BUILDING BL(ayl)OCKS: November, the beginning of the Holiday fun!

November is always a fun time of year. The happiness and excitement of holidays starts to creep into everyone's lives and it's contagious. It's easiest to combine our adventures in categories this time, friends, biking adventures, and Thanksgiving.

Surprisingly, M and I have been on very few dates since we had Jay. By the time we felt we could leave him, the pandemic hit and we've been quarantined ever since. The few times we we have gone out, Jay has only been watched by Nathan for two days (pre-pandemic arrangements for Jay-Care), or Grandma Blaylock for a quick 1 hour date that included a chiropractor visit when she visited from Colorado. Needless to say, leaving Jay for a date was a big deal. We got invited to go to an escape room in Downtown Denver for my friend Anna's birthday party. Grandma and Grandpa graciously agreed to watch Jay, so we headed out Friday evening after dinner. Jay started crying before we left, and later we learned cried for about 20 more minutes and continued to crawl around the house and to the front door to see where we had gone. The escape room was in this old house in Downtown that had been converted into a few different escape room games. I had just done a virtual escape room that week for work, so I was prepared! We had a fun time, and escaped in almost record-breaking time! I got into it more than M did, but it was so good to have him there. We enjoyed some cake at Anna’s apartment and watching a cute video her family made for her. Jay was asleep when we got to Grandma and Grandpa’s so we watched the rest of the BYU football game before taking him home.

Gustavo, Annie, M, Me, Anna, Anna's Friends

We had quite the social weekend, for not very social people, because Saturday night, Ms friends the McEntires came over for a game night. M grew up with them, actually got asked on his first date by Caitlin and Ben was one of his best friends. I enjoyed getting to know them! They taught us the most elaborate strategy game I have ever played. The entire time M and I were both asking for suggestions on what to do next or should we do this. The game took us 3 hours! I actually almost beat them, it was a close game and they don’t get many people who are willing to play that game with them so I think they enjoyed it.

Our third major social event was going to dinner at Rachel and Chris Jones’s house. M made the infamous chocolate cake to take with us, and we had a great visit. Almost as soon as we got there, Rachel grabbed Jay and I waited for an explosion…luckily it didn’t come for a few more minutes. Jay held it together until we set him down in his high chair to eat and we thought we forgot the pacifier…so instead of looking, we just survived the night without it. He did pretty well actually, we just had a few rough patches. Chris always grills steak as the main dish, but leading up to it, we had cheese and crackers and an amazing salad. We always eat well at their house.

We had to take advantage of the good weather and an off Friday, and we biked to Grandma and Grandpa’s house from our house. There is a dirt path along the Highline Canal that goes almost the entire way. We had an awesome time! The sun was shining, it was the perfect day. We surprised Grandpa enough that he thought we were salesman and was planning to not go to the door until Grandpa peeked through and saw it was us. We had a nice visit, got some water, and biked home. Jay fell asleep on the way home. It takes about 40 minutes at a somewhat decent pace to get there, we’ll certainly be doing it more when summer comes around! We also had Grandma and Grandpa over for dinner one evening, and we had a great time.

Grandpa just beat M, and he was super excited about it!

Thanksgiving in AZ, something we’ve been looking forward to all year long! We got great prices on airplane tickets, and arrived a few days before Thanksgiving. Oma and Papa came to get us, took us to In n’ Out and we ate at one of the childhood parks I remember going to as a kid in Mesa. We were certainly happy to arrive in Pima that afternoon, as it was a long travel day. Thankfully, Rachel took us to the airport so we didn’t have to pay for parking. We had so much fun! We were the only ones at Oma and Papa’s house for the first day or two, which allowed Jay to settle into his new surroundings without too much of a problem.

Waiting for our flight at DIA

Jay fell asleep with his hand on my arm on our way to Pima, it was so sweet.

Oma and I went to the grocery store on Tuesday morning to get everything we needed for Thanksgiving. She dropped me off at Thriftee to get a head start and there was this tall man wearing camouflage as I walked in that stared me down and said something like, “wow, you’re tall.” I laughed, as I usually do when people say that. I continued my shopping and when I was walking down an aisle, I looked up and this guy had returned and was walking towards me. He asked, “So, how tall are you? Like 6’5?” This guy was taller than me…anyways, “I said, 6 feet.” And, he said something like, “Oh, that’s all?” He turned away, then turned back as he was leaving and said, “You’re a tall drink of water.” I couldn’t believe my ears! I was ready to call Oma and tell her to find me ASAP and not to leave me alone again. So creepy! I was grateful he seemed to leave me alone after that, and I was selective on going down only aisle where there were other people. In other news, Papa got a 3D printer, and we had some fun. I was so excited when he printed me my own basketball hoop toy, it was awesome! We had fun assembling it and printing it. Another big project that I finished while I was at home was Oma's Christmas present. She wanted a birthday calendar so I made her one, using a little of her craft supplies to finish it up.

The hoop & live action shot

Papa and Tia

Oma showing Kylee and Tia how to sew some things.

The Calendar!

Meeting Hank!! Yay!!

