Fun Day at the Splash Park

My mother-in-law suggested we go to the splash park Thursday, but I was feeling tired and thought just taking the day off sounded good. Then my sister-in-law, Kari, called and asked if we'd like to meet her there. Boy, two offers is hard to resist and I knew the kids would have such a grand time if their cousins were involved, so we got ready and loaded up.

I was right, a grand time was had by all. I took well over 100 pictures (I think even more than 200) so here is some of the fun...

Grandma stayed under the bowery with Bolton. We rushed out the door without giving him lunch, so she fed the little sweet heart... I think its so cute when I see a baby just waiting patiently for that food to find its way into their mouth...

Ah, ya. That's what I'm talking about.
The cousins had been at the park for awhile by the time we got there, so they were all playing on the playground. My kids were happy to join them.

But they soon found their way into the water. Levi loves splash pads. Its like 5 year old heaven.

I just loved this picture, all the different cousins playing. Levi's in the back getting water dumped on his head, Porter & Bryant are trying to shoot each other (I think), and Bella & Eliza are having a good ol' time running through the water shooting up from the ground.
These two had lots of fun together. Although, Eliza didn't want to get too wet.
She's such a little girl. Even the way she runs! I think its adorable!
Taking a time out from the water. These boys love their cousin Spencer.
Hydration is important. :)
Hey! I was there too!
The spoon is still entertaining, 2 hours later. Amazing.



Some of the boys were laying out on the rock wall to warm up, they got bombarded with all the other kids who posed for a picture. What a fun way to spend the day.

There and Back Again... by air

This is basically a boring travelogue, but I wanted to have it recorded.

On Tuesday, Jun 21 Ethan, Bolton and I left Utah bright and early heading back to Texas by plane. Ethan had to be in San Antonio Wednesday for a pre-op appointment for his PRK (Photorefractive Keratectomy).

We left the big kids with my family and knew they were in good hands. We barely made it through security in time to make our flight, there were a TON of people flying early morning! Holy Cow! Maybe its always like that, and we just never fly. But I thought it was crazy. The flights were uneventful (thankfully). We landed in A-Town about 1:00 local time. A friend picked us up from the Airport and we had a few things to do before we drove down to San Antonio.

One of those things was getting the oil changed. You'd think it would be a simple thing, in and out in 30 minutes, right? Wrong. I made the mistake of going to one of my least favorite places in the world (don't get me started on WalMart) and they said they were "Unable to remove the oil plug because the people at PepBoys {the last place we had the oil changed} had used the wrong plug. Figures."

So I picked up Ethan and we went to PepBoys to see if they could fix the problem. They got the car in there and said, "What problem? The folks at WalMart said there was a problem? Figures."

I thought it was funny that they each took the time to say their piece about the competition.

So we headed out later than we had hoped, but hit the road south. We stopped at a new favorite local bakery for dinner. Called Side Oats Cafe in Menard. Every time we say the town name, we say it like Todd Packer saying, "What's up m'nerds?"

We got to San Antonio with no problem. Found the base with only a little help from my dad over the phone. :) Then got up early the next morning so Ethan could get his appt.

This is the only picture I have from our trip...

That night we headed up to the nice side of San Antonio and had dinner with the Sclaters. Rod was Ethan's roommate during COT 3 years ago. His wife Jenni and I have been blogging friends since then and it was so great to finally meet them face to face! What an awesome couple they are! And cute, cute kids. They reminded me a lot of our own, pretty interesting, really. It will be fun to get them all together. Crazy, but fun. :) Funny little observation, you know how you hear a voice on radio and have a face that goes with that voice in your head and then when you see the person for real it can be somewhat of a surprise? Well, I kind of had the opposite experience. I don't know what I expected their voices to be like, but they sounded different that I expected. :)

Jenni is one of those women who just amazes me, who has her home in order, loves her kids & husband perfectly, creates things of beauty in her sleep, and takes the most incredible photos. I hope we get to hang out again soon, so some of her fabulousness can rub off on me. :) They fed us a yummy salad, bread, and delicious stuffed shells. Dessert was a yummy strawberry cake. Hmmm. So good. Thanks again Sclaters! Looking forward to seeing you again!

