Busy Month

It is the last week in April and I am not sure where all the time has gone! This has been a busy month for us. James' cousin Stacey came to visit us from England for 10 days so we showed her the fun things that Utah had to offer. We picked the middle of April because the Britney Spears concert was on the 14th and Stacey is a big fan (as am I!). She got to spend Easter with us and have a pretty wild Easter egg hunt with 15 grandkids all searching for money in their eggs. Kate won the coveted 5 dollar bill and was so proud of herself. :) Sorry no pictures of that. So Tuesday we went to the Britney concert and had a fabulous time. She put on an amazing show. Of course she was lip synching the whole time, but the spectacle of it all was incredible. Circus performers, great dancing, things coming down from the ceiling, I could go on and on!

Us during the concert
The Pussycat Dolls were the opening act and they were great too! How do they dance with heels that high? Crazy!

Britney coming out of the cage

The next weekend we went down to Moab. James had never been before so I figured it would be a good time to kill two birds with one stone. I haven't been down there since highschool and had forgotten how amazing the scenery is down there. I feel so blessed to live in such a beautiful place and world.

" Balanced Rock"

We went down with Melanie, Carl and family and also Carl's brother Scott's family. They are all so awesome and so much fun to travel with. We camped just outside of Moab with a campground that had toilets and showers. My kind of camping! It still reminded me of how old I was sleeping on the ground with only a tiny foam pad to lay on. I couldn't have been a pioneer that is for sure!

We ate lunch at the coolest park area right by Devils Garden. It had these fun rocks to climb so the kids decided to eat their lunches on a rock.
Kate, Austin, Blake, Carter

Here are the girls before hiking in to see Landscape Arch

Wendy, Stephani, Melanie, Heather

Carl climbing a cool rock and making a cool face :)

Our family and Stacey by Landscape Arch-SOO beautiful!

a better view of Landscape Arch

Delicate Arch from the viewpoint. Our kids had had it after the hike to Landscape so we took the easy way to see Delicate. Carter was asleep in the car so I just stayed with him since I had already seen it, while James went to take a peek.

Preston, James, and Stacey

The next day we went to the Fiery Furnace. It was probably the coolest hike ever. There we so many amazing rock formations to climb over, under, or through. The weather was perfect at about 70 degrees but after hiking awhile it was nice to get a little shade. Here is one of the cool rocks gaps we hiked through. James had a tricky time trying to maneuver with Preston on his back! Love that backpack! Preston kept asking to "go hiking" the whole time because he had the luxury of seeing everything without having to do any work. It was nice to know he couldn't run off anywhere because we could have lost him so easily in there.

Finding some shade

Melanie, Stacey,Heather

We had so much fun having Stacey here with us. We also took her to shop at the Gateway in Salt Lake, Gardner Village, and the outlets in Park City (lots of shopping!) We went to the Olympic Park and hiked up to the ski jumps too. Killer hike for your thighs!! I also took her to East High to see where Highschool Musical was filmed because she is a big fan. I am quite the tour guide if I do say so myself! :) I am leaving again on Wednesday to go to Philadelphia with some friends for a girls trip. I can't wait! I'm sure I will have some fun stories to tell when I return...

Babysitting 6 kids

Leave it to me to say my camera is missing on my blog (it has been for atleast a week) and then find it 30 minutes later in my car which I had searched atleast three times. Random. Anyway, I promised that I would share our fun week staying at my sister's house watching her kids while they went on a cruise to Mexico. We had a lot of fun doing St. Patricks Day for all the kids and just letting our kids have fun sleepovers together every night.

Kate and Carter were best buds. This was the first morning we were there and they looked so cute together just laughing on the couch. Kodak moment. :)
Melanie always has the leprauchans turn her milk green so she reminded me before she left that it needed to be done. We decided to go above and beyond and have the leprauchans do some other fun things. We "shamrocked" their doors! They had to find the lucky four leaf clover. The kids LOVED this and couldn't believe they slept through the whole thing!