The Merrill’s arrived first on Tuesday evening, then Jack and his family on Wednesday afternoon with Klaire, and then Curtis and the Black’s rolled in late Wednesday night. We actually got to meet Hank, the newest addition to the family! Seeing a newborn makes me nervous to have another kid, that stage is soooo hard. Hard for everyone, but especially the momma. Kara did a beautiful job with the reunion, she had activities planned and a lot of time to just play and talk too. The kiddos loved to play together, and Papa built them a fort out of our old calf pens that made it even more fun to be outside! In a year, Jay will be running along trying to keep up with all of them. The weather was absolutely perfect the entire time the family was there. Sunny, and about 60 degrees. Light jackets, or no jackets at all were needed. Thanksgiving day was a busy day of baking and dinner prep. We had two turkeys, plenty of gluten free goodness, and lots of pies. Katey even made Jack and me a little gluten free apple pie which was so yummy and a very special treat! In the afternoon after dinner, we played lawn games. Everyone went outside and we had a great time playing Kubb, another new lawn game with some things called skittles, and ladder ball. M and I were in charge of games that night for the adults, and M created his own version of Quiplash and we brought Family Feud along with us too. Family Feud was great, and there were some answers in Quiplash that almost made me cry I was laughing so hard. Such as, what is something awkward to stay to your friend when jumping on your trampoline? …answer, you sure jiggle. Haha! I think everyone almost cried with laughter, especially because it was Papa who wrote it.

Getting ready to build the legacy wall

Each of the kids shared about their names and the importance of them and who they were named after, with a picture.

Jay actually loved his hat, it was so cute!

Get in my belly! - Jay's first Thanksgiving

Kade making sure Jay has the food he needs to satisfy his hunger.

Indoor games, teaching SkipBo to the next generation.

Outside fun!

Ross playing Peek-a-Boo with Jay - so sweet!

Papa Ross & Jay

A busy kitchen for many cooks on Thanksgiving!

Family Feud - led by the best host M

Early Friday morning we went into town for family pictures. The photographer was there early and had every family photo taken, including the huge group, within 30 minutes. She did a great job and we were back for breakfast in now time. The kids didn’t even scream, definitely the best photo session in a long time for the Bryce family! In the afternoon we had a family history adventure. Kara had written all these different stories about various people, Grandpa Great, Oma, Papa, Papa Ross, Mama Fawn, and Grandma Great. We made flowers to take to Mama Fawn’s grave, played a little whiffle ball, learned how to set a table like Mama Fawn would want us to, did cheers like Oma, etc. It was very fun! M and I led the kids in games with tower building out of cups and a saran wrap ball full of doo-dads. We also had a winnie roast, which was so great. I ate so many s'mores! The kids acted out the Nativity scene, which was a great way to spend our evening before they went to bed.

Our little clan

The whole crew

The happy kids crew

The OG's

Oma & Papa

All the sibs

Jay, and me. Jay sporting Papa's sweater that used to keep me warm as a kiddo.

The grands! Kade, Abby, Ross, Tia, Betty Jane, Kylee, Roxy, Allen, Levi, and Jay

Tia (Mary), Allen (Joseph), Hank (Baby Jesus), and every other great characters utilizing old dance costumes, towels, and anything else that could be found.

Storytime with Oma is so much fun!

This is one of our smaller towers, but we had so much fun building!

Saturday morning the Merrill’s left so we didn’t have quite as much fun with a portion of the party missing, but the games continued. All the kids were so nice to Jay, and such great cousins. We enjoyed an afternoon game of whiffle ball, led by Curtis. If you hit it over the fence, you got a home run, but only once. It was a blast, and again, such great weather to be outside! In the evening we played How to Host a Murderer, facilitated by M. We’ve never done anything like that, but I think most people enjoyed it and had fun working through the mystery together.

Hank and Jay, look how much a baby grows in just 1 year, amazing!

Jay loved hanging with the boys, and they were so good to him

Storytime with Aunt Kara is also fun!

Sunday we enjoyed church in person, and dinner together. Eventually the Blacks and the Pollocks left, which quieted down the house a bit. Ross was so sad to leave, he started crying before they even left because he didn’t want to go home. I felt the same way, I didn’t want him to leave, he’s such a sweet boy. We played another round of Quiplash that night with a smaller group, and went to bed at a fairly decent time.

Little copycat

More Oma storytime

Jack and his family left Monday morning, and the fun came to a slow close. I was grateful to be able to stay, and I worked some slightly shorter days. We flew home on Wednesday, after a seemingly short visit. We had such a great time! Jay slept the last 20 minutes of the flight, and then continued to sleep through the transfer into a carseat, into Grandpa's car, and all the way home.

Jay loves being with Papa

Jay with the Thankful Turkey, He enjoyed plucking the feathers after the cousins went home.

He found the window!

FINALLY sleeping.

Jay loved the bags, and tried to keep me from unpacking ;)

Last, but certainly not least, I started a new job! I’m on the Talent and Organizational Development team now, a team I have actually always felt did really cool work. I am excited to have an assigned client now and be able to leverage my past experience as a business partner and leadership development in this new role. I also received an unexpected promotion with the role, and feel so blessed! The Lord is really watching out for us, and continues to bless us.

Back in the office, a tiring long day...it takes a lot of energy to be there.

I did a special coaching workshop for a group called HOLA, they sent me these Hispanic goodies as a Thank You! M was super excited about those spoons you see in the middle.

Jay also turned 11 months. He loves crawling into small places and standing everywhere. He's started to be a little bit more concerned about strangers, but is generally still such a happy baby!