The weird bug week

It's been a week of a weird bug in our house.  I actually think it has to do with the heat, but Ben feels like it may be more a virus.  But it was weird and came right when the temperatures starting getting above 100.  Both boys threw up once and then the next couple of days had a little diarrhea.  We've never had diarrhea before, so it was a good life lesson in this new bug.  Kinda funny, right?  They both would ask for ice cold water, eat a few crackers and maybe take a little cat nap and be right back to their normal selves.

Family movie time!

 The same day this mysterious thing came to our house, I slammed my finger in the back door while trying to get this puppy outside quickly.  I've never had a finger injury like this before!  It's pretty ugly and hurt like all get out for 5 days.  

Being a puppy at it's finest=attacking all rugs and dragging them out into the yard.

See?  He doesn't seem sick.  Don't you love eating large carrots when you don't feel good?

Eli was not complaining about a day to play Minecraft

Once Colin was better, it was Eli's turn and he requested blueberry muffins to make him better.  With my primary hand out of commission, Alison and Colin made them for him all by themselves! 

P.S. There are some really awesome things about the ages of our kids now and this is one of them! It really was helpful and they did a great job.

This and that

 Last week was library week.  We were there 4 times!  We went Monday to get some books for school, Tuesday and Wednesday we attempted to go to story time and Wednesday afternoon Alison went to "tween craft time"...how is it possible that we have a tween?

Alison working on school while the boys wait for a failed story time

Yes, last week was a string of days that nothing I planned went as planned.  Instead of story time, the boys happily played at the library on their own and we checked out more books than ever.

We even went to the base library, which is much smaller than the public library but apparently it's the place to meet homeschool families.  I was asking the librarian if they had any programs for homeschoolers (I've learned to ask everywhere you go) and 3 other moms came up to me from overhearing our conversation.  It was fun to meet fellow homeschool moms and the library is hoping to start something up for us in the fall...keeping my fingers crossed it works out!

Taking Alison to "craft time" was a good glimpse of the public schools here.  She was the only white person in the room,  the only person that didn't speak Spanish, the only kid who actually listened/followed the not great English instructions for the craft.

This is how Maya helps me in the kitchen:

What?  Laying in the middle of the kitchen with a "When are you dropping food?" look isn't helpful?

We started talking about activities this week and found that the base offers some kids sports.  Basketball season is coming up and we decided to give it a try.  The kids are so excited about it, they asked if they could get basketballs to start practicing at home.  I love how much joy a few balls can bring to kids.  Every spare moment they've had this week, they've been outside "practicing".

We went to a dog park on Saturday, which was pretty monumental for our family.  Considering all of our kids have a general fear of dogs, it was a big deal to be in a place full of dogs running around.  The park was nice and all of the kids did great with the dogs.

Ha!  I'm just noticing that my picture has Maya sniffing the other dogs bottom...super.  Well, let's just say she had a good time too.

We tried to be outside as much as possible this weekend while it was "cool" (aka 78).  We found Castle Park, which is possibly the most fun park I've seen.

Can you spot Ben and the kids on top of the castle?

I made pineapple and watermelon sorbet for dessert, in efforts to feel a little better about our new habit.  In real life, Eli's smile was great...but not so much on camera.

We have been going to Kneaders after church the last few Sundays and we love it.  Now that church is morning and evening, it's nice to have an easy button for lunch.  This week, we brought it home for a picnic and so Maya could be with us (our sprinkler system had to be replaced and she had to spend too much time in the kennel this weekend). 

After lunch shenanigans involved feeding Maya leftover cheese from their sandwiches:

Colin and Maya spent the afternoon playing together.  

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.

Phoenix trip

My friend Julie and her family were in Phoenix.  Tim had a work conference and they invited the kids and I to come up and hang out with them.  Come sit by the pool at the Biltmore while all our kids have a blast together?  Okay!

I'm kinda over Phoenix already (I'm clearly not a city girl) but the resort was beautiful and super fun to be at with friends.  

Something about our kids just clicks and they all get along amazingly well, especially because they barely know each other.

Colin and Kyle working on mazes together on the balcony

 When we visited Julie in Michigan, the kids found out they could get on each others Minecraft worlds and they were all super excited to do that again.

This is the life of a kid in 2016:

Monday night, Tim and Julie went to a work dinner and I watched all the kiddos at the resort.  We ordered room service pizza and went on an adventure to find the "Kids Korral".  

Eli sat at this music station at the park for a good 10 minutes, trying to read the music.  It made me wonder if he would enjoy piano lessons...

Tuesday, Julie and I took the kids to a nearby park.

Eli, Luke, Alison, Kyle, Colin, Evan

They were more excited about the ducks than the park.

That afternoon, Julie and the little boys napped (did I mention Julie is pregnant with super surprise #4?) and I took the older 4 to the pool.

These 2 middle boys had so much fun.  They're pretending to be sharks.

When Tim was done with the conference, we all went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  The hostess asked if we were there for something special and was surprised when I told her no.  She said, "Oh, you just have a lot of kids..."  Yes, six kids is not for the faint of heart, although I think they all did awesome.

If you ask Eli what he wants to eat, he'll say "I don't know."  If you ask Colin what he wants to eat, he'll say, "Everything!"

Colin eating the remainder of Alison and Eli's dinner

 Point in case, breakfast at the hotel:

p.s. the boys love hotel breakfast because they get sugary cereal

 Wednesday morning, we hit the pool one last time before heading back to Yuma.

The resort had 8 pools, so we had plenty of options to choose from.  This particular one was our favorite because one side was shallow enough for the little boys, but they were still close to the bigger kids.

Thanks to "Gold" status at Hilton, we get some perks.  When we were checking out, the lady gave all of the kids coloring books and crayons, which Eli did not want to put down.  Ironically, it was a landmark coloring book that goes really well with our geography unit in school.

The kids and I headed home while the Morehouses went for a little hike before heading our way.  We had just enough time to bring our suitcases in, scoop some dog poop and lose a tooth before they got here.

Next up, our Yuma adventures.