Thursday morning was Ethan's surgery. For those of you who don't know and who would like to, PRK is like Lasik. Basically the biggest difference is that instead of cutting the outer layer of the eye and peeling back, then replacing it after the correction has taken place (as in Lasik), they scrub the epithelials away and do the correction, your eye then has to heal/grow back. It has a more difficult and painful recovery and longer time getting to 20/20 vision. BUT is better for some people. Ethan was one of those people.

Basically the rest of the time was spent in our room, me watching TV, Ethan sleeping. Friday night he was in a lot of pain. Saturday was pretty bad. Sunday was a bit better, so we headed up to Boerne to church. We visited with some of the friends that Ethan knew when he lived there 20 years ago!

Bolton was pretty miserable during this time. You'd think that he would have loved all the extra attention, but he was miserable. I think he really missed his siblings. Not to mention he cut his first tooth while we were there. Everyone thought we were having this nice little escape, but between the surgery and the teething it was a pretty sad trip.

Monday Ethan had his last follow up appointment. After that we hit the road north back to A-Town. I was very stressed about driving in such a big city but I survived (with only a little bit of yelling).

Tuesday morning I flew back to Utah with Bolton. I was blessed to sit next to very nice people. You know how its always a crap shoot when traveling with small children, well, I rolled the dice and won! Boy am I thankful!

My parents picked me up from the airport, treated me to lunch and a trip to IKEA and then we went to get my kiddos.

Big time THANK YOU to all of you that helped with the kids while I was gone. Mom, Jane, Adrienne, Heather, and Kari. I owe y'all one. My kids had a blast building forts out of blankets, sleeping on trampolines, getting spoiled, and just playing with their cousins. I know it was a lot of work, but thank you so much!

Talk about a poopy day

Literally.

Read at your own risk.

I'm fairly certain that there should be a cap on the amount of poop one has to deal with in a day. I'm sure I would have reached that cap today... and its not even 4:00!

Incident #1. I rushed off to my presidency meeting this morning, pushing the kids out the door so I could be on time (I was! Yay!). I did not, however, take the time to check rooms for lights, messes, etc. Upon our return, I was busy checking my email when Eliza yells, "Bolton has poo!" I rush to the area and find Bolton elbow deep in it from the toilet! Much yelling, scrubbing, and bathing ensued.

Incident #2. I was talking to Ethan on the phone during his lunch break. Jonas is going potty. He flushes the toilet and runs out of the bathroom screaming, "Its overflowing! Brown water!" Luckily, it didn't overflow, the plunger was able to contain the mess. Crisis averted, but gross, nonetheless.

Incident #3. Bolton was in his high chair eating lunch after his nap. I walked by and noticed he was stinky, but figured I'd let him finish his lunch and then change his diaper. After his bath earlier (see Incident #1) I only dressed him in a onesie/shirt. Upon further inspection, I noticed a large quantity of brownish green goo to the side of him. Ugh. Are you kidding me?!?!?!?! His diaper hardly needed changing, though he was covered on his entire left side. Now he's been bathed again, the walls have been scrubbed, and the high chair is sitting in my front yard after being hosed down.

I feel like I need another shower! Ah. The joys of motherhood.

Family Pictures with the Hosses

Every other year, my family has gotten together for a great big family photo shoot. My mom hires a professional and we get shots of the big group, shots of each smaller family (though none of the families are all that "small"), and all the grandkids.

Its always a lot of fun and I'm able to get some fun pictures and memories of our crazy night.

Here's Ethan doing his Levi impersonation. We're working on the thumb sucking this summer.

My pretty mom and my sweet baby. Two of my favorite people.
Two more of my favorite people, my sweet papa and baby girl.
Isn't she stunning? I can say it all I want, I'm the mom.
At this point, Bolton was pretty much done. Poor guy.
Wow. We miss these kids. My kids had such a fantastic time playing with their cousins. They are dying to move to Utah. I wish we knew what the future held for us.
Silly faces!
I thought I'd try my hand at new portraits of my kids...

Jonas is impossible to get a good shot of while looking at the camera. But he's cute looking to the side.

Bryant's money shot.
I loved this moment. What sweet kids.
Beautiful girl.
Three years old on Sunday, I think we'll use this as her portrait this year.
Such a sweetheart.


I could eat him he's so cute!
My hot hubby! Thanks Sean for getting a good one of us!

