game over. We couldn't let her scream it out since we were right next to the room with all the kids, so we got to spend the next hour convincing her to try to sleep in our bed with us. Eventually I went downstairs to sleep on the couch, and Aaron got her to sleep pretty soon after that. The next night we stuffed her crib in the bathroom and it worked out much better for everyone.
Not at all remorseful for her nighttime shenanigans and ready to take on the day!
She wasted no time getting her backpack back on
Then it was outside to play in the yard!
They have these neat swings all over the place
These two needed some persuading to try the zipline, but both quickly became masters
All the kids (and Aaron and me, naturally) loved the zipline, but Andrew was definitely the most bold. He would hold onto the top bar with just his hands while someone else sat on the seat.
We were planning on hiking to this neat bridge, but luckily the night before Michael figured out that some big race was happening there and we wouldn't be able to get in. After a considerable amount of review reading, we decided to hike the water wheel even despite the warnings that our shoes might get wet. It was perfect for our group- completely beautiful and with some rock scrambles and stream jumps that made it feel like a real adventure.
We got to watch some brave soul jump into the freezing water by the waterfall- the perfect entertainment to reward us for reaching the end of the trail!
Tarantula just meandering along the trail. This was our first up close encounter with one in the wild since moving to Arizona. Eck.
Kudos to Mary for finding such a neat spot to stay!
Annie is just the sweetest girl imaginable. She is as loving, affectionate, and delightful as can be. She legitimately enjoys sharing. If Elliot ever tries to grab something from her she will fight back, but if he stops grabbing and asks for a turn, she will always give it to him. When she gets a drink of water, she will frequently hunt down Elliot to see if he wants a turn taking a drink next. This morning at breakfast she kept saying "I happy!" And don't even get me started on her hugs. Also of note is that she has mastered the art of teasing her big brother. It is pretty easy- she just needs to say the opposite of whatever he says.
"Annie, isn't this food yummy?"
*with a wicked glint in her eye* "No. Yucky"
"NO ANNIE YOU ARE WRONG IT IS YUMMY"
"No. Yucky." *Laughs hysterically while eating the clearly not yucky food*
The best wild child picture of all time
She LOVES the water and calls swim suits "Swimmin' Soup." So she will go around the house yelling "SOUP" when we are getting ready to go to the pool.
Why hello to you too
Rocking the beanbag song at library story time
"Helping" me work. Her secretarial skills could be better.
She spends a LOT of time on the island helping me cook. She can push a chair over from the kitchen table to climb up all by herself.
Naked rain dance
A dead beetle that she named "buggy" and carried around for a weirdly long time
This girl LOVES blueberry yogurt.
Meet Yellow Crabby, the prize she got from the dentist and then loyally carried around clenched in her fist for weeks. She loved it and slept with it even as it lost more and more legs. Yellow Crabby was eventually joined by Yellow Lizard which we found on the stage during volleyball.
Even though we don't have kids in school yet and can still pretty much travel whenever we want, we still seem to end up doing more adventuring in the summer. Some of that is probably because it is too hot to do our normal activities, so we get creative. One thing we will need to do again is visit Phoenix's incredible children's museum with Mary.
The gold standard of play structures
Apparently on Saturdays they have special foam messes for kids to go wild in. Annie got to go during the designated toddler time. We decided to skip it for the big kids because we didn't have towels or swim suits and there was PLENTY of other activities to keep them busy.
They had these neat face paint crayons by some mirrors
Cousin crew- Benjamin, Andrew, Elliot, and Ally
Elliot was WAY into coloring this summer. He spent up to 3 hours a day churning out art that he taped at eye level around his whole room. We have since added a second row
Elliot did two rounds of swim lessons- one through Rancho Sahuarita and one with Kate Brady from the ward. He went from freaking out at the thought of blowing bubbles to being able to doggie paddle if there is a noodle under his armpits.
Annie and I did a "Mommy and Me" swim class that I thoroughly regret.
Annie LOVES the water, but for some reason screamed through most of the classes.
Elliot's first talk. He was very focused on picking marker colors for me to use as we wrote it together, then he wrote "I <3 Mom" all over the margins for decoration
We had to spend an unfortunate amount of time playing with the mysteriously sticky toys at the mechanic
Our first exposure to Bookmans! How cool is this book throne?!?
Elliot did a free "Be Well" day camp at the clubhouse that included a field trip on a real school bus! He was more excited about that then the museum of miniatures that they went to
Elliot teaching Annie how to give me a foot massage. #momwin
Aaron spent an afternoon reliving his childhood by making stop motion lego movies
We revamped our worm bin! Elliot still refers to them as pets and enjoys tossing them a banana peel every few weeks.
We ordered 100 live worms on Amazon. The fact that we can do that baffles and delights me.
This sweet potato went crazy in the pantry while we were in Seattle!
Elliot is going through a phase where he wants to color for about 2 hours a day
We have finally figured out how to efficiently make prickly pear jam! It is all about freezing the fruit and let it thaw on top of coffee filters so that we collect filtered juice with minimal interaction with spines.
Making cactus fruit jam makes me feel like a rugged homesteader
Glad to have prickly pear ice cubes for our smoothies again!
Elliot showing Annie all the pictures in a book
Aaron took Elliot out for ice cream. He said it took him 0.5 seconds to choose the most colorful flavor they had. Never have his eyebrows been higher...
Except maybe in this picture with this lovely dead Giant Mesquite Bug.
