Week of Fun: Day 2

Tuesday, July 31, we checked out In-N-Out for lunch.  There were a few in the bunch who hadn't tried it yet and for those who had...who could resist another chance for a burger there?  Somehow I managed to not get a single picture while we were there but here is one my Mom took of Beckham while we were eating.  With our big crew we opted to eat at the outdoor tables.  Delicious!

Our next stop on the agenda was to a Bounce House place for the kids.  It was $2 Tuesday so it was a perfect time to go.  The kids had a blast and came out super sweaty and absolutely dying of thirst.  The funniest thing was Beckham.  He was absolutely having a blast just jumping away and going from one bounce house to another.  Then one of the kids took him down one of the big slides and it all went downhill from there...literally.  From way up there on the top of that slide he spotted the most humongous,  gigantic, enormous, inflatable cowboy clown EVER!  And he was TERRIFIED of it!  Shaking with fear!  I couldn't even put him down.  He wouldn't go in another bounce house for anything.  And wherever we went he never, ever took his eyes off him.  It was kind of hilarious but sad at the same time.  At least he didn't notice him for the first half hour!  Funny boy!  I didn't get very many pictures of the kids here.  Way wrong lense for all the action and of course no one wanted to stop for a picture when they were having so much FUN!

 Claire

 Coen

 This is when Beckham first spotted the giant cowboy clown.  I can't believe I actually got a picture of the first sighting.  Ha, ha!

I tried putting him in a different bounce house and he was ok for about 5 seconds.  And then he saw the scary dude again and it was definitely over.

Week of Fun: Day 1

We planned a fun week of activities to do while everyone was together.  For the first day, July 30, we started with real Belgian waffles at Bruge's Waffles in downtown Salt Lake.  I was in heaven!  If you want a TRUE Belgian waffle exactly like they make them in Belgium all warm and caramelized with big sugar pearls inside then you must go here!  Heavenly!  The owner is from Belgium and he happened to be there that day and when he found out I had served a mission in Belgium he spoke only in French to me...and expected no less from me!  It was great!  I was very rusty but it does my soul good to hear that beautiful language spoken and to be able to speak it myself.  

After that deliciousness we moved on to our next activity...checking out the new City Creek Center across from Temple Square.  Wow!  It was amazing and really such a beautiful place just to be.  It was especially fun to be there with so many fun people.  However...by the end we were wondering what in the world we were thinking bringing 19 children there.  And the only adults were Mom, Heather, Amy, Kirsten, Levi, Dara and I.  Mike, Chad, and Ben had to work.  We were definitely questioning our sanity at the end of the day.  But it was fun to look around and check it out anyway.  Plus, nobody got lost and there were only a few wet children (the majority probably my own) who couldn't resist the little creek and the big water fountain.

 Part of the city creek which has been underground for years and years.  They brought some of it up to the surface when they built the new mall.

 My three sisters over to the right.  I never get to go shopping with these girls!

 Claire and Marlee

 A few of my kids and Ella enjoying the scenery.

 Water!

 Dara, Eleanora, and Levi

 Coen and Claire checking out the creek.

He just couldn't resist.

Trip to Utah

So the day after my dad came to visit, the kids and I packed up and left for our own adventure on July 27.  It was a kind of spur-of-the-moment decision to go.  I had heard earlier that my sister Heather and her family were going to be in Utah the end of July and beginning of August.  I hadn't seen her in so long and my kids hadn't seen their cousins in years!  Of course it would be so fun to see my mom, brother Ben, and my sister Amy and her family who all live in Utah, too!  It had been too long since we'd seem them, too!  I toyed with the idea off and on.  Talked myself into it and then quickly out of it so many times.  Finally the time was here and I just decided to be brave and do it!  The last time I took a trip to Utah from Texas all by myself with the kids was in July 2005 and my kids looked like this:

Me with Dallin-1 1/2 years old and Austin-3 1/2 years old in Utah at Uncle Levi's mission farewell.

Yes, indeed.  It's been awhile!  Now I have five kids to drive there all by myself.  And they're not all boys.  (Who happen to be the easiest to travel with, if I do say so myself.)  I was most worried about the restroom stops.  I even brought along an umbrella stroller to put Beckham in if I had to.  But it all worked out really good.  Every time we went there were hardly any people in the entire gas station and the boys were able to go together and then rotate with me and Claire.  We really only did one gas station bathroom stop on each leg of the journey.  Not bad!

First stop Colorado Springs!

