This may be my most emotional blog post. The kids and I visited our old stomping grounds in the middle of January thanks to a super awesome deal on flights. We wanted to make the most of our trip, so we went for a week and a half and had a super fun time! There was only one bad thing that happened on the trip, and it happened right out of the gate (literally)...we had to fly on the UO plane! I was not the only one to notice this problem, and the kids (especially Olivia) were quite vocal in their distaste. O walked up the aisle to our seat yelling 'yucky ducks, yucky ducks!). I'm sure most of these Bay Area residents had no idea what she was talking about, but I was proud nonetheless.
The flight was relatively uneventful, or as uneventful as it can be with 3 kids under 5 and 20 weeks pregnant :). The biggest challenge was holding Makenzie on my lap - which is getting significantly smaller - and holding a drink when the tray table just wouldn't fit. The kids were on the other side of the aisle watching a movie on the iPad, and they did great. We always receive many compliments from people when we leave with so many kids, and I really am proud of my kids for being able to miss nap times and other routine meals and such to do travel days. They are always flexible and enjoy the extra treats that appear during crazy travelling.
One of my favorite parts of getting together with family is game night. My family grew up playing board games often and totally loving it. Competition *might* be a good driving factor for these nights, but I love finding a new fun game. I was happy to play with Amber and Dan a couple times while we were in town.
Getting 7 kids under 12 around is always an adventure, and Amber and I can't just settle for the easy way out when the alternative is more time together, so we took all the kids that aren't in school yet (4 under 6) to Walmart for a quick but efficient grocery gathering trip. Teag was SO excited about his birthday party that weekend, it was hilarious to see him take such good care of this Spiderman pinata.
Apparently I only have blurry pictures of the newest addition to the Grover household...Jovie the kitten! All of the kids were quite taken with this sweet kitty, and I (a hard sell for any animal) was caught more than once cuddling her on the couch as well.
What happens when Mom is having too much fun chatting in the kitchen to pay attention to the kids eating? The 1 year old gets to fend for herself with her yogurt! She didn't mind too much :)
The next day Elli stayed home from school to play and we decided to take all the kids to play at the mall play place. Naturally we can't refrain from adding crazy, so we also took them all into Sephora to ask some professionals about some makeup options. We knew ahead of time that this would be a challenge (so many awful possibilities bringing any child into a makeup store...multiplied by 5) so we busted out the electronics (count them.. 3 iPads, 1 iPad mini, and 1 baby pretend tablet) and let them sit in the aisle while we walked around with the salesman. It worked beautifully, even if we were 'those' moms!
This may have been the happiest moment of navigating the mall. The playplace was fun, but getting to and from was a battle for who would lead the line, who would push the stroller, who was tired, who needed a drink...the list goes on and on. Regardless, we got there and had another sister adventure!
Cute kids enjoying the snow
'Snow angels...' This is where Amber shoveled the snow onto the lawn, and there was only barely enough to lay down in
Yuck...
Working hard shoveling the sidewalk. There was a lot more snow on the driveway and sidewalk than anywhere else.
That was a good day for inside adventures and games in jammies. Amber found this super fun search-and-find animal puzzle, that was fun to complete and even more fun to watch the kids use the magnifying glasses!
On Saturday we got to watch Kade play in his first basketball game for the season. Our girls had matching sweatshirts, which made them almost as happy as it made us. As you can see, Teag knows that it is his special day and he gets to be featured in every picture :).
I know where Elli gets her selfie taking skills...this is about what every one Amber and I take looks like. She even has the triple chin that is a lot harder for her to get than it is for us.
The kids were interested in the game...just now for as long as the game was going :)
After the game, we went home to get read for Teag's 5th birthday party. My kids were SO excited to get an invitation in the mail at Amber's house, they couldn't believe that the mailman knew where to find them!
While we were setting up, we also got all the kids dressed up as super heroes. This awesome batman mask made its rounds, but I think I love it on Makenzie the most :).
Sweet cousins all ready to go
Just a sweet picture of my happy girl. I'm amazed at how easy going she is in the midst of crazy. Always ready with a sweet chunky-faced smile for whoever is near.
The first fun activity of the birthday party was making super hero masks!
When the kids were all masked and ready, they got to pin the spiderweb on the bad guy! There might have been a little bit of peeking during this activity, it's amazing how many 4 and 5 year olds can get exactly accurate spots!
We spent some time playing Duck Duck Goose. Kenzie wanted to participate, and I was shocked when she actually played correctly! She walked around so adorably tapping on everyone's head and saying her own baby version of Duck. 'Duck' and 'Goose' sound remarkably similar in her language, so the kids had to watch for her to get really excited and start running to know who was it :). Such a cute game!
The kid favorite...Pinata time! The faces of these kids are awesome :)
O had a very complete follow through...all the way around.
Pinatas are very well made these days, so we helped him get broken after a few rounds of kids hitting it. I've never done a pinata inside before, but it worked surprisingly well :). Overall, super hero party success :)
On Sunday after church, Amber took all the kids for a walk so I could rest a bit. Just another reminder of how nice it is to be around family. Our kids fell as much like siblings as they do like siblings, which is just the way we like it. Even when they fight like siblings, it just sounds like home to me.
Monday's activity was lunch at McDonalds for play time. The kids invented new games together and weren't the worst behaved ones there, so it was a win as well :)
I took these pictures to remember how awesome it was to have school work to do with Olivia. She is growing into such a responsible girl, and it's fun to see her excitement for learning and growing. It was tough on some days to stop playing with the kids and do schoolwork instead, but she got everything done that was assigned by her teacher while she was gone.
On Tuesday we spent the afternoon with our good friends the Olsons. I didn't take a single picture, but it was a great day with their kids that match up with ours totally perfectly in age with ours. We love all of our Idaho friends, and hope to be living closer to them in the future :)
At the end of our trip, we were so sad to leave, and so happy to be back with Alex. I always miss him when we are gone. I've done a lot of traveling with just me and the kids, but it's getting trickier and trickier to get the logistics taken care of without his awesome Dad-ness.
Just typing this blog post makes me want to buy plane tickets to visit Idaho again...we have a very full summer lined up, but our time with cousins coming will be some of the best I'm sure :)
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