We left for Arizona and met Natasha and her family in Las Vegas! The drive was pretty good! We played at the pool and then watched shows all night. These kids are so cute!!
The next morning before we left for Scottsdale we stopped at this amazing park in Las Vegas called Container Park. It was so much fun!
At this park they had huge size Legos and Connect Four, fun for all!
Natasha and I love each other...! :)
Look at these cute kids!
The drive from Vegas to Scottsdale was NOT as "good" it took quite a while and Calvin was NOT happy. We stopped at Hoover Dam, which was a nice diversion while it lasted, but spoiler alert, we had to get back in that dang Van!! Side note: Traveling in a van is SO MUCH better then traveling in an Acadia!
We finally arrived in Arizona later that night to find Sharee and Bryan and their families at the house. We so loved spending time with them.
The next day my parents paid for us to go to a very fun park that had a tiny train you could ride, as well as a carousel. The kids LOVED it! Most of them rode in the claustrophobic box car! :)
Calvin thought the boxcar was awesome until they closed the doors; then I had to rescue the crying baby and take him to one of the open cars with me. Look how cute Rowen and Morgan are! Nothing like seeing a bunch of adults and a few kids on a tiny train going around a park...! :) Haha!
I love these pictures of the kids on the carousel! There is something magical about a carousel...
And this little mini park, located across the tiny railroad tracks from the seemingly AMAZING, huge playground was where the kids spent about 3 hours. They LOVED it. It was fascinating. This was all it was, Just this boxy house surrounded by sand. They could have played longer we just were running out of daylight!
It was so cute to see their imaginations run wild here. It was seemingly just Justin, Natasha, Jerica and Steve and I with 9 children (we had cute Rowen and Morgan with us) and we seriously had people come up to us and thank us for bringing all of our children to play, They made it so fun for the other kids. Apparently it's not common in Scottsdale to have 9 children...?? :) But really the kids played WITHOUT FIGHTING the entire time. These kids are really good kids. :)
Here we are, sitting in amazement.
They also had a "Train Museum" that I had to physically pull my kids out of when it was time to leave. It was just a TON of toy electric trains set up all over behind plexiglass. They were in heaven. And then they had this old street car. Cute kids.
The second day a couple over achievers went on a morning hike, their cute face's are pictured below. Also my Mom, who took the picture. They all said it was such a fun time. My mom said it was a highlight of the trip. :)
When they got back we all drove an hour to do this crazy walk in the Arizona desert that looks exactly like all other parts of the Arizona desert, except you have to pay to see it. So we walked around there. And tried to find a cactus to take a picture by. (This is harder then it sounds because apparently, they had a fire at some point, killing all the cacti in that specific, small region. So really it's the only place in Arizona without a cactus...) But it was so much fun to be with family!! And the walk had the most interesting "tree skeletons." They were just weird dead treed branches with tons of tiny wholes bore in them. But they weren't rotted, they were hard and dry. And they were in the most fantastical shapes. I swear I got some pictures of the kids with their awesome swords, guns, blasters, and axe's; but I don't see any on my phone. So that is sad, because they really found amazing wooden weapons that looked surprising real. I would challenge my family with any boring activity that they couldn't make fun!!
They are fun, and it's just great to be a part of them!!
After the weird expensive walk, I mean, awesome nature adventure my parents sponsored, we went to Kim and Ana's condo! They had generously offered to let us use their amazing facilities. And when I say amazing, it's an understatement. It was so much fun. They had a huge heated pool and a huge hot tub, and a lounge area with gas fires, and sauna, and steam room, and gym, and mini golf, and on and on. The pool/hot tub was where we spent most of the time. And then all the family came together at dinner time and ate pizza and ice cream until it was bed time.
Being with family was definitely the huge highlight of this trip. We love them. It was the very best.
And then we had to leave the next day!! "Noooooo! Not the van again!!" says Calvin and Tawny!
To ease the trip we all went to breakfast at this tasty place in Scottsdale. It was really nice. Like, oddly nice. If you have ever eaten at a restaurant with 7 kids you know that's not usually a word you use. We had a man come up to us after and compliment us on our well behaved children! I can count on 1 finger how many times that has ever happend! Anyway, the kids were AMAZING, and just colored and talked until the food came. I love those kids! And yum. Also, my mom fed Calvin sugar packets while we waited for our food, shown below.