We drove to Colorado Springs on our first stretch.  It is a twelve hour drive so that was plenty!  Tory's brother, Logan, and his wife Jamie were nice enough to let us stay the night with them.  Somehow the fact that we were ALL coming got lost in the conversation Tory had with Logan when he asked if we could stay with them.  So when we showed up they were surprised to see all the kids.  They thought it was just me.  But they had plenty of sleeping bags and we all stretched out for a good sleep...after jumping on the trampoline for a good hour at least.

Jumping on the trampoline with Evelyn

After sitting in the car for twelve hours, the kids were loving that!  The next morning while Logan made us a pancake breakfast, the kids jumped more with their cousin Evelyn, and Jamie and I and the two little ones went on a walk around the neighborhood with their dog. It was good to stretch our legs before we got back in the van for our next stretch across Wyoming and over to Utah.  I had to laugh as I was in Wyoming thinking that my Dad was in Texas and here I was up in his state at the exact time.  Crazy!

Lauren the birthday girl is in yellow.  My sister, Heather, (Lauren's mom) lights the candles as Jackson and Coen look on.

After a nine hour drive we got to Utah on July 28.  My mom called as we were getting closer and said they were all down in Draper at Amy's having a birthday celebration for Lauren so we headed down there first.  We arrived just in time for dinner.  We unloaded and as we were saying hello to everyone there stood my sister, Kirsten and her baby Summer!  What a surprise!  When she found out we were all going to be there she flew up, too!  Nobody knew but Mom so it was a great surprise!  And we finally got to meet the cute baby Summer that we just barely missed when we were in Arizona in May.

Kirsten and Summer
I didn't take this picture but it's so CUTE so I had to put it on here!

Sunday we all went to church together in Amy's ward because her husband Mike was speaking.  The kids all had fun figuring out which cousins they could go to class with.  Here are just a few pictures of some of the kids after church.  Impossible to get pictures of everyone!  There are 19 grandkids now!  Heather has six, I have five, Amy has six, Kirsten has one, and Levi has one!  What a crew!

Claire and Marlee making faces

Cute Girls.  They are only 6 weeks apart.  Claire had so much fun with Marlee.

Pretty Lauren and Hayley.

Some of the boys.  L-R: Andrew, Brandon, Austin, Clayton

Keira and Beckham

That night my brother Levi and his wife Dara and their cute baby girl Eleanora came down from Idaho for the week.  Yeah!  We finally got to meet baby Eleanora!  This trip was also our first time meeting Heather's baby Olivia who was now one year old and Amy's baby Lincoln who was almost one year old!  Cute baby cousins EVERYWHERE!

Three of the four new cousins:  Olivia, Eleanora, and Lincoln.  Summer is too tiny to stand by her big cousins.

At dinner that night we got down to business planning our week.  We wanted to make the most of each day making sure we got to do and see the things we all wanted, had plenty of play time for kids, and plenty of down time for us adults to all talk and have fun.  We came up with a great list and had a great week!  More posts coming with all of the fun activities!

Grandpa Comes to Visit

At the end of July my Dad had a meeting he had to go to at the Cowboys stadium here in Dallas.  He was going to be here for about 3 days but really busy each day.  He was at a convention to show his new invention the Jar Box.  I told him that if he was coming all the way down to Texas (from Wyoming) for the first time in 8 years...he had to come see us at least for a little while!  The last time he was down here was when he helped us move to Texas in August 2004!  Tory drove his truck with a trailer with half of our stuff, Tory's dad drove his truck with a trailer holding the rest of our stuff, and my dad drove my car with me, Austin, and baby Dallin.  So it's been awhile!

This was the first time he had seen our house (he unloaded us at our apartment in Irving.) so we gave him the "grand" tour.  Then the kids all got our their treasures and books and special things to show Grandpa Mac.  He brought some surprises for them and we all went to the back yard for him to demonstrate a new emergency/camping stove he brought us.  They had fun lighting fires and Grandpa taught them the proper way to light a match and all kinds of fire safety.  It was boiling hot outside but it was so fun to have him here.  He stayed for about 4 hours and then had to get back.  He needed to pick up a camera on his way out so we drove him to Best Buy where we left him.  It was sad to say goodbye.  I sure love my dad.  The only thing that made it a little easier was knowing we would be seeing him in just a couple weeks in Wyoming.

 Showing Grandpa their "stuff"

 Checking out Grandpa's surprises.

 In the back yard gathering kindling for the camp stove.

 Getting it started.

 Nice and compact!

Grandpa Mac and the kids.

 Beckham LOVED Grandpa Mac.

 He got a sliver and Grandpa got it out for him with his pocket knife.  CUTE!

Me and my Dad

Thanks for the wonderful visit, Dad!  Love you!

