Family Fun

The Fourth of July holiday came just in time. Tuesday wasn't my best day and I had joked (with a fair amount of seriousness) that the men in white coats were on their way to my house. Through the madness, the kids and I managed to get the house cleaned, get all our gear packed and pick up Dad on our way to enjoy some good ol' family time.

We drove to Yakima to spend the night with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma had called earlier, near the height of my breakdown, and became the ear to which I vented many frustrations. Knowing my mood, she offered to order the kids some pizzas and let Jon and me go out for a dinner together. Zesta Cucina became my quiet little santuary for an hour, and the food was amazing!

We left Yakima about mid-day on the Fourth to join the Childers celebration in Richland. Our Canadian cousins were visiting there and the kids were very excited about seeing everyone. When we arrived everyone was playing in the backyard, soaking up the sun. Let the fun with cousins begin!

Brendan approached Caleb and said, "Well, it's been a while." They awkwardly shook hands as Caleb replied, "Yeah, how's it going Brendan?" It's always so much fun to see these two boys get together. They're both long, lanky, quirky little guys that are only 5 weeks apart in age. Alyssa and Connor are only 3 weeks apart and they bonded very quickly. They spent most of their time together and Alyssa even got Connor to try a back handspring on the trampoline!

They're so cute! Such good buddies. I've always thought that Connor looks a lot like Jon. He's a very handsome little guy!

Natalie and Erin were good little friends when they weren't too busy asserting their two-year old territorial needs. While they all had their moments and there were occasional fires to put out, it was by and large a great time with cousins, eleven of them in all.

Jen and Christopher are great hosts and were very patient with the onslaught of visitors that bombarded their house. We had a great holiday BBQ with all the fixings. We even had a DQ ice cream cake for dessert. I think Caleb helped himself to three servings! It was the perfect treat to go with the scorching temperatures. Though temperatures topped out at 105, we did manage to stay cool most of the time. The huge trees in the yard provided lots of shade for gabbing adults and the perfect clubhouse for the kids. Caleb also really liked the swing attached to one tree's branches.

At one point Caleb decided to pour his can of lemonade over his head in effort to cool off. That was one sticky mess waiting to happen so Jon hosed him down, cleaning him off and cooling him down in one fell swoop.

The dads made a trip to the fireworks stand to load up on some fun explosives for our evening enjoyment. These fireworks are illegal in our area so it was extra exciting for us. Christopher thoughtfully offered a pair of ear plugs to Caleb and Aunt Jen helped him get them in. He looked a little funny but with the sound muffled, he was able to enjoy fireworks for the first time in his life! Why hadn't I thought of this before?

Here is the crew, gearing up for the "big" stuff.

Natalie's first sparkler!

The girls waiting for the show to start.

I'm not sure if it was more fun for the boys to watch or the dads to light them off. I guess it was just a good time for all!

The movie theater seemed the perfect place to keep cool and our kids had been dying to see Ratatouille, so we went to the matinee on Thursday. It was a cute show and the kids really liked it. Natalie fell asleep which means I got to enjoy it, too! Here are the cousins getting ready to go to the show.

After dinner, we went swimming at a pool belonging to some friends of the Childers family. The owners had offered for us to swim but weren't able to be home at the time so we got our own private pool party. We had a lot of fun and quickly found out which kids were scared of the water and which were not!

Jon worked from Christopher's office on Friday while I lounged around with the kids. Once they got home from work we were all ready for a break from the noise and mayhem that 11 kids under the age of 9 can create, so Jen hired a couple of babysitters. We had a very enjoyable (and yummy) adult-only dinner at Olive Garden. We talked and laughed (mostly at Jon) and basked in our child-free time together.

After dinner we picked up our kids and said our good-byes. The kids were sad to go. We made our way back to Yakima to spend one more day with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma, remembering my ill temper from Tuesday, surprised me by telling me that she had scheduled a one hour massage for me on Saturday morning. She said she hoped it would bring me out of my funk. I slept in late and awoke just in time to pull my hair back and drive myself to the appointment. The massage was wonderful; 90% relaxing, 10% pain. I could get used to that treatment!

We then decided to take the kids to ride the Yakima Trolley. They recently started running the trolley again after being out of service for years. The main line was temporarily closed so we only got a short ride but it was still fun and a little nostalgic for me.

After riding the Trolley we got to go swimming at the home of some friends of Grandma and Grandpa. They have an amazing pool and it was hard to drag the kids out of it. Caleb loved the slide and I have to admit, it's pretty fun!

After swimming, we went to out to dinner and then made our way home. It was a full and fun-filled week. It's always great to spend time with family and I appreciate the distraction from the day-to-day grind. We're looking forward to another busy week and I'll be doing my best to keep the men in white coats away!