Hanging out at the Hanna's

My sister Katie and her 4 kids were also staying at my mom's house when we were there - so it was just a lot of fun and craziness.  Toys were always everywhere and kids were always running in and out of the doors.  We had all the kids ages 3 and up sleep on the floor in the living room.  Madison got her own room, Katie and the baby got their own room, and Me and Megan slept in our own room (Megan went back and forth between me and the "big kids").  However most nights Sam ended up with Katie in her bed as well.

 

My cousin Millie, lives down the street from my mom's house and is the same age as my kids.  Her and Megan have a lot of fun together.

 

My sister Ashley was the queen of the trip.  Instead of mailing the kids presents on their birthdays she deiced to take ALL of them shopping and let them pick out a present and take them for ice cream.  Isn't she wonderful?  My kids think she is like a rock star.  Because she basically is.

Noah of course got Legos, Madison got a Minnie Mouse you can dress up, Brock got a giant Sniper Rifle Nerf Gun, Megan got a Sophie the First dress-up dress, and Sam got Bey Blade tops.  (Brad and Audrey had to go another time).  2 months later these are still my kids favorite toys in the house.  They are  mostly thing I would have NEVER bought for them - but I guess that is what Aunts are for and apparently they know what they want and like more than I do.  (I hate Sophia the First and I thought the gun looked cheap - but it has turned out to be awesome!)

 

 

The kids had a few requests while staying a their grandparents house.  One was roast marshmallows.  Well, we were there for like 11 days and we never got around to it.  So on the morning we were leaving at 8:30 am my sweet dad lit a fire and roasted marshmallows with them.  If you know me know this was painful for me to watch - truth is I have gotten a little better about witnessing my children eating crap - but still - 8:30 in the morning!

 

Also they were taken to the dollar store about 4 times between both grandparents and telling them they could buy whatever (they came back from Utah SO SPOILED!).   The boys all got cap guns and bow and arrows. 

We also took an evening walk to buy snow cones.  (see the rain - out of the 16 days we were there about 9 of them were cold and rainy.  I hadn't planned on that and I wanted to pack as LITTLE AS POSSIBLE so I didn't bring any warm clothing.  My kids complained about being cold constantly - I kept telling myself it was good for their character.  Right?  Luckily I threw in jackets as we left the house.

 

Not pictured:  My mom took the boys (Brock 7, Noah 5, Brad 5, and Sam 3) to the new aquarium.  She went all by herself on a VERY crowded day.  She was set for failure for sure - Sam is a runner and Noah is the slowest human on earth - there is no way any 1 person could keep track of those 4 kids.  Well, she did, but came back completely exhausted.  Katie and I were amazed!

 

My best friend, Karli and her kids (my boys' best friend) were visiting her parents from Boise.  Our parents live just down the street from each other, but sadly our vacation's only overlapped one day.  So on our first day there we hung out at Karli's mom's house.  Karli just had her 5th baby and I hadn't seen him yet.  I was a little nervous because I thought seeing her new baby AND having it be her fifth, I thought it might make me want another one - and I do not want to want another one.  But, phew, it didn't.  Not that I would hate having another one - I just deeply feel like we are done, and I didn't want to be all confused.  It is nice when revelation is sustained in other times of your life.  He is a cute baby and Karli is, of course, rocking it.

 

Lots of bike rides and scooter rides to Willow Creek Park.  Jumping on the trap, swinging on swings, swimming in the hot tub, and of course, watching a lot of movies.

Wheeler Farm

Since this is probably my top 3 places to take my kids we went a few times. 

I love when all my kids are running in front of me - and I am just following behind them.  It makes me feel like they are having a happy childhood full of freedom.

 

We brought bread to feed the ducks - but sadly they were never interested.

 

I took my nephew, Sam, one day.  He was so cute and fun.  Sam can be really... shall we say... full of energy.  But his mom had talked to him about being obedient and calm, and he took it very seriously.   This boy did not pick up a stick or a rock or step on something with out asking me first if he could do it.  It was so funny.

Madison, Sam, Brock, Megan, Noah

 

We haven't found a place quite like this in Denver yet.  Some that have similar qualities - but Wheeler Farm just seems to have a little bit of everything. 

Great's house



I went to Utah with a list of things I wanted to do.  Most of them did not get done - but that is for another post.  But one thing on my list was to hang out at my grandma's house with the kids.  Well, that ended up happening like 5 times!  It was so wonderful.  My grandparents live on this large, secluded piece on land in Holladay Utah.  They built the house when they got married (my grandpa was actually born on the land), they have a hundred year old pear orchard.  It is wonderful.  My grandma has the most beautiful flower gardens all over her property (actually I suppose we should call them my grandpa's now since I am sure he does all the work - my grandma had double knee replacements this last winter/spring.

 

On our first Sunday in Utah we went to their house to hang out in the evening and have dessert.  Megan really wanted to make several flower bouquets.  My grandma pulled out the clipping sheers and all the cousins got in on it.

  

 

 

 

Another Sunday in Utah we went to my Grandma's house to have my nephew blessed.  It was Father's Day and several family members could not come to a blessing during church because of other commitments - so my sister Katie, decided to have him blessed  that evening.  It was a perfect blessing, and a perfect evening.  She has a darling family.

On another trip to "Great's" house we had an "out of school party" with all my cousins (I am one of the oldest of about 25 grandkids - so there are still several little kids.

 

At that party we also celebrated all of the kids' birthdays - since they don't get to celebrate with family in Denver.

and of course - icecream cones.

 

On another trip there we had Brooke's baby shower.  I am SO EXCTED for my little brother and his sweet wife to have their little baby girl.  I am so sad to be away for it.  They are going to be great parents and I am so proud of them for starting their family.

 

 

Going to Utah

I guess it is about time for it to be summer on my blog.  The day school got out me and the kids got in the car and headed to Utah.  Jason had to go to North Carolina for work for two weeks so I thought I should just head to Utah rather than stick around Denver. 

It was the BEST DRIVE EVER!!  We had just gone to Lake Powell about 4 weeks before and it was pretty bad.  Madison and Megan were very whiney and demanding.  When we got in the car I told them that I had to drive and couldn't help them and they would just have to make themselves happy.  It totally worked.  We were in commute for about 10 hours and not one child whined or screamed or teased or fought.  It was wonderful - and we only watched one movie.  They spent the majority of the time reading books or looking out the window.  I really encouraged the "looking out the window" thing this time around.  In our past trips I always had them watching movies during the most beautiful parts of the drive - so this time, since I knew the drive by now, I timed the movie better - from Grand Junction to Price there is NOTHING to look at - so that is when we watched our movie.  The kids loved watching the Colorado River and finding all the waterfalls and different kinds of rock faces and trees.  It was a lot of fun.

 

We stopped at our favorite rest stop on I-70.  It is called "No Name rest stop".  It is very beautiful and has a trail down to the Colorado River.  We ate lunch and went on a little hike.

 

I wasn't going to Utah for any particular reason - just to hang out.  My sister, who also moved to Las Vegas two weeks before we moved to Denver, was also coming to Utah for the same two weeks - so that worked out pretty well.  We started at my parents house in Sandy for about 5 days, then went to Mapleton to stay with Jason's parents for about 5 days, then back to Sandy for another 5 days, then is was supposed to be back to Mapleton for a few days but because of sicknesses we left early.  The next 10 or so post will be filling in the blanks to the above schedule.