The party back home

The party back home.

So Jess and I have the best mothers in the world!  We divided up the  boys and left the little ones with Julie and the big ones with my mom.  Here they are on the day we left.  (This is always so hard.  It makes it easier that they love their grandparents though.  But I did cry most of the way home...cause that's how stable I am :)
(I think it must be a phobia..and maybe one that many moms have but whenever I leave my kids or they leave me...for school or whatever occasion...I'm afraid it's the last time I'll see them.  So I'm always shouting I love you and giving lots of hugs and having such a sad feeling.....I've decided that I just need to have more faith in my Father's plan for me.  Don't worry because it does no good, and they'll probably be living the next time I see them.  But understand that if something does happen, that our family has the chance to grow and learn from it and trust in God's understanding of things....okay...the end.  Back to the "party back at home")

Friday: They played catch, soccer, blew bubbles, and grandpa would hold a hula hoop and the kids practiced jumping threw them while it progressively got higher and higher off the ground :).

And spent some time watching the giant awesome truck across the street load up a car...

Saturday: Julie: "We blew up balloons, taped a straw on them and put a string through the straw.  Then we but the strings on two chairs and they were supposed to try and race hitting the balloons from one chair to another.  They had way more fun blowing up balloons and letting them go and fly all over the house."

Went for a walk with Grandpa and saw fish and trains.  "We ate lunch, I forgot what we ate, but we ate it where all of the trains were.  We liked the trains because I saw one moving!" (Rhett)

    

"I do remember taking some clear water bottles and filling them with lots of little objects - like puff balls and little toys.  Then we filled the whole thing with rice and sealed the lids on.  Then they had these shakey bottles to find objects in.  They had the most fun running around the house on a "scavenger hunt" that was a bit staged to find lots of little things to put in their bottles.  After we finished the actual bottles they kind of lost interest." (Julie)

"I liked this cause we got to  fill it up with lots of pom poms!" (Rhett)

"Rhett and Max helped make pancakes and loved the stirring.  

We spend a LOT of time in pajamas.  They were not concerned about it and they did have clothes on." (Julie)

I had mentioned to Julie that Max was working on his colors and that if she wanted to teach him that while we were gone that I wouldn't be upset at all :)  She did the cutest thing. She bought different colored tape and put them on the floor so the boys could drive their cars on them.  Adorable?  Yes!

"Rhett went over to Brayden's a couple of times and Brayden loved playing over here with them in the back yard.  That is when I noticed again how amazing Rhett is with baseball.  Brayden is a year older and had no idea how to hit.  Rhett can hit anything." (Julie)

(Julie)" We went home via Emily's on Friday and had a fun sleep over.  Saturday morning Afton had a soccer game that the other team got the time confused so they didn't show up.  All the dads played, Rhett got a shirt and he played.  Max and Greta ran around.  A good time was had by all."

Julie: "I don't know how I could have forgotten any of the details because I had so, so much fun.  But that is all I can remember is that I had fun and that they lived through it.  Every time I think about having them stay, it just makes me smile.  They are beautiful, wonderful loving boys."

MEANWHILE, IN UTAH:

Mom watched the two older boys.  One of their outings was to the Childrens Musuem of Curiosity where they had soooo  much fun doing the ropes course!  They spent 5 hours here and even skipped lunch because they were having so much fun.  

They were scared at first and then they absolutely loved it after.  Mom was so far away, but got some good shots on her phone. "It was pretty scary at first, and when I was going down hill I thought I would fall off and die.  But after I got the hang of it, it was really really fun."-Luke

Kade said, "It was so kid friendly and fun, and it was organized.  I loved the town--they had tons of shops and stores that you could go in and be a banker, or a magic store with tricks. They also had a tornado room which felt like how it would really feel like in a tornado.  A really fun part of it was the ginormous playground!  The Jungle Gym was fun and amazing and we could climb down the ropes upside down.  It felt adventurous.  It was Disneyland fun!

"Here we were trying to make a giant thrown, but it turned out to be a house...but we couldn't make the roof.  So...yeah"--Luke

Grandma let them play TONS of screens all day, stay up late reading into the night, playing with friends....it was awesome.  

The Doomed Trilobite Hunting Experience:

Another outing, and one that I'm sure will stick in all their memories for a very very long time was trilobite hunting.  They drove 2 1/2 hours south-west to Delta Utah.  The car ride was smooth sailing-the boys just watched a show.  Then they drove an hour (30 miles or so) on a dirt road to get to the Trilobite place.  

The overseerer gave them equipment to use to break the rocks and showed trilobites that he had found and sold. It was hot, the boys really didn't like it too much, they both found some amazing ones.  (Kade said, "It was fun until it got hot.")  Both boys found some really cool trilobites.  "Me and Kaden both found a trilabite in one rock. Kade said he wanted to trade mine for his, but his was kinda weird, and mine was polished off and the guy who owned that place said it was worth $50 bucks! Awesome right?!"--Luke

Then they hoped in the Van and drove about twenty minutes--where the van got a flat.  They looked and looked for a special addition that was needed for the crank to drop the tire down from the underside of the van.....the piece apparently....wasn't there so much (unbenonst to us there had been a recal for the underside and they switched that out but didn't give us the attachment piece to make it work.....ooops)

There was no cell reception....and they were 30 miles away from anyone....so what do you do?  Send grandpa on a little walk :)  He walked 4-5 miles, on that hot 90 degree day back to the trilobite place.  He had hoped that the caretaker would have a wrench that could make the tire release---and Woo Woo!  He did.  He drove dad back to the car. 

(Grandma instructed the boys to look how they felt :)

Meanwhile in the van:  The boys were hot and bored.  Grandma didn't want to use any battery life or gas in the van (she didn't know how long dad would be gone).  They told stories (grandma did...they mostly just were worried and complaining.)  "It was horrible.  Have you ever had to wait in the dessert for 3 hours? That's what it was.  It was very hot and it was the middle of summer so it was hot and very  hot...just very hot.  We just sat down and sulked while we waited."

They said a prayer.  And when they saw grandpa and the trilobite man they jumped up and down and said, "Grandpa's here!! Grandpa's here!!! Now we can go!"  Apparently they were slightly hungry.  Then it took twice as long to get home, because with the spare on, they could only get up to 50 miles an hour.  On the way home they watched Tiny Toons.

HA! It was a fun trip and those boys will always remember it

 I was sooooo excited to see these boys in the morning when I got home!  I wanted to wake them up when we got home and just snuggle and snuggle!  I'm always surprised by how much I miss them.  So when they woke up and came and cuddled with me I was in heaven (Jess sadly had to be to work Monday morning early so he was already gone)

They all helped me pick out games from winning that game show and here they are with the goods :)    Rhett wasn't sad, he'd just had swimming lessons for a week and his eyes were so so so dry.  Poor guy.