The lovely green milk

They even left some yummy green truffles for them to eat!
Ryan, Carter, and Kate

Green pancakes

That night we made green cupcakes together with green frosting. Usually we don't do anything for St. Patricks day, but thought we would step it up this year. It was so much fun to see the kids get so into it. Thats what holidays are all about!

Carter had so much fun the whole week. I honestly don't think he stopped smiling the whole time. Aunt Mellie's house is his favorite place to be in the world.

I told my nephew Blake about the rule if you are wearing green and someone pinches you then you get to pinch them 5 times back. I could see his little mind turning...He woke up on St. Patricks Day and wasn't wearing any green. He decided to wear only green on the writing on the bottom of his socks. He even wore a pair over them just in case if someone had the same kind of socks and would know they had green writing on them. I was laughing so hard. So he spent the day wearing two pairs of socks. Hilarious. He did get to pinch a few people 5 times which made him happy. Who thinks of these things? 8 year old boys I guess.

Bath time! I'm not quite sure how clean they actually got but there was plenty of toys and splashing going on. Kate is really into taking pictures with a silly face.

All I can say is, 6 kids is a lot of work! I had a definite appreciation for my mom after I was done. Just keeping up with laundry, dishes, homework, and mealtimes it's a full time job! The kids were very well behaved so I didn't have to worry about that which was so nice. We had lots of fun having movie nights, eating treats, and playing outside together. The weather was perfect at about 70 degrees so the kids played outside every day. I wish that weather would come back now! I have a few trips coming up that Melanie is going to watch my kids for so it's nice to be able to trade. My family is the best!

Still Alive

I know I have been out of the blogging loop for awhile! It creeps up on you! The real reason is that my camera is M.I.A., and with no pictures there are no posts. Sad but true. I have some fun pictures of babysitting my sister's kids and our fun St. Patrick's day. Hopefully I will find the camera soon---I don't want to buy a new digital camera right now. Just wanted you all to know I was still alive and kickin'. Till next time...

Orlando---Part 4 (Final)

I can't believe it has been a week since I blogged the last pictures of Orlando. I figured I would bite the bullet and just get them all done today before it was 3 months down the road and still no pictures!! It may make more sense if you go scroll down and look at the posts in order, but if not I think you will still get it.

One of our last days we went to the beach in Clearwater. It was definitely an interesting ride there with the way the GPS took us. We were in some pretty scary neighborhoods and I was just waiting for us to be involved in a driveby shooting. No lie! We did get to see the Buccaneer football stadium and the Yankees spring training stadium along the way.
The weather was perfect at about 80 degrees but the water was FREEZING. Carter didn't care and spent most of his time down by the water. Hence, we have no pictures of him actually being there. He did love to come and destroy this big mound that Grandma and Ianthe were building.

Ian was the hole digger of the day. Even with a broken hand he still managed to bury both my kids and had a nice little spot to put his feet into. Helen, I have like no pictures of you! Not sure why? James' sister Helen was there being attacked by some annoying seagulls. She has a major phobia of birds so she didn't appreciate them pecking at us while we ate lunch. They did eventually go away.

Preston loved the sand and seagulls and wanted nothing to do with the water. Here is his sad attempt at a sand castle.

The sand was so fine that it just stuck to you even if you weren't wet. Ianthe had it everywhere, face included. I love this picture.

We got family pictures taken the day before and the kids were hungry for some lunch. We just popped the trunk and had a little picnic in the back.

Sorry this is probably boring for all that weren't there, but I wanted to document as much as possible. I had over 100 pictures so narrowing it down was hard! We had such a great trip and we are already missing the family. We need to do it again soon!!

Orlando--Part 3

We only got a couple pictures from Hollywood Studios because really we didn't love it too much. We went on the new toy story ride there and waited in line for about 45 minutes but the boys did great. They had so many fun things to see along the way that it made it go by fast.

Me and Carter in line
They had a talking Mr. Potato head that sang and danced. Carter broke out and danced and the ladies next to us in line thought he was so adorable. He got embarrassed once he knew people were actually watching him.

