Family Visit Part 3

***I started this post almost a month ago, but life has been super crazy lately and I never finished it. I'm going to finish it and publish it as is, but I know it's coming in super late. Be prepared for more "after the fact" posts, because like i said life+insane these days.

OK, I'm here to wrap up the last part of our family visit, two weeks (or a month, whatever!) after the fact of course. I swear, I don't know how the days get away from me these days but we are just so busy!

To finish up our amazing family visit we had our Easter. Our family is not religious at all, but we are all about dying some Easter eggs, hiding and hunting for them, and eating lots of yummy food in the name of any holiday!

The night before Easter, as we dyed Easter Eggs and got ready, my dad, Brother-in-law, and wonderful husband did a big paella cookout. This has become quiet the tradition in our family, ever since our family because close friends with a family who had moved from Spain. At this point it's basically a 20 year tradition, and I love that my husband is now taking part in it!

And it was delicious, of course. And some of my absolute  most favorite moments are having all of our family together, pulling up a bunch of mismatched tables on the patio, and laughing and eating and drinking together.

Anyway, after we were all done eating the kids got down to dying all the Easter Eggs. This is always more of an ordeal for the adults than I expect, but I know the kids will look back and remember nothing but fun. Once we were done we set them aside and hoped that the Easter Bunny would come that night and hide them for the kids!

And, thankfully, the Easter Bunny did not disappoint. He/She his all the eggs, plus some extras that had chocolate/candy/coins in them. They also brought the kids some fun stuff in Easter Baskets.

And after all the food and the Easter Egg hunt we tried to get a picture of all seven kids together. Ask me how well that went. The answer would be not well. At least two were crying, one hid in the back and wouldn't show his face and the rest were just pissed off that they had to pause their fun to pose for a picture. I"m sure one day they will thank us, but that day was not today.

Family Visit 2017 Part 2

Even though our week (ten days actually) was jam packed with activities, our two favorite have to get there own thread: The Children's Museum and bowling. Bowling is something we just added to the roster about a year ago, but we have been taking these kids to the children's museum since they were little. It makes me a little sad, because I know each year we are getting closer and closer to when the big ones won't want to do this anymore, but I'm savoring it while I can.

(The noodle forest. Also know as every parents worst nightmare, a death trap of running screaming children, and every child's best fantasy.)

Keeping track of six kids in this mad house is no joke, but thankfully no that some of the kids are older they are better at helping us keep track of the little ones. (Which is a huge plus because overall it's less parenting we have to do!)

And even though it's not too far in the future that some of them won't be interested, this year we had blast.

And then there was bowling. We wanted to make sure A could be included in all the fun stuff the kids are doing, despite her hand to elbow cast, and bowling seemed like a pretty safe choice.

This year the adults even bowled their own game in between helping out the little ones.

And after a very long game of bowling we let the kids go crazy in the arcade for a little bit. It was fun and I even convince my two older nephews to do laser tag with me, which I haven't done in forever!

Family Visit 2017 Part 1

It's that time of year again! Our annual huge family visit, and this year it was even bigger since my brother and his family were in town. They just moved from France (long story) and made a pit stop in  Arizona. So this year we had SEVEN kids ranging in age from 2 to 12! They are quite the group, and there are a lot of personalities, but they love each other and always have such a good time together!

We kicked off the visit with a big camping trip, as per tradition. It's the perfect time of year up at Lake Pleasant right now. The water is ridiculously high still from winter and it's warm enough to enjoy going in the water but cools off at night. 

We got up on Saturday and the adults set up camp (it's so much easier to be one of the kids when you are camping!) and then we immediately set up chairs and got down the kayaks. The bigger boys love paddling around and the little kids played on the waters edge.

(My brother, J, and my beautiful niece A!)

And.... this is were out lovely weekend takes a bit of turn. All of the little kids were playing on the waters edge, most of the barefoot, not to mention the adults that were watching them. We always scan the shore line to make sure there is no broken glass or fish hooks, but apparently this time we missed something deeper in the water. My poor niece fell forward and caught herself on her hands.... and came up screaming and bleeding like crazy. She had cut through her little pinkie, and it was deep. We tried to calm her down and clean it, but it was pretty apparent she needed to go to the hospital. So my brother and his family, along with my parents, took off and after a long day and night she ended up needing surgery. The glass (we think it was part of a beer bottle that we ended up fishing out of the lake) but through two tendons and a nerve. Thankfully she is going to be OK, but it was pretty traumatizing for everyone. And here's a little PSA: if your going camping or going to be outdoors, go ahead and get your drink on, but be responsible and bring cans. And on the chance you find yourself with glass, don't be jerk and don't throw it in the freaking lake!!!

(Poor baby!)

After talking to my brother several times and knowing she was going to be fine we decided to finish up our trip. Even though we all felt bad and were worried about A, the kids look forward to this trip every year and there was nothing we were going to be able to do at home.

Needless to say, we were vigilant about checking the shoreline and even deeper into the water, and we made sure all the kids wore water shoes when they got near the water. Even R, when he was busy getting his groove on.

(I don't know if this video will play. If it doesn't I apologize, because you are missing out!)

The kids were worn out be the end of it, but despite the drama it was another amazing camping trip to put in the books!