Flag Football

My brother invited the boys to play flag football one evening we were there. Bryant has said for the last 9 months he "doesn't like football." But seeing as he had never played before, he decided maybe he should give it a try before passing judgement.

As a side note, he had a good friend in his class last year who played (and they take football seriously in Texas!) and could never play after school because he was always at practice. I think that's why he has a bad taste in his mouth for it.

Bolton was an excellent cheerleader. Go team! Go!
Uh-oh! I guess maybe he doesn't like it after all... I don't know the cause of the meltdown, but I attribute it to sheer exhaustion~this trip took it out of all us! He was sad that he didn't get passed the ball, if I remember right.
I'm not sure how Ethan ended up with the two 8 year olds on his team, while Richy got the 9 and 10 year olds...
And the hand-off. Go Bryant! Go! Turns out he had fun! Who would have thought?!?!

Temple Square

On Day two of AOA, I headed down to Temple Square with the kids. My mom works at the Church Office Building, so we met her and my dad for lunch. Then they toured the square with us.

I loved watching my kids see the view from the COB for the first time. It was so fun. Grandpa pointed out where he works.

The magical view from above, "Everything is so TINY!"
Aw. I love to see the Temple, too.

My dad really was happy to be there, I promise. :)
Hey, look, I was there too! I remember, like it was yesterday, standing on this pedestal with my love on that perfect day 10 years ago. How fun to stand there with our 5 beautiful babies and feel the joy in the truthfulness that families can be together forever.
Bryant thought it would be funny to try to hold the Temple up with his strength. He's pretty tough. Doesn't even look like he's breaking a sweat.
Levi likes to have his picture taken. This one was at his request.
Then Bryant wanted to get in on the action.
Eliza was just content as could be to play in the water. I tried to recreate one of my bridal shots with her, but she was just too busy having fun!
Eliza loves her big brother Levi. I mean LOVES him. She mimics him in just about everything, it is so funny and cute and sweet. I think Levi loves being adored so much (most of the time), it doesn't get much of that from his brothers. I love this picture, these two just make my heart happy.
So thankful for these two great men and all they did and sacrificed in bringing to pass the great restoration of the fullness of the gospel.
We visited the south Visitor's Center and really enjoyed it. They had a neat scale model replica of the Salt Lake Temple with the outside walls removed so visitors can see what its like inside the Temple. They have several stations where you can watch video and learn more about what happens there. I thought this was such a great missionary tool!

My dad was impressed with Levi's knowledge of the Temple. He recognized different Temples that we've seen, different things within the Temple, and knew some cool things about them. Made me happy to hear that he's been listening.

The kids were getting kind of restless, so we headed over to the Church History Museum next. They have a great kids area.

Before we made it upstairs to that, we learned a little about the early Saints that traveled by sea to America. They let the kids get on this bunk to help them understand how difficult a journey it must have been.
The Hall of Prophets (I don't remember if its really called that) was fun. The kids have been singing "Latter Day Prophets" all year, so we named/sang them all as we walked through. President Hinckley's area had this great podium the kids enjoyed.
Isn't it amazing how beautiful and grand this statue is? I like that it sits atop more Temples now. Notice Bryant's strength again. :)
There is also an awesome quilt exhibit along the way to the Children's area. Beautiful quilts from around the world and a huge magnet wall where you can design your own work of art.

The kids area! I didn't really read anything while we were in there, but if I remember correctly it was an area representing the lands of the Book of Mormon, specifically South America?Bolton was stoked to finally be able to get down and play! The farming area.
They had this great dance set up where kids could dress up in the traditional type costume and select a dance to learn. Then they could watch it in the video while dancing in the mirror. The little girls loved it. Well, Eliza didn't really know what to do with all, but the other little girls sure loved it.
Bolton liked the dancing. Did I mention he started walking? Like the first day we were in Utah he just took off. We attribute it to all the carpet, he had better traction and a softer surface on which to land. Way to go Bo Bo!
When we left the museum, look who we found!!! Love this guy! Look how much his kiddos love him too!

It was a sweet way to spend the afternoon. And bonus, when we were leaving the parking lot, that was supposed to cost $10, the attendant let us out for free! Telling us for next time "its cheaper to just park on the street." I don't know if it was because of our Texas plates, Ethan's uniform or just a really nice guy, but either way I'll take it!