The Front Yard was Hit Hard

 

An acquaintance posted that she was re-doing her backyard and had a lot of river rock to give away for free if we came to haul it out. I hauled two loads in the back of my minivan to make this lovely dry creek. 

Another day, I took the kids for a morning walk with Felix in the baby carrier. We went out to the desert behind the neighborhood and stumbled upon a huge cholla cactus skeleton in great condition. I felt pretty cool lugging it home with a baby strapped to my back and a gaggle of kids with me. Between the rocks and the cactus decor, the front yard was looking better than ever!

So naturally, our mesquite tree had to split in half. We came home from Sunday dinner at Casa Johnson around 8:30pm to find that our tree had fallen and was completely blocking the road. Some neighbors were helpfully out with flashlights to stop people from driving into it on the dark street. Somehow, the tree avoided all houses and cars that it could have fallen on. It was super close to the cars on the far side of the road, and would have put a big ol' dent in Joanna and Rayne's cars if they were still there.  

Someone had already called the non-emergency police line to report that the road was blocked. By the time the police showed up, Aaron and some neighbors with a reciprocating saw had mostly cleared the road. The officer declined to help because it was already in good hands, but we still showed up in the local newspaper Public Safety Log!

Does it get more heartwarming than that?

 It's lucky that we weren't home when it happened because all of our vehicles would have been stuck in the garage until we got a tree service out to mulch it for us (Stephen's suggestion- we all have great mulched trees now!)

This seems like an appropriate place to log the fact that Aaron had a long, sweaty battle with a leaky hose bibb. Neither of us even knew the term "hose bibb" when this saga began- it's the fixture that you attach a garden hose to on the outside of the house- but now Aaron knows a whole lot about it because he systemically replaced most of the parts related to it one at a time before he finally filed a cut into a massively corroded vacuum breaker to remove it. The record should show that I attempted to persuade him to give up and hire a plumber at every step along the way, but he persevered and now it is finally drip-free! 

Pima County Fair

 Annie entered a rock art creation into the County Fair through her school, so naturally we went to find her rock and do some exploring!

The vision started out as a sheep, but then it turned into the cutest little bunny. I love wandering around the giant craft halls looking at all the exhibitions and always want to spend way more time looking at the 4H chickens and rabbits than the kids do.

This is very similar to the type of tractor Grumpa drove when he was 8 years old. He had to slip off the seat to reach the gear shift. 

The sea lion show was a highlight, especially since we watched it while eating overpriced ice cream that Grumpa bought for us! He said he has vivid memories of being at the fair as a kid and never having money to buy any of the treats, so it warms his heart to be able to splurge making memories for his grandkids. 

We also saw the parrot show, which was funny because half of the birds were being sassy and refused to do their tricks. Also a model train display that apparently took 60 volunteer hours to assemble. It's really amazing what people can put together!

Joanna & Rayne

 Joanna & Rayne moved in with us in January! They were in Sahuarita for a year while Joanna did a dietetics program and Rayne taught 7th grade social studies at Anza trail. They lived with Stephen & Claudia for half the year, then moved in with us after Breezy moved to Casa Johnson. It was fun having them around. Joanna had to travel for multi-week rotations in West Virginia and Utah, so we had a lot of quality Rayne time. We would watch shows with Joanna over video call and play board games with Rayne. 

After Joanna returned, we had a few weeks to do all the bucket list items before they left Arizona. Somehow, they aren't in ANY of the pictures I have, so here's some pictures of activities that you have to trust they did with us.

Camping at Chiricahua! It was crazy windy the next day as we hiked echo canyon grotto.

Seriously so windy

The Biosphere now has self guided tours on tablets you can check out or on a phone app. It's way better than how it was the last time we were there about 8 years ago! They have done a fair amount of upkeep on the area, which is great to see. 

Tumacaccori and Tubac. Mimi and Grumpa joined in most of our "be a tourist in your own town" efforts. It's so nice having them around!

I've been putting off going to the Titan Missile Museum until I could go with my dad. He modeled nuclear warfare scenarios as one of his first jobs, and I knew he would have great commentary. The experience did not disappoint!

