Thursday, June 18, 2009

Vacation

We just got back from one of the best vacations! We were total moochers and spent nearly the entire time eating someone else's food and sleeping in someone else's bed!! We visited 2 children's museums, saw 3 sets of friends, got soaked on a waterslide, played at 3 parks, swam in 1 pool, and had a great intro to Rock Band! We also slept all 6 of us in one room everywhere we went - after 5 nights, I think we were all happy to be back in our own separate beds! Wow, we really had a good time! Here are some pictures:

Sarah and Annie trying on circus hats


The Sawhooks and the Cobbs


Aaron climbs to the top!


Aaron and Katie playing Rock Band with Kenny


Katie reading to Ben and Natalie


Chad, Aaron, and Ben on a giant waterslide


Ben making friends with a wallaby


What if we all lived under the same shell . . . ?


The Anderson kids in Charlotte

Ben and Annie Together




Ben and Annie are starting to really enjoy each other! She smiles so big when he comes around and tries to copy what he does. I have found that they both like to play with blocks. He loves to build with them, and she loves to eat them. What a great combination! It does keep them both occupied, though!




Here she is pounding on the ottoman and bouncing up and down like him. What fun to have a big brother!












School's out for the summer!

We (that is, I) had big plans to celebrate the last day of school on June 5th. We were going to roast hot dogs and marshmallows over our fire pit and camp out in the back yard together! Well, the ground was soaked from several days of downpours with another planned for that evening, so we decided not to set up the tent. As we are not very good at starting fires AND all the sticks we gathered were damp, the hot dogs ended up boiled on the stove and the marshmallows stayed in the bag. I think we had ice cream instead while we watched a movie! (I have no idea why this paragraph is underlined)

On top of that, I was trying so hard to stay focused on my kids that day instead of on all the chores that needed done, but that proved more difficult than usual. First, Aaron and Ben tramped around in the muddy brush to find sticks and then Aaron proceeded to walk through the house in his shoes which, I'm not kidding, had a 1 inch thick base of mud on the bottom! Then I stripped Ben and changed him at the door before letting him go inside. Within 5 minutes, wearing "big boy underwear" he peed in the kitchen floor. Chad and I admittedly are sometimes poor at the final details of household projects, so the steps on our back porch had been off since we had finished the patio and we had been using a garage step stool in their place. Well, after all 3 of the older kids fell coming off the porch that evening while we were getting dinner ready (oh, and Ben gashed his lip in his fall), we decided to fix the steps. That took all of about 40 minutes to do - but required much crying to finally complete.

Anyhow, it wasn't quite the celebration I had planned. We did try to camp out in the family room, but Chad decided his bed was too close, and I ended up alone toughing it out on the floor with Aaron and Katie. Nonetheless, school is out for the summer and we are excited!

Katie's class during field day (Katie is second on the rope)


Aaron's class during field day (Aaron is fourth from the front)

Eating hot dogs on the patio

Movie time!

School's out! Yeah!