The Hanna's came!!!

My little brother has 4 adorable young children.  He sent me a text in February saying "I am coming to denver for a week in June, hopefully I can come have dinner one night"  I asked him where he was staying and it was at a really nice hotel/resort.  I told him to drive out with his whole family, drop his kids at my house, and then take Angie with him to the resort.  They didn't really believe that I would want them to do that.  But I really did!  After some convincing that it would make me SO happy, they finally agreed.  My husband and teenagers also thought I was crazy.  Why would I want 4 more young kids?  It's like they don't know me at all!  6 kids under 8!  It was like i was getting back my teenagers to the age where they liked going on outings with me!  I said to them, "Every day they are going to say, "what are WE going to do?" and then I will say, "we are going swimming, or hiking, or to the park." and they will say, "yay" and then we will go and they will love it."  And I was right.  It was one of the best weeks of the summer (that we were home).  I had 6 kids who loved spending time with me and going fun places.  They were awesome and so much fun and Dane and Eve loved it.  I hope they let me do it every year.

Within 5 minutes of arriving they were in full dress up.

Even though we did go on outings every day they had so much fun playing at the house.  I actually got so much more done than normal because they all just played together.

Lottie and Eve are just a few months apart and they were so cute together.

One day we went to the park.

They came with us to a soccer camp.

AND I even took them to an eye appointment for Eve.  It was a quick one to just fit her glasses, and they did so good.  I am sure I looked like a circus to everyone.  

Another day we went to Bellview park.  Ben didn't come because he needed a nap and since my teens were home they could stay at the house with him.

It was heavenly.  My version of heaven is this.  Outdoors, beauty, some water, and kids playing happily in the water, sand, and mud.  

Train ride

Another day we went swimming.  We made popcorn for a snack to take with us.  They hadn't seen an air popper before and were enamored

I loved having my line of helpers!

k - remember how I said it was great and that I got so much done.  That was mostly true.  This 2 year old gave me a run for my money.  I was not prepared for how hard he was going to be for me.  I had done 2 year olds 6 times - what didn't I know?  Well... Ben is a different kind of 2 year old.  He is so cute and sweet but he was not like any of MY 2 year olds.  He was into everything.  I couldn't put something high enough so he wouldn't get it.  To be honest it drove. me. crazy!!  When Jason saw me taking all 6 of them swimming he asked me if I was going with someone to help me.  I said, "rude!"  "you think I need help?  You know I have 6 kids, I don't need help".  I guess I needed to be humbled, because in literally the first 30 seconds of getting to the pool I lost Ben.  I KNEW he wasn't in the pool but a quick search yielded no results.  I AM experienced enough, however, to know just what to do.  I immediately got help from the life guards and we spread out searching - assigning one life guard to stay with the other kids.  Within 2 minutes he was found - he seemed to be purposefully hiding behind something.  Again, never had a 2 year old hide from me on purpose.  The rest of the swimming trip went off without a hitch, as I understood my assignment and not loose track of Ben!  

 

Having 5 kids between 4-8 meant that I spent about 80% of my pool time putting on and off goggles, life jackets, swim shirts, and other things.  However, between Ben and all the goggle chaos I forgot to reapply sunscreen and they all got burnt!  So much for the amazing week at aunt Jamie's!  The girls spent their last night in tears and went home very sad about their sun burn.

Dane and Ben did spend 45 minutes throwing the football back and forth.  It was so good for BOTH of them.  Dane loved it as much as Ben did.

We had Brock's friend, Cameron (a life guard there) bring us pizza for lunch!

 I guess that is my last picture.  I was so mad I never took a picture of all of them sleeping together in Dane and Eve's room (Ben slept in Noah's room in a pack and play and Noah slept in Brock's room because Brock was at FSY).  It was a fun little time travel vacation for me to be doing so many "young kid" things again for so many.  All the buckling into the car, the putting shoes on, the doing of hair, the snacks and drinks of water, prepping all of their meals in bulk on the counter and then serving them around the table.  It was nice.  But I am woman enough to admit that I was tired by the end of it all and ready to back to my "normal" life.  But I would do it again in a heart beat.  

