Monster Dust

Rand learned about magic sand that can protect you from monsters. You just sprinkle it around your yard and it keeps you safe. We made Cookie Monster dust to keep the blue goon from stealing our cookies, Grinch dust to protect our presents next Christmas, and Cupid dust, because "I don't want that weird baby guy shooting me with a love arrow. That's just gross."

Later he asked what color of sand would keep the popcorn monster away from our movie night, and I (foolishly) responded with yellow.

Obviously I didn't think that one through.

 

The Phoenix Trip

We took a quick weekend trip to Phoenix to make all of Tukker's dreams come true. For Christmas 2019 his big gift was tickets to an NFL game. Then Covid hit and everything shut down and it never happened. We finally paid up a few weeks ago, so we took the whole family down to stay with Malea so we could take him to a Cardinal's game. 

The trip was supposed to be for Tukk, but I think all of Rand's dreams came true that weekend, too. He gets along so well with Malea's two boys, Maverick and Luca, and the three of them when hard all. weekend.

We took them to the ninja park and they played their guts out. Then came home and ran around some more. Then played outside. Then chased Caulder around. Then chased Tukker around. They were running for 3 days straight.

Sunday was the big game. Tukk was grinning the entire time. He just kept saying, "This is so exciting. This is so exciting." The only bummer was that Darby was diagnosed with Covid just before the trip, so she wasn't able to come with us. Boo for Covid!

Of course, our first stop was at a gift shop so he could get a jersey and a football. We also fed him a cheeseburger and treats. The game was really close and super fun to watch. The Cardinal's ended up losing, but it was still really fun. Plus we had the bonus of having not one but THREE people in our section get kicked out for being too drunk. The last guy dropped his pants when the other team scored, and was then completely baffled about how belts work. Bless his drunk heart. Security barely got him out of there without letting him fall down the stairs. Yikes.

Tukk loved it and is already saving up to buy tickets so he can go to a 49ers game with Darbs.

While we were at the game Malea took all the little boys to a trampoline place with a parkour park, so Rand was in heaven. Caulder stayed home and played her piano. It was kind of a boring trip for him, but he was a good sport about it.

Flights filled up, so we didn't get to head home Monday like we planned. Instead, we hit up another park and let the boys burn off some energy. We also went to this place that had THE BEST fresh-squeezed orange juice. It was so good. Cole's favorite part of the trip was being able to go out in Malea's backyard and pick an orange right off her tree. It was pretty magical.

We ended up taking the super early Tuesday morning flight home. Rand stayed awake the whole flight and the whole ride home, but at about 1:00 that afternoon it finally caught up with him. He zonked out.

It was such a fun trip. We can't wait to go back!

 

There Is No Fear in This New Year

 We spent New Year's Day binge-watching the newest season of Cobra Kai. 

It was probably our best New Year's ever. 

#CobraKaiNeverDies #johnnylawrenceforpresident

New Year's Eve

We went sledding that morning, then spent the evening in Mona at Kaleb and Christy's house, stuffing our faces with delicious food and celebrating Malea's 4th birthday. Cole had to work, and Caulder was at a party with his friends, but Tukk, Rand and I had fun ringing in the New Year together!

 

December 2021

We tried to pack a lot of fun into December, but it always seems like it goes so fast!

We made pancake art, decorated One Tree with lights, Rand got a giant advent calendar with Marvel books from Yaya and loved opening one every day, Caulder made us fancy nachos with homemade queso AND homemade taco sauce (they are sooooo good). 

We went to Caulder's Christmas choir performance. It was bittersweet. We were supposed to be in London with him for his 16th birthday trip seeing the band Cavetown, but the new variant of Covid, Omicron, broke out, and travel rules were insane. All sorts of Covid testing and quarantining and stress just made it impossible. The new restrictions started December 6, and we were supposed to leave December 7. Sigh...

Besides pouting about London, we also hiked up on the trails to take a pic of our Christmas tree through the living room windows at night, finally got a really good snowstorm (so we spent dayssss shoveling ourselves out and finally had to enlist the skid steer for snow removal), and Cole and Rand built a snow cave.  