Annie volunteered to be one of the two key-turners to fire the nukes in the simulation. She nailed it and destroyed a big part of the planet- and was so joyful doing it! Also note Joanna and Rayne's heads. They were not our imaginary friends.

Us by the real (retired and disarmed) Titan missile!

Aaron picked a new restaurant called Taco Giro for his birthday lunch thanks to a great recommendation from Rayne

He picked baklava with soft serve ice cream in lieu of cake. 

We checked out a place called Parker Canyon Lake for the first time. It was once again a freakishly windy day, so much so that I was unable to paddle the canoe we rented out of the dock area and ended up having to wade through the ankle deep shore mud. The heavier paddle boats did kind of ok, but the wind would start pushing the boat around if we stopped paddling. We put half the group on the boat, and half of us walked on the shore to a beachy spot to spend the afternoon... but we decided to bail pretty quickly because the wind was just too much. 

Good thing these peddlers are buff

We rediscovered the hidden gem that is the Desert Meadows Garden in Green Valley. I tried to recreate this classic picture of Elliot there, but Felix was not feeling it.

We were unsuccessful in our attempt to convert Joanna and Rayne to becoming Arizonans, but we had a great time trying!

Isaac at 5

Five-year-old Isaac is a fun kid. He has a lot of energy and a lot of heart. He has two main modes- jumping around with elbows and air punches flying wildly, or snuggling contently. He gives world famous Isaac hugs, and his favorite thing to do with me is to have me give him a "walking hug" where I walk around while we hug each other. 

Zicko in the Sycamore

 

This boy has a recurring problem with swimsuits. The pants never stay up, no matter how tightly we tie them. For some reason, athletic shorts seem to work way better. This is great because his butt is now covered, and because it's really cute when Isaac says "athletic pants."

Isaac's favorite person is Breezy. He adores her and will gladly snuggle up next to her indefinitely. He has to sit right next to her or preferably on her lap whenever we eat with her. 

He likes being outside. He frequently wanders to the backyard to play with his water pump or sticks. 

Sometimes he's a little too brave. He has no qualms about wandering off. He's slightly better at not bolting away from us these days.

Isaac earned an ice cream date by reading through the bob books! He was painfully slow and perpetually distracted but would also not let us stop. He was definitely the one who pushed to do it.

 

One of Isaac's defining character traits these days is that he hates dinner with a passion. The other meals are ok, but dinner he fights tooth and nail. He would much rather graze on cucumber peels all day. Snacks are life for this kid, and he spends a lot of energy trying to sneak snacks at forbidden times of the day. It's hard to tell if the snacks or the act of being sneaky is a bigger draw for him sometimes- he definitely has a mischievous streak!

He also loves raw green onion from the garden. It makes no sense- how can he enjoy eating THAT and then act like we're torturing him whenever his delicious pasta has sauce on it?

Isaac asks a lot of questions. It's not uncommon for him to say something like "Mom, search up a picture of the biggest marshmallow in the world." He's an out of the box thinker. One time we had a lesson about fasting and were talking about how we will encourage them to start fasting breakfast when they are baptized. Isaac pondered for a while and then said "I'm going to fast dinner. Every day. Then just have a bedtime snack." 

He loves building, especially with magna-tiles or tracks. He also likes most board games, even the ones where he has to be on someone's team. His favorites are Dungeon and Labyrinth. His screen time is usually spent watching one of his big siblings. 

He still likes mixing colors

He can kind of ride the pedal bike, but still prefers to cruise on his strider bike. 

Isaac is a really unique kid. He does his own thing and is generally happy doing it. He's a fun guy to have around!

Isaac's Shiny Party

 Isaac had a very specific requests for his birthday party: he wanted it to be based around the giant crab monster from the Moana song "Shiny." Specifically the portion when he becomes bioluminescent. He locked in this plan several months in advance and was unwavering about it.

Fortunately, Breezy was willing to take on the challenge of making a Tamatoa cake, complete with golden sprinkle treasures on his back. Isaac was thrilled. Isaac got to share his favorite foods with his friends: pizza, veggies, watermelon, cake, and rainbow sherbet. 

It was another windy day, so we had to use the pizza box to keep his candles lit long enough to blow them out!

I was pretty proud of this cardboard Maui hook. The original plan was to have a very unplanned party at the new splashpad, but then the opening was delayed. I ended up having more fun than I thought I would coming up with a Moana quest for the party at the park. 

