Friday was our first day without swim lessons, so what did we do? We took all the kids to the Aquatic Center. After a scare at a community pool earlier in the summer, I was a little - okay more than a little - apprehensive about the number of small children that we needed to keep safe, but all of the kids had a great time. Next time we will increase our parent:kid ratio to keep my sanity intact.
All of the girls loved the big slide...especially Olivia. She went down a bunch of times, and her favorite was when she 'somehow' ended up head first! It's totally against the rules, and she got talked to by the lifeguard, but she still wanted to figure out how to do it again :).
The boys were much happier on the kid side of the water park. They played in the toys and Carter enjoyed the smaller slide a bunch. I ended up out of the water with Hunter the entire time and it was SUPER crazy full of people, so my parents did double duty with all of the kids.
There is a diving board inside, and Maely going off the high dive was enough motivation for O to try the lower board. She would do anything to be as big as her amazing cousin.
The rock climbing wall was a new, exciting adventure! Next time I will have to jump in and try it too.
After the kids were totally worn out, we grabbed a drive through ice cream treat and headed home. Every kid except Olivia and Maely fell asleep on the way home, which is a good indicator of a fun day. And, once we got the kids settled with Grandpa (who was prepared with a movie for when they woke up), Maely, Mom and I went to get a pedicure. My first in over a year, and it was wonderful. Makenzie added her cute little toes to our post-pedicure picture.
Maely was the master of fun activities while she was here, and on her last night she took the kids out for one more parachute time. They were so funny to watch in their totally uncoordinated efforts at making anything happens,
The next morning we had to say goodbye to Maely, and upon hearing that the kids did one last dogpile onto her.
Saturday afternoon was Carter's official birthday party! The kids and I went up to Keizer in the morning to get ready, but I did almost nothing for the party. The Casqueiros were so wonderful in taking care of all the details so I could just try to make it special for Carter and stay on top of all the moving details.
I'm so grateful for all of the wonderful friends and family who came to celebrate this guy! He was thrilled with his Avenger cake and all of the fun activities at his party. He, like most boys, loved the presents the most, and I was impressed with how well he thanked the people who gave him gifts, and gave hugs to almost everyone. He is such a sweet little boy, we are lucky to have him.
Uncle Den shared his birthday with Carter for his party, so we sang to him as well!
Does this guy look excited about this gift or what?! A month later and it's still a favorite toy around here. Paw Patrol is all the rage in preschool these days.
Makenzie might be a little more fond of Owen than he is of here these days :). I know they will grow up to be best friends, but for now it's slightly one sided.
After the party, we hung out for a while before heading home. I spent most of the afternoon just watching Kenzie hang out with Andy and Ashley. She is just an adorable girl at a super fun age. She goes from one adventure to the next, and totally enjoys the extra attention from our extended family.
Alex sent us this fun picture from his packing adventures...a little friend joined him for the afternoon.
Every time I start to think through one of the days on this trip, I think 'this day was an adventure!' and realize that I thought that about every other day. Sunday was its own form of crazy when we got all 6 kids ready for church. I couldn't help but sneak my phone out for a couple pictures when these guys looked all calm and cute. It wasn't the quietest meeting in that ward, but the kids did very well. Hunter even slept through Sacrament meeting, which meant I could get all the kids to their respective classes (Kenzie didn't cry going to nursery!!) before feeding him. My life is all about making the most of time between feedings these days, so I was thrilled that it worked out this time. Something about having 4 kids has put my brain into overdrive and I can't seem to relax any more. I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop, and have noticed that I have at least one kid crying more often than not. It's a new phase of life, and I love all of my little munchkins and try every day to do right by them.
These pictures are my favorite. One of the things I learned from my mom was the trick to get little babies to stick their tongue out at you on demand. Each time I have had a baby she sits holding them and just having a grand old time. The babies just really seem to connect in this game, and these pictures are a great example of it. I'm so grateful for the wonderful grandmas (all 5 of them) that my kids are blessed with. Life is good. Full, crazy, busy, and good.
The pictures of the kids in church (love the Makenzie slide btw) remind me of when my family sat with Mom and Dad and most or all of the siblings in the back row (on Christmas) and someone was looking at a book with 18 month old Maely that had a either a truck or a frog in it - I think frog, but whatever it was, she named it repeatedly with her word which was more like truck with an 'f'. I remember that even the guy in front of us was cracking up listening to us try to get her to stop saying it :).
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