Here we all are, peaceful restaurant attendies with our 7 kids. It was amazing. And then we all had to say our goodbyes, we love our family!
We went the long way home (waaaa!!) to stop off at the Grand Canyon because it's kind of a once in a lifetime thing--like I've never been, and, now that I have, I will never go again. :) It is AMAZING though, nerve wracking, and amazing. I have lots of picture.
You can't really see very well, but below is a picture of a cliff without railings and people walking all over it. I was very scared for them. People were everywhere. I can't believe more people don't die falling off cliff's at the Grand Canyon. I just looked it up and on average 12 people die every year here. 2-3 from directly falling off a cliff. Yikes.
Then we went through some obscene weather to get to Page at 8pm that night. And then waited in line to get our room key until 8:45. YUCK. And then EVERYONE to bed!! We left after breakfast the next morning and had about 5-6 hours left somehow. I can't figure it out, I just feel like we drove all day, every day. It was awful. But look how cute my kids are!! Also, check the crazy fog out the windows! The weather was bad the entire time. I'm so glad we made it home safe.
We will never vacation more then 4 hours away again...;)
A short 2 days later was Christmas Eve!!
My boys helped me make Christmas Cookies!! Jax helped too, but was busy doing something else during this pictures. Calvin had his first exposure to the cookie scoop and LOVED it. They looked so cute up there helping, and they were so excited.
Then we headed over to my moms for an AMAZING elaborate meal. She pounded meat for like 2 hours. Her hands were going numb when I got there. She is amazing. Also! Eli was a good little helper!
Later that night we did the kids gift exchange! It was SO cute. Happy smiles all around. Everyone was so sweet about all the gifts they got/gave their cousins! It was so fun to watch.
Below is Cal opening toy animals from Lulu! CUTE!!
This was one of my favorites of the night: Natasha had told me that she wasn't sure about Rod's gift, but Ollie was sooo insistant that Rod would love a little rainbow stuffed tiger, that she just let it be. Rod opened his gift from Ollie and was SO delighted, he squealed, "How did you know I always wanted a rainbow tiger??!" And he was dead serious. These two have a connection.
It was such a sucsess in all areas. These kids are ALL GEMS.
Nativity
I have some of this on a video that is very worth watching. It was an amazing production. With all children's personalities coming through their characters. Highlights were:
* The pose Mary (Mairee) very intentionally took when at the manger and where she placed the baby.
* Hazel singing SO CONFIDENTLY and beautifully (per her own suggestion) throughout all reciting and goofy/distracting things done by any other character.
* Shepherd and Sheep (Rod and Calvin) attacking each other alternately throughout.
* The smaller wise man (Ollie) Insisting that HE open the beautiful dark glass gift he carried for Jesus, and then, obviously very unimpressed with the it's contents (nothing) immediately dropped it, completely disinterested, on the floor.
* Isaac laughing so violently on the sidelines he could hardly breath.
It was THE BEST.
How cute is it when Isaac reads to his nephews...?!
And then, one of the coolest things ever happened. We did our adult gift exchange, which, this year was super special. We loved having Arianne and Carter live with Face Time. We all donated money instead of gifts to send a girl to school in Africa, which felt great. But we still wanted to do a gift exchange. SO we had everyone do some sort of "portrait" of the person who's name they drew, and also, a poem. Haha! We had so many skeptical and begrudged participants. BUT, the results were unforgettable, at least for me. Which is good, because I don't think we got any pictures.
I DID get one. Arianne did this insane sketch of me. My mind was blown a ton that night, but this was the biggest blow out for me. It looks EXACTLY like me. It's amazing. And I did Carter, in a much less amazing way, but the effort was there. So at least I got pictures with them. I love them.
Hopefully my mom makes a book of all of the amazingly diverse artistic and linguistic talent in our family, showcased at this Christmas. Who'd have thought? It was so great. Like SO GREAT.
I LOVE MY FAMILY!!
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