First, I had them stick their heads under the water pump. I squirted water on them while saying "the ocean chose you!" They got a "Heart of Te Fiti" (thanks for painting those rocks, Breezy) and then went looking for Maui's hook. When they found it, they got to take turns holding it while doing animal charades. Then they had to crab walk like Tamatoa. The grand finale was when Elliot emerged with the Te Ka monster mask, lobbing "fireballs" at the kids while they climbed to the top of the big slide to return the heart of Te Fiti. The mask was double sided with Te Fiti and Te Ka, so the kids played "red light, green light" with it for a while. 

Isaac had a great time shining with his buddies!

Assorted Spring

 

These kids are totally normal and know how to eat food.

In March, I signed up the family for a free race called the FitKidz Mile. The kids got a free shirt, a real number to pin to it, and a family friendly race experience followed by a pancake breakfast. The kid's reactions to this activity perfectly captures their personalities. Elliot decided he did NOT want to participate. He was forced to come against his will, so he protested by leaving his shoes at home. We coerced him into participating anyways, so he walked half of the race barefoot (it was all on grass). The course was in the shape of a figure 8, so he got to the finish line after the first loop at the same time as other kids were finishing the whole race. Elliot is fiercely independent and does not like being forced to do things. 

Annie was on board from the moment we told her about the race and was enamored by the idea that she could win a real race. She ran with Aaron and gave it her all. She didn't come in first place, but I was impressed by her efforts!

Isaac ran with me with Felix in the stroller. He generally had no idea what was going on and did not at all care that we were in dead last place by a very wide margin. We took plenty of water breaks, and I had to remind him several times that we hadn't finished the race yet. We eventually got to the finish line, and he was so very proud of himself.

I'm always intrigued by a good foraging project. This one was desert sun teas. I put jars of water with mesquite flowers, palo verde flowers, and prickly pear flowers in the sun. None of them had a super strong flavor. My jar of water infused with mint from the garden was fairly yummy though. 

We spent a ton of time in the pool at Casa Johnson this year! Blake came to visit in April between semesters and was oh so happy to soak up some sun before returning to frigid Rexburg. 

There's always smoked meats and yummy sauces when Blake is around! We had many dinners in the backyard.

A favorite pool activity was standing on Grumpa's shoulders!

Aaron took the kids camping at Picacho Peak for the annual Priesthood Commemoration Campout. The report was that some people killed a snake and ate it. 

Annie used her own money to buy a boba tea book at the school book fair because she LOVES boba. This was a surprise to me, because she had only had boba once before in her life, more than a year earlier. She persuaded me to buy some tapioca starch so that we could follow the recipe ("What's the point in me spending my money to buy a book, if I can't even try the recipe, Mom!") The tapioca finally arrived, and a few days of constant nagging passed before I finally had time for the project. We went to go get the boba book... and couldn't find it anywhere. We seriously tore the whole house apart looking for it amidst many tears. I tried looking for recipes online instead, which was when I realized that boba is actually a super complicated multi-step process, and I had no idea what we were getting into. 

We persevered. I complained every step along the way, but Annie's enthusiasm carried us through the long, tedious process.

We found the boba book a week later. 

It was super nice having Mimi come with us to Fiesta Sahuarita! This event is bigger and bigger every year. Even with more rides, there were still long lines because so many people show up and because middle schoolers are shameless about cutting in line. 

Isaac's favorite was this climbing structure with a big slide. The rest of us liked the starship ride that spins to pin you to the wall with centripetal force. 

I subbed in Annie's primary activity group. We brought our cardboard construction kit and had a great time with it. 

We got really into watercolor painting for a while! This library book was awesome for giving step-by-step tutorials. We got some good crafternoons out of it. 

Easter Candles

This has hands down been the best Easter I have ever experienced. 