 

Moab - November 2021

Cole took another boys' trip to Moab last November on the T-dubs. This is the only 2-wheeled vehicle he is currently authorized to ride. If he shows us he can be responsible maybe - *maybe* - he can graduate back to a road bike.

 

Wild Wyoming

This was from last August! Somehow it was sitting unpublished in my blog list and I just noticed. 

Just before school started up again we made a trip to Wyoming to help the Collards paint the exterior of their beautiful new home. 

It is tall.

When we weren't working on the house (or working comfortably on our laptop at Darrin and Jenn's lovely kitchen counter, for those of us who are too lazy for physical labor), we were playing.

We went to a rodeo in Afton. Tukk's been asking to go to a rodeo all summer, so it was fun to finally make it happen.

We also thought it would be a good idea to take a nice, easy bike ride while we were up there. The doctor cleared Cole for all activity about a week before we headed up. His one stipulation? Don't wreck on your mountain bike.

How's that for foreshadowing?

The trail was beautiful.

Deceptively beautiful. It sucked. Royally. Super rocky and technical and way above our pay grade.

We made it maybe a mile before deciding we'd better turn around. 

We were soooooo close to being back to the truck when Rand came zipping up behind me in a panic. "I think Dad just crashed and I'm scared!"

Those are not the words you want to hear about your hubby who is still recovering from a freak motorcycle accident.

I hurried back to find his back lying on the edge of the trail. Cole was nowhere in site. Then I looked waaaaaaaay down at the bottom of the 20-foot cliff on the side of the trail. See that helmeted head down there? Yup. We have no idea what happened, but Cole ended up going over his handlebars on the one section of the trail that dropped straight off to the river.

He flew. And flew. And flew. And finally slammed into the ground, then rolled into the willows at the side of the river. Otherwise he would've been in the drink.

Somehow he managed to NOT rebreak his collarbone, so we're very happy about that. His ribs weren't so lucky. He must've rebruised them, because they were killing him. He also had some sweet scratches.

I told him we're buying him a trike. Caulder suggested he get a pinball machine and give up on living an active lifestyle altogether.

The wreck happened on our last night in Wyoming, so we decided to drown our sorrows in carnival treats at the Afton fair.

Rand was so amped the whole night. He LOVED it. He was definitely living his best life. 

Tukk went on all the big rides. Caulder told us not to worry about buying him a wristband for the rides. Then used math to wow and confuse us into buying him street tacos, because "even if we bought him 3 platefuls, we'd still be saving money."

Is there any better use for math skills than to convince your parents to buy you street tacos?

Cole also got to come home from Wyoming with a really cool souvenir.

I'm telling you. Big Wheels only for this guy from now on. 
 

Christmas 2021

Christmas was amazing this year. The kids were so excited, and it's still so magical for Rand. We love it!

We opened our books and chocolate on Christmas Eve, watched the Nativity movie, then got in our jammies and got Santa and the reindeer's snacks all set up.

Rand was so nervous about getting everyone to bed to make sure Santa didn't have to skip our house. Cole and I heard some noises around 1 in the morning, so we snuck out to see if the big man had been there yet. We found a pile of presents and full stockings just waiting for the morning.

We left my watch with Tukk (he doesn't have a clock in his room) so he could check the time before waking everyone up. We made some serious threats about him coming in any earlier than 7:00 am. He came marching into our room at 7:00:01, demanding that we all wake up because he just couldn't wait anymore.

After we woke Caulder and Rand up we headed for the big reveal, and the boys got busy opening everything.

Tukk's big presents were a phone and an RC excavator, Caulder's was an iPad (he was so surprised - it was awesome!), and Rand got a castle tent bed, a toy castle, and a bunch of toys.

Aftermath pics: my favorite.

Dissecting his slime toad.

The sexiest present of the year.

We spent the day with the Johnsons, then came home for movie night in the castle tent bed. Rand was so excited.