Boating

As mentioned in a previous post, my parents bought a boat about a month after we moved to Denver.  So one of the days the whole family went up to Pine View to play on the beach and do some boating.

 

It was a beautiful day.  The kids loved the beach (the sand there is perfect).  They spent a lot of time perfecting their sand castles.

The beachers: my mom, Michael, and Katie.

 

My kids watch Brad and Audrey tube.

 

It took a lot of convincing to get Brock on the tube - but he finally did it (he does not love stuff like this).

 

All the grandkids. 

Sam, Noah, Brock, Brad, Audrey, Megan (holding Eddie), and Madison

Us.

 

Us Being silly

 

The boys

 

On the way home from boating we stopped by my friend Jess' house for a house "cooling" party.  They are our good friends from our collage days (they lived right under us in our apartment) they have decided to sell everything and travel the country in their airstream trailer.  They have 3 kids and Sam works from home.  They are amazing and not weird (as one might think).  This has been a great thing for their family.  Anyways, they had a going away party and we all got to come and take things from their house we wanted.  It was awesome.  It was sad to say good bye but I am so excited for them.  They have a great blog - if you are interested, check them out.  Currently Wandering  its even a cooler title because their last name is Curren :)

Downtown

So, I had a list as long as my arm of things I wanted to go do in Utah.  My plan was to go on at least one, if not two outings everyday.  I had about 20 people I wanted to see.  I had the whole  thing planned out.  Then 2 days into our vacation my children rebelled.  They did not want to go anywhere.  They just wanted to hang out at grandma's house with their cousins.  They didn't want to be in the car.  They didn't want to meet friends at outings.  They wanted to just be with me - or with their cousins.  I was crushed, heart broken, and devastated.  Seriously.  It sounds extreme - but I was looking forward to this vacation all year too.  There were things I REALLY wanted to do.  But they didn't.  After a day of trying to convince them I acquiesced.  We spent the next 7 days doing exactly what they wanted to do... nothing.  Well, nothing to me, but it was everything to them.  We played with cousins, took bike rides, went on short outings (less than 10 minutes in the car) and they got my full attention.  While it was fun, I felt our fun summer I had planned slipping away.  After the week of "nothing" I knew we HAD to go to temple square.  I (and they) would regret it when we got home if we didn't. 

 

They agreed.  And since we were going downtown they also agreed to go to Discovery Gateway (after all, I had gone out of my way to buy a pass to the Denver museum and get a Colorado drivers license so we could go to all of our favorite places for free - and we hadn't used it once).

 

 

So we spent one morning down town.  We left my mom's early.  We parked on the street above the conference center (because it is free) - walked down to the trax station, rode trax to Discovery Gateway, and then rode trax back to temple square, walked around temple square, and then walked back up the hill to the car.  We had done this trip several times when we lived in Utah, but this was the first time we did it with out a stroller.  I was a little nervous because it was A LOT of walking and A LOT of crossing busy intersections - but I felt we could do it.  They did awesome - no complaining, no running, always held hands through intersections, very obedient.  It was a glimpse into the next phase of my life - having all kids and no toddlers - it is a world I think I will like.

 

Discovery Gateway was as fun as always.

 

They had a new Bob the Builder exhibit.  Noah would have been in heaven 2 years ago.  It is sad when you realize your child has grown out of interests.  But... he still looks pretty happy.

Every time we have been to DG my kids have wanted to go in the hurricane machine.  But of course I have never been willing to pay the $2.00.  Well, some parents had paid for their 3 year old to do it and she started screaming, they took her out and told my kids they could go in and finish.  They were THRILLED and loved every minute of it.

 

Waiting for the train.  This is where I felt the most anxiety.  Noah likes to push every line - both literally and figuratively and that yellow line was more than he could bear.  In times past I have the girls buckled into the stroller and only have to worry about the boys.  We missed the train so we had to sit there for 15 minutes.  It was torture for all of us - Noah was going to have a mental break down if he had to stare at that line on more minute without crossing it.  It was like it was mocking him, just begging him to cross it.

As you can see he often had to at LEAST put his hand across.  He inevitably ended up in time-out in the middle of the island divider (thank heavens).

 

On the train.

 

Temple Square - my heaven on earth.  I remember going as a teenager and watching parents bring their children - I knew, even at 16, I wanted to bring my kids here a lot.  I am glad they love it as much as I do. 

All I wanted was a cute picture of the 5 of us.  It was more than they were able to give.  They are so selfish sometimes :)

 

I am glad out of all the things I wanted to go do this is the one we actually did.  I never did get to see most for my friends - I ended up having to choose and I guess it is never a bad thing to choose your kids. 

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.