We rode the bus ALOT. We would park at Blizzard Beach (Disney's water park)because it was free and take the bus to wherever we needed to go. I recommend doing this if you ever plan to go there. We parked at Magic Kingdom one day and payed 12 dollars to be just as far away and still had to take 2 shuttles. We learned our lesson and stuck to getting the bus. The kids actually loved it and loved to pick their different seat every day. I love this picture with James' parents, Carter, and his cousin Ianthe. So cute.

We also celebrated Carter's birthday early while we were there. He got a fun cake and dinner at McDonalds. He got to choose wherever he wanted to go. He chose McDonalds over Chuck E. Cheese! What is it with kids and McDonalds I'll never know.

The party goers at the cool McDonalds by Disneyworld. It had a big movie screen that played Disney cartoons. Check out Preston in the back just totally fixed on watching the movie.

Posing by Ronald McDonald-Thanks Mum and Dad, Carter loved every second of it!!

We also celebrated Ian's birthday at Texas Roadhouse. That night there was a balloon lady there that made some fun hats for the kids and Ian to wear.

Check out that hat! Ian looking a little dazed while riding the saddle and getting sung to. 37 can't be that bad right Ian??

Carter couldn't be left out and got on the saddle too

These are just some random pictures from along the way. The grandparents gave the boys fun sticker and coloring books. Preston loved taking the stickers out and placing them on Grandma. Quite the collection she has on her shirt!

Carter and Ianthe were best pals on the trip. He was her little protector and loved to help her with everything. It was so cute. Isn't she adorable?? I couldn't get enough of that curly hair.

The 3 musketeers watching a movie on the boys bed...or atleast pretending they were!

Orlando--Part 2

We actually went to Epcot after Animal Kingdom, but this is how the pictures came out so oh well. Epcot was very cool and not like anything I had ever been to before. They had rides but also educational things to learn about and plenty to see from countries around the world like France, England, and Mexico. It is hard to explain unless you have been there, so I hope the pictures will give you atleast a little insight.

Had to get a picture under the golf ball!

They had a little sitting area that had water shooting out of these little pads and leaping to the next pad. They even leaped across planter boxes. This was my boys favorite thing! We stayed there for a good hour just watching the water hop around and getting a little wet too. If you stood in the perfect spot the water would splash you while trying to leap to the next planter box. Preston could not get enough. He and James stood there for a good 20 minutes and he laughed every time the water got him! Kids love the most simple things!

This was a cool play area that made the noise in the picture and lit up when you stepped on the different squares. Carter loved it.

This was in the France area-this guy was up so high it was making me nervous! He was so high and did a handstand on those chairs at the highest point. Incredible!!

This picture just makes me laugh. This was in the England area and she is Mary Poppins for those of you who weren't sure. My brother in law Ian took the picture and we teased him that he is one of the worst picture takers ever. So glad that we have a great view of the roof and Carter's head barely makes the cut! Preston was dead tired but woke up soon after to play with a train table in one of the toys stores we stopped in. We were going going going and the kids hardly slept. They got little bits of sleep when they could without missing any of the fun.

Now for Animal Kingdom---More fun, characters and animals!

They had an area called dinosaur land with all sorts of dinosaur stuff.

Me and Preston on the animal safari ride. This is not like the Jungle cruise at Magic Kingdom, this actually has real animals. We went on this one twice and got VERY close to some rhinos. It is in a fun Jeep vehicle and they are on the lookout for "poachers" that we are trying to catch. Lots of fun.

This was incredible. The Lion King show they had there was just as good as any Broadway play. The costumes were unreal and they had amazing voices. We were all mesmerized the whole time.

Here is the whole crew (minus me taking the picture) at the Lion King show


And finally this was a typical scene at the end of the day. I just loved this picture because Preston was given an "honorary prince for a day" sticker. Too bad the glue is still stuck to his jacket. We had so much fun!