Speedy Utah trip

Eric's brother is going on a mission! To Russia! We went to Utah to see him off:

Yes, that's a wheelchair. The poor guy broke his leg just days before his departure date. But he gets around okay, always with a smile: 

Yes, we're all wearing coordinating clothes. Because what's a family reunion without a family picture?  

Over the weekend we were able to visit the temple, hear Sam talk in church, meet with relatives, and relax. (Eric's Father's Day request was that he would get to sleep in guilt-free! Even a plate of crispy bacon did little to arouse him.)

 

The kids, on the other hand, barely slept for the excitement of being with their cousins. They swam, played Wii, crafted, and played. One day they discovered a treasure trove of a dress-up box in the grandparents' basement:

Michael ("Mikhail") and Zachary ("Pasha") even learned some Russian phrases to go with their Russian-esque outfits: 

We ended our trip with a picturesque day at Wheeler Farm with my grandmother, aunt and cousin, and brother and sister. We didn't wear matching clothes for our picture, although Eric did purchase a pink John Deere hat for baby Max. So I guess that he and I matched somewhat.

You should never visit a place you love on a weekend with gorgeous weather! What a day for some picnicking,

calf-watching,

and grassy wrestling!

Oh Utah, I adore you. Your mountains, your sunshine, your Cafe Rios! You're just the place. I met my dear one in Utah almost ten years ago. And isn't it magical to be in the place where you fell in love?

P.S. Eric and I had different flights home, with connections in different cities. Eric took our nearly-two-year-old, and I took the other four kids. Who do you think got the better end of the deal? Honestly, I think it's a toss-up. Jerry Seinfeld: "A two-year-old is kind of like having a blender, but you don't have a top for it." Yes.

On whether or not I'm the dirtiest person in our family

Undisclosed Son #1: "MOM! Adam is trying to put on dirty clothes!"
Me: "It's okay. It's just my skirt, and I'm not that dirty. I never wet my pants and I always take showers."
US #1: "Yes you are! You are the dirtiest one because you are much, much bigger than us!"
Undisclosed Son #2: "Yeah. And you do MUCH more work than us. That makes you dirty."
US #1: "And you are older!"
US #2: "Yeah. Think of Max. He's only been here a short time and he doesn't ever even touch the floor."
US #1: "You touch the floor every MINUTE!"
Me: "Oh. Huh. Adam honey, let's put the skirt back in the hamper."

A post written in 10 minutes with two babies on my lap

I love walking into a grocery store and seeing the marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate bars lined up like this:

The display says to me, "swimming!

early-morning runs!

fairs!

more swimming!

splash pads!

Scout advancement!

hikes!

weenie roasts!

parks!

swimming, swimming, swimming!

end-of-year plays!

and, yes, s'mores!"

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! The anticipatory excitement of SUMMER! Eric constructed a raised garden bed and a sandbox for our backyard (here are the boys playing in three TONS of sand on our driveway, before we filled the box!):

I will post pictures of the garden when things are growing more. We also installed a flag pole for the front:

And of course we're spending a lot of time at the little league ballpark! These little guys want to be just like their baseball champ brother:

I love these little babies on my lap. This one, especially, has been tugging at my heart so much lately that I'm almost always behind on my laundry:

Who wouldn't want to spend the day cooing at that adorable little face? Hooray for babies, and hooray for summertime!

Dryers and decks

I spent half an hour in my dryer drum last night. The reason that I was in the dryer drum was because there was a crayon that went through the cycle and melted down to a fat stripe around the interior. Things like this happen daily.

You may enjoy pictures of something else that happened this week: the kids found some drippings of deck paint and painted themselves, the patio, the house, and their dump trucks red. When I realized what had happened, I told them to de-robe immediately (their clothes were soaked with paint and I was afraid that it would spread everywhere, which it did anyway). So then they were running around the backyard nude, except for the paint:

I carried them in individually to avoid red footprints on the carpet. Then they sat under the shower for a good 20 minutes while I scrubbed paint off the house (which was easy) and off the patio (which was hard). When I came back to scrub the kids, Michael asked to say a prayer in the bathtub. He bowed his head and prayed that they could be more obedient. It's hard to stay frustrated for long. 

Vacation, family-style

Eric had an ophthalmology conference to go to in Fort Lauderdale. We thought that we might make it a date, but then decided to take everyone. Because, seriously, why relax when you can take a circus of boys along? The plane ride was smooth, anyway:

And Eric (aka ZOZO) was smooth at the in-flight trivia game:

Ah yeah.

Eric went straight to his meetings; the kids and I immediately hit the beach:

Watching them run from "space sea monsters"

and build wave-resistant dams

made the preparation far worth it (a total of 33 pieces of clothing/accessories to put on, plus sunscreen!). 

We were lucky that Nana dropped down for a day and a half, which allowed Eric and I to go night-swimming in the ocean. Magical! (We found out later that we swam during prime shark feeding time; also Eric recently watched Jaws this week and doubts that he'll ever go back into an ocean, ever. So I'm glad that we had this chance.)

See look! There's Nana now:

Doesn't she look fantastic? She's carrying strawberry shakes from a roadside stand with fields of strawberries right behind it. Freshness guaranteed! We also visited Monkey Jungle, "where humans are caged and the monkeys run wild." The boys deposited raisins in little silver dishes that were suspended from the cages; then the monkeys towed the goodies up.

Adam was especially fond of the primates, probably because he is so like them in manner:

We went mansion-peeking along Las Olas Boulevard, where people have their yachts parked in the back like cars:

I stood on the other side of the park while Eric attempted to scale a palm tree:

(In her current post, my sister-in-law Jami has a picture of Eric's brother doing the exact same thing--funny. They were also there for the conference, as was Eric's cousin Matt and his family. Ophthalmology is popular in Eric's family! It was fun to see them all.)

And here's Eric swinging from a tree:

We found a treasure of a county park where we hiked through a tropical forest. 

The boys picked their own oranges

and spied on dozens of spiders with 6-ft.+ webs.

We splurged on ice cream in waffle cones for everyone one night. They got the two classic boy flavors: Cotton Candy and Bubble Gum. I think that every child cried at least once that night--ice cream is touchy business.

When we weren't site-seeing, we were probably relaxing on our balcony,

at the beach,

poolside,

in a cabana,

or just on the couch.

After managing the repacking and flights home, we felt triumphant:

Absent in this photo is our red bag, which we didn't notice was missing until we were clear home. Bother. Also, when we got into our van it smelled like rotten eggs, which was exactly what it was. Someone had stowed away a hard-boiled Easter egg in the back, where it cooked for five days. Double bother.

What a trip! I felt like it was a microcosm of my life right now: high-stress (five crying/whining simultaneously at times and messes galore!) but rewarding (Marco Polo with giggling youngsters? Babies squealing at monkeys? Pockets full of beach treasures?). I love it.