FSY and North Pole

It wasn't our stakes year for FSY but it being Brock's last chance to go to FSY and Megan's first chance the three older kids asked to go to FSY on their "off year".  We also decided to have their cousin, Aaron, come from Florida to go with them.  After much discussion it was decided that they would go to BYU for FSY.  Unfortunately the only week we could get them all in was the same week as Brock's soccer camp, so Brock decided to go to FSY by himself down in Colorado Springs.  

While taking him down there I noticed he hadn't shaved - and being the good mother that I am I stopped at target and bought him an electric shaver and had him shave in the car.

Since Colorado Springs was over an hour away and we were going on a Monday morning I wasn't wanting to leave Dane and Eve all morning/afternoon so I brought them with us.  It was actually so fun.  They were so excited to take Brock to FSY and drop him off at a college.  They wanted to help him carry all his stuff.  

And he did have a lot of stuff.

He is so cute!  He had a great time.  With in 3 hours of dropping him off he text me saying "Thank you so much for letting me come here alone, I am never leaving".  That is exactly what a mom wants to hear from her son at FSY!

After we dropped him off we decided to capitalize on the fact that we were already down in Colorado Springs and I took Dane and Eve to the North Pole Amusement Park.  We took the older 4 a few years after we moved here and they loved it.  I was SO EXCITED to take them.  My theme for the summer with Dane and Eve was to see them as big kids rather than "babies" or "toddlers" because they are neither and I needed to change the way I saw them.  I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to enjoy them in a new way.

It was great.  They absolutely loved it and they were so fun.  I mean look at their smiles!

But then.. reality did actually catch up with us and they were too small to go on the "big" rides by themselves, I had to go.  "that's fine", I thought.  "I love roller coasters and it will be fun to be with them and experience it with them."  What I didn't calculate was that I hadn't been on a roller coaster in 8 years and I am almost 40.  I got unbelievably sick.  But I wasn't going to ruin this for them, I was going to tough it out and stay the fun mom and get through the day.

So we kept going.

I mean... who wouldn't?  Look how much fun they are having!

We took a break and went to a magic show.  

And saw Santa on vacation.

We then went on the ferris wheel.  Fun fact this is the tallest ferris wheel in the world - well highest - highest by elevation.  The views were beautiful. 

Seriously it was so fun.  They were so adorable.  

but I was going down hill fast, but I just could not admit that I was an "old mom".  I had so many wonderful memories taking my other kids to amusement parks and riding roller coaster with them.  I wanted to be able to be the same mom to Dane and Eve, they deserve a fun, young mom.

But they also deserve an alive mom and to not be abandoned in Colorado Springs.  We got off of a ride and I knew I was in trouble.  Everything kept spinning and my peripheral vision was getting very blurry and even dark.  My head was pounding and I was sweating profusely.  I needed to lay down quick.  I found a bit of shade (it was about 100 degrees as well).  I laid down and closed my eyes.  I guess the workers noticed me, and got concerned.  A few came and check on me, I assured them that I was fine, but I continued to lay there.  I couldn't get up, I knew if I did  i would pass out.  After about 15 minutes the owner of the park showed up with a cold towel, water, and medicine.  It was embarrassing, but needed.  

Dane and Eve were great and waited with me.  We went in a restaurant where there was some air conditioning and got some snow cones. Which they obviously hated. :)  

Afterwards I still wasn't feeling good enough to be "normal" so we went to the magic show again.

which ended up being great because Eve got called on the be the volunteer, which she loved.

I never really recovered and never felt "normal" - even for about 24 hours.  Luckily it was pretty much the end of the day and I sat in the shade and watched as they rode the kiddie rides.  I honestly felt like I was going to die at any moment.  I did give the owner Jason's phone number (he followed us around until we left) in case I passed out or something happened.  (we hand't left yet because I knew I couldn't drive the hour long drive home - plus we were up in the mountains and I had to drive down the canyon.)  After we did leave we stopped at chick-fil-a for dinner.  Then I did drive home.  

Despite my "episode" it was a great day.  One of my favorites.