Upside Down

This crazy girl is always upside down.  She rarely watches the TV sitting.  She's always like this:

And when it's time for bed I always go to tuck her in and find her like this:

Crazy girl indeed!

Boots

Austin had a "scary" dream last night.  Scary to him but so funny to me.  I had to write it down:

He left for school and everything was normal.  When he got out of school everything was different.  All the people were gone, no one was walking around and it was like a ghost town.  He came into our house and was calling for his mom and dad.  Instead of his parents coming out of the room hundreds of boots came out.  They came from every single room.  And they were coming right at him.  He ran out of the house and everywhere he looked in all of Fort Worth he saw boots, boots, boots.  He ran and ran out to the country and thought he'd be safe but there were more boots out there...and they were riding horses!  He ran back to the city and all of the boots started swarming him.  He looked up and saw a giant boot as tall as a one-story house with sharp teeth.  The leather part of the boot and the sole opened up to be a big mouth.  The boots started pushing him towards the mouth of the giant boot.  And then he woke up....

So funny!  What made him dream of boots?  At least they fit in well the area.  Fort Worth and boots...they do go together.  Ha, ha, ha!  Kind of reminds me of a scary dream I had when I was a kid.  Instead of boots it was CRAYONS coming to get me!  Terrifying!  I still remember it all these years later.  :)

Earlier in the night at about 11:00 pm he came into my room and urgently whispered, "Mama!  You have to come here!  I need to show you something."  I asked him if he could just tell me and he said he needed to show me.  I was a little concerned.  Who knows what it could be.  Tory even followed us just in case I needed backup.  :)  I got to his room and he said, "Dallin is gone!  I can't find him anywhere!"  Now I was more worried.  I turned on the lights as he climbed back into his bed and covered up.  (He didn't seem very concerned anymore!)  I looked at Dallin's bed and he was right there curled up and sound asleep.  I said, "Austin, Dallin is right here in his bed."  His reply was, "Oh.  Well he wasn't there."  I looked again at Dallin all tangled up in his covers.  Yep, he had been there for awhile.  I don't think he was ever missing.  Crazy Austin!  Tory said, "Just wait.  Ask him in the morning about this and he'll never remember it."  Nope.  Not a single memory of it.  Ha!

Just a fun picture of Austin that I haven't posted yet.  Looks like he could be trying to get away from some wild boots don't you think?

Random Summer Pictures From July

Here are a few random pictures that I took of the kids this summer during the month of July.  We had a fun summer.  We played games, went to parks, checked out lots of splash pads, went swimming at our friend's house, went to the library...a lot, and the three big boys got to go to the special library programs each week where they saw magic shows, reptiles, music, etc.  All of the kids (and myself) also participated in the summer reading program where we earned all kinds of great prizes.  We did it at two libraries this year!  We got to eat at Chick-fil-A for free a couple times and even earned free tickets to the Fort Worth Museum  of Science!

Another hi-light of the month was getting to go to Hawaiian Falls with some friends of ours.  I don't have any pictures of it because I didn't want to worry about my camera getting stolen, but it was a blast!  Our friends had season passes and on the day they went they were able to each bring a friend for free so we all got in for free.  Our friends stayed for 4 hours and then we stayed 4 MORE hours!  I thought it would hard to watch all 5 kids by myself at a water park but it all went great.  Everyone but Beckham could go on the slides.  Beckham, Claire, and I spent a lot of time hanging out in the lazy river and the wave pool.  So fun!!  It was a fun month!

 A dog wandered into our backyard and the kids (mostly Dallin) built a house for it.  They were sad when it was time for the dog to go back to his own house.  I've said it before and I'll say it again...watch your dogs if you live around us!  If they happen to wander into our yard our kids are more than happy to adopt them. :)

Dallin playing Wizards 101...the "live" version.  These costumes were well thought out and apparently look very similar to the computer version.

 Tory and the boys building Lincoln Log towers.

 The finished "cabin".

 Austin playing in the backyard.

Mama and the boys making banana splits one afternoon.

Dallin went out to the garage and built this entire shelf all by himself one day!  No help at all!  He even painted it!

 He was very excited when Dada finally hung it up for him by his bunk bed.  Now he has the perfect place for his scriptures.  And this boy NEVER misses a night of reading his scriptures.  Ever since his baptism in January!  Such a good boy.

 Claire being silly outside.

Beckham and Claire

 Eating meals outside on the porch.

Playing Head Bandz

(Yes, this was the day after the 4th of July...tattoos still there.)

 It's always funny when the little kids are playing.  They're not very good at keeping secrets.