Sleeping Arrangements

We've been very blessed to be living with Cynthia and Jeremy. I decided to get some photos of our sleeping arrangements while we are staying here.

Declan sleeps in a pack 'n play in the corner of our room. Every night we find him in this position with his little bum in the air. Too cute!



The girls sleep in the theater room right next to our room. Shelby LOVES sleeping on the couch and won't have it any other way. Payden sleeps on the floor next to Shelby because she and Taylor have to be separated because they fall asleep at the same time and are really good at playing around. I had always prevented them from falling asleep at the same time because I was worried of them causing problems, but was unable to prevent it when we moved here. They have done beautifully and have settled smoothly into our new arrangements. Of course, the kids couldn't resist jumping on the air mattresses, and Payden's air mattress has since popped. Fortunately, our normal mattresses were easy to get to, and she is now sleeping on one of those.


On the other side of the room is Taylor. Somehow her mattress is still intact, but I keep waiting for it to pop, too.


Being the mama hen that I am, I am glad to have my babies sleeping nearby and these arrangements have really worked out for us.

One Crazy Night

What to do when the parents are out of town and cousins are here to play? How about dress up and have a photo shoot. My nieces and nephews were in quite a mood. I'm not quite sure how it all started, but in the end my nephews Max and Ryan were dressed like girls, Ally was "directing" the photo shoot, and Madison joined in on the fun. I was just laughing and couldn't resist taking some photos.



I took more photos, but promised Ryan I wouldn't put very many up. They were just nuts. Well after the photo shoot, they decided to watch a movie on TV. Apparently there were I, II, and III of the movie one after the other. Tom and I went to bed, but the kids decided to watch all 3 movies. I woke up with Declan at 3:30 and saw a light on upstairs. They were still awake!!! Fortunately the movie soon ended, and they went to bed. Of course the next morning they were dead to the world, and this is what we found when we came up to eat breakfast.


I'm not sure how Madison could sleep like this, but apparently it was comfortable.


Crazy kids!

Swimming

Our niece invited us to come swimming with her and her daughter at their community pool, so we of course said yes. As usual, we had the pool to ourselves. Tom and I got there first with our kids. They love swimming and were so excited to hop in.



I love Taylor's goggles. It's rare that they don't have water in them or aren't foggy, yet she insists on wearing them.


Once the big kids came, Tom hopped in and started flipping them in the air. Here's Ryan:


Ally:


Max:


Declan LOVES balls and spent most of the time playing with the beach ball.


Payden tends to venture in the water a bit, but generally enjoys playing on the steps. At one point she decided she didn't want any floaty device on. I tried to convince her that she'd drown, but she wouldn't listen, so I waited patiently nearby and in less than a minute she walked down the steps into water over her head. I grabbed her pretty quickly, but it scared her. She was extremely upset, but did finally decide to listen to Mom and put on her floaties. Hopefully one of these days she'll learn it's easier to listen to Mom then figure out everything on your own.





When not using her floaties, Payden really loved having Madison haul her around the pool. Fortunately Madison was happy to oblige.


Miss Shelby LOVES holding on to Mom and Dad and latched on to Tom for awhile.


Tom couldn't resist showing off his guns.


Unfortunately, we had to go home way before the kids were ready to get out, but it was fun, and you can't beat swimming on a nice hot summer day.

Utah County Fair

With family still in town, we decided to head down south to the Utah County Fair. We came in separate cars and had to find parking spaces all over the place, so we initially met up in the food court. It was a HOT day and the kids were a bit hungry, so we got some food and drinks and sat at the tables waiting for everyone to arrive. You can see on Declan's face how hot it was . . . oh and don't you just love Tom's hat. It's what you can find at the dollar store to beat the heat. :)


While we ate, we ended up sitting next to a tent where they had different performances. We were fortunate to get to see the belly dancers . . . the modest belly dancers. It was DEFINITELY entertaining, but also a bit embarrassing to watch. I swear one of the ladies was in her forties and swaying and swinging those hips around. She even got down in the crowd to make it more exciting. I honestly had to work really hard to not bust out laughing.

After our wonderful entertainment, we headed into a building to look at the animals. It's just fun looking at all the different animals. Of course we saw the typical horses, cows, sheep, bunnies, chickens, roosters, and so forth. This is the best shot we got of the group. It included: Courtney, Cadence, Barbara, Ally, Max, Andrea, Cynthia, Madison, Ryan, Shelby, Taylor, Payden, Declan, Tom, and me.


We'd bought some discounted ride tickets and headed over to go ride the rides. I try really hard to make my kids try things. They all enjoyed this although Shelby didn't like being pushed outward and definitely was not going to raise her hands no matter how hard we tried to get her to do it.




This was Cadence and Payden's ship, "Ghost Ship":


This was Taylor's and Shelby's ship, "Scallywag":


While we walked to the next ride, Payden decided she'd rather put her sunglasses here:


Of course no fair is complete without a ride on the merry-go-round.


Shelby was off on her own because she had to sit on THE pretty horse.



The next ride was this boat one. The lady told them that if you chose to splash her, then she'd get you back. The way she said it was to entice them to splash her. Of course my girls didn't, but that was right up Cadence's alley. As soon as she started getting near the lady, you could tell she was going to splash her. The lady would splash her right back and they had a blast. It was funny to watch, but definitely so Cadence.


Taylor loved driving and ringing the bell.


After going around a bit, Shelby finally got brave enough to just touch the water. Haha . . . that's our Shelby. Very timid and cautious. She has to think about everything.



The girls definitely had a good time.


With our tickets about used up, we hunted to find one last ride. We found this slide WAY in the back. It was actually hard to see and get to, so I think the guy didn't get a lot of people coming his way. That was good for us because he decided to let us go again and again while only paying for one ride.

The kids had a blast. The three big kids took the three youngest on the first ride.


Shelby followed behind. She looked so lonely.


Since we had free reign, Tom decided to go up next.



Somehow, Shelby ended up coming down alone again.


We couldn't resist one last ride.



They really loved this, and I was glad to see Shelby being so brave. Next to the slide was a big grassy area, where we stood around deciding what to do next. We put Declan in the grass, which he did not appreciate at all. Apparently he does not like the feel of grass.


This turned out to be a good thing because we were able to get him to walk around because he preferred as little contact as possible with the grass. Since he hates trying to walk and especially hates holding someone's hand to walk, this allowed us to get him to practice his walking for quite some time without him screaming in protest or dropping his weight to get down on the floor and crawl.


While the adults talked, the kids sat down to rest.



It really had been a HOT day as you can see . . .





They were tired and ready to be done, so we headed home. I love going to fairs. This was especially nice because there were hardly any people. I keep going to places expecting to see the crowds like we did in San Antonio, but fortunately the entire Wasatch Front is about the same population as the San Antonio area, so we just don't see the huge city crowds. Love it!!