Morehouses come to Yuma

The Morehouses made the trek down to Yuma to spend a couple of days with us and I am so glad they did!

We played a lot of games.  Our kids were excited to have more players for their favorite games.  Julie played Monoply with the older kids while Tim played Uno with the little boys.  They are brave parents...clearly I stood back and took pictures.

 

Ben still had to work while they were here, but told me one morning that a present was going to be delivered that day.  I won't lie, I was excited about a fun treat.  I was guessing it was a new running hat but when a big box came to the door, we all started guessing what this mystery present could be.  As we opened it, I said slightly joking, "It better not be a vacuum cleaner" and soon after everyone was laughing because it turned out to be a steam cleaner for the floor.  Not really the treat I was looking for, but our floors were thankful and it does make the house smell really good.  The boys had fun coloring the box for the rest of the afternoon.

 

The kids played outside quite a bit too.  We don't have six bikes, but they found games to play all together.  We found out Colin has some mad jump rope skills...who knew?

We spent 2 days at the park/river.  We went Friday while Ben was at work and had so much fun, we decided to go back the next day. 

The 2 middle boys share a love of rocks and spent a lot of time collecting rocks for I believe a make-believe restaurant.

 

Evan and Eli

 Ms. Julie=the provider of Doritos

When we went Friday, Maya was a whole new dog.  She went into the water with the kids (she was timid and not crazy about it, but went in) and ran around the beach collecting sticks.  There were 2 other families there with dogs and they both came over, introduced their dog to Maya and said they were okay to let the dogs run around and play.  I have never seen Maya so happy than she was running around with these other dogs.  Julie said she looked like a greyhound how fast she was running!  She even ran up to the other kids and was letting them pet her.  It was so fun to see!

 

Saturday, Ben came with us and the river was much busier and we weren't able to let Maya off her leash, but she still had a great, very dirty time. 

Ben helped the kids built a tadpole catching hole.  They were SO excited!

Alison and Luke catching tadpoles

 They were so excited that they put some in a jar and brought them home with them.  Alison, true to her wonderful disposition, took her encyclopedia with her to the river to research what it would need to eat to survive in her jar.  

Chewing on a tadpole catching cup...because that's what puppies do

 We came home and had a water balloon fight.  Have you seen the commercial for these things?  Julie and I were skeptical, but the kids all wanted to try it, so we gave it a whirl.  It actually does work amazing and $7 is kind of worth it to not tie 100 tiny balloons.  BUT the actual water balloon fight lasted all of 2 minutes, so I'm not sure it's worth it in the end.

We ate some Mexican food and lots of popsicles.  The kids played a little too much Minecraft in which we tried to counter balance with lots of time at the park.  I made Julie sit as much as possible and I soaked up time with a sweet friend.  Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye.

best goodbye hug ever

The kids are still asking why they had to go home and talking about going to Michigan; we're trying to figure out how we can get there to meet the new baby GIRL Morehouse in a few months!

Funny conversation from the visit:

Eli: So...Ms. Julie has a baby?

Me: Yes. 

Eli: So...where is the baby?

Me: Inside her tummy.

Eli: Like, under her shirt??? 

Me: No, inside her tummy.

Eli: I don't get it.

The baby was kicking one evening and Julie put Alison's hand on her belly.  Alison's eyes grew big and she said, "I don't get it."  Oh, it made me laugh and SO thankful I had Colin before they were old enough to ask questions.

p.s. the tadpoles lived in the jar for a few days and then were flushed down the toilet because they STUNK.

P.P.S. Enough about the dog, I know.  But I was very concerned about Maya barking all week at our visitors, considering 4 of them are boys.  We tried a new tactic that worked wonders.  We were all playing outside when the Morehouses arrived and she was able to meet them on neutral territory.  Then we all walked into the house together and she didn't have an issue once.  It was a miracle.  They are not much of dog people, in fact Julie is allergic, but they raved at how great Maya was.  By the end of their visit, their boys were helping walk her and giving her treats and petting her and even talking about "maybe we could get a dog like Maya..."  It was very encouraging for us, needless to say.