 I trace the beginning back to the start of the year when our southwest area presidency asked us to try to increase our observance of Easter in our homes and in all our auxiliaries. We had a special combined meeting to watch a broadcast about it. The fact that our Easter celebrations pale in comparison with the rest of the Christian community has always seemed like an unnecessary bummer to me, so I was happy to dive in. I bought a book called "Greater Love Hath No Man" by Eric Huntsman. One idea I got from the book was to make Easter candles to light while reading the scriptures or having family devotionals/activities during Holy Week. I bought some candles and was about to buy some wooden candlesticks to hold them when I remembered that Dad moved his woodshop across the country. I asked him to teach me how to make them myself. It ended up being an incredibly meaningful project to me. 

Getting started- Dad prepped some lovely Cherry wood for me. We sawed off the corners, then mounted it on the lathe and shaved it into a cylinder. 

Then it was time to start shaping! I based the design on the Amazon listing of the candlesticks I almost bought. Spinning wood on the lathe was incredibly satisfying. You know how at the beach you can feel like you are still bobbing in the waves as you fall asleep in bed? On days I spent a lot of time at the lathe, I would fall asleep to the feel of spinning wood. 

I gave a talk on Easter Sunday. I pulled some metaphors from my lathe experience into the talk. Each cut of the chisel shaves off a tiny spec of wood, but over time the continued effort created a beautiful shape in the rough hewn wood.

One of the candlesticks got a big crack running through it. Dad told me I could either fill it or leave it in and call it a design change. I thought about it for a while and decided that a crack, a visible brokenness, absolutely belongs in an Easter candlestick. It represents the breaking of the rocks and the veil in the temple when Christ was crucified, and the brokenness in each of us that Christ overcame through the atonement. 

Dad calls this the "rocket man" look. I learned quickly that sawdust filling my pockets and nose was to be prevented if possible.

Huge shout out to Dad for being a patient teacher and letting me spray sawdust all over his shop, and to Aaron for picking up the slack as I abandoned my other duties for many hours to make these. I LOVE how these turned out and will treasure them for the rest of my life. 

Here's our Easter display including the Easter candles, origami flowers by Elliot, a picture of Christ with children drawn by our Primary President Katrina Graham, and a "He is Risen" sign I made at a RS activity this year. 

The Primary did a "Finding Christ" scavenger hunt between sessions of General Conference. There are enough members on the few streets near me that we could have clues hidden in front yards within a few blocks. It was delightful- so many families from the ward were out walking and enjoying the great weather. We found the clues and then went to the Tressler's back yard, where a plushie Jesus that was gifted to the Primary by a recent convert was waiting with a book called "Celebrating a Christ-Centered Easter" by Emily Belle Freeman for each family. I love this book, and we used several of the days from it during our Holy Week celebration. Our ward activities committee also put together an awesome packet that we pulled some activities from. 

Here we got to light the first candle for Palm Sunday! 

I had cut some Palms from my parent's tree and told Annie we were going to act out the Triumphal Entry. I wasn't going to have one of us be Jesus, but Annie took it upon herself to make a costume for Isaac. He did a pretty good job of taking his role seriously as he rode our rocking elephant (closest thing we had to a donkey) through the streets of Jerusalem. 

Eventually I accrued a bigger palm that we could hang some stuff on over the course of the week.

I really liked our ward Easter party. Traditionally we have had a very informal potluck at the green space with an Easter Egg Hunt. The committee this year kept all that but added a spiritual element. Each auxiliary was given a portion of the Easter story and were told to get creative with how we wanted to present it for 10 minutes. Families rotated through the scenes. RS had Gethsemane. My mom volunteered to help us decorate and MAJORLY leveled us up! It truly looked like a garden at night. We had blankets on the floor for kids to sit on and chairs in the back. While the bible video of Christ in Gethsemane played on loop, we had Susan read some stitched together quotes. Then we had a sing-a-long of the song "Gethsemane" while I played guitar. It was very sweet, because most of the primary kids know all the words and were singing along with gusto.

The day before Easter, Aaron and I went to the Temple while my parents hung out with the kids. Later that day, Annie, Mimi, and I went to see a production of The Lamb of God. I had never seen it before, and it absolutely blew me away. I was crying for at least half of the 90 minute production. 

Here's the cutest dressed kids on Easter Morning. I love how tightly Isaac is holding onto Annie's arm. 

Elliot set up this Felix photoshoot all by himself, and Annie added the "Happy Easter" to it. 

I'm so grateful that because of the Easter miracle, I can be forgiven of my sins and be with my family forever!