Cousin Camp: Day 8

Maybe you noticed that I skipped Day 7?  It was Sunday and we took a much needed day of rest.  Well, after I spoke in church and did music in Primary, that is.  It was still kind of an exhausting day.  But, like I said, a much needed day of rest.

So, on to Day 8.  We still took it pretty easy, but we had a lot of fun.  Our first activity was marshmallow shooters.  I was amazed at how well these worked!  The kids had so fun for hours!  

Except, Jonas.  He was sad that he couldn't work the shooters very well.  Boo hoo.

The troops went and attacked Kari while she was making lunch.

Then they turned on me!

In case any one is interested in making these... All you do is tie a balloon, cut about a half inch from the top (the side away from the tie), stretch the balloon over the top of a plastic cup, and cut the bottom off the cup.  Then put the marshmallows in the balloon end of the cup, pull the tie back and fire away.

After lunch and the wee ones were down for naps, we made sand art!  I've never actually done this activity before but I thought the kids would enjoy it... and they did!  But instead of just paying a fortune for colored sand, I bought a bunch of salt and some sidewalk chalk.  The kids colored their own "sand" to make the activity last longer!

Then everyone got to choose a statue to fill and they paired up to work as a team to get the jobs done.

Everyone was thrilled with their results.

We had quite the animal train.

Later that night we headed out to the creek and pulled out the kayak.

The kids started out under the bridge catching minnows.  Once Jonas cut his foot open we all went to the picnic area together.

 Kari was hesitant to get out on the kayak, but after she saw prego and wimpy me do it, she had something to prove... ha!  Not really, she's much nicer and mature than that... She just realized that she could do it.

Despite their mother telling them over and over, my kids would not stay out of the water.  Richy thought I was being quite a stick in the mud.

After all Richy's kids got a turn on the kayak, he took two of my boys out, he wasn't too thrilled with Levi's paddling skills. :)

Though Eliza stayed out of the water for the most part, she did manage to find some mud!

Ethan even met us after he got done with work!  And he brought pizza!

I finally managed to keep the kids out of the water by bringing them over to the grassy area to play games.  We had races, played Mother May I?, and TV Tag.  Did you ever play that as a kid?  Good times.

And then my other brother showed up!!!  The first time he's visited Ethan and I since we moved away from Utah 8 1/2 years ago.  I'm so excited, his work just got a contract with the state of Kentucky so he'll be out here probably 7 times in the next year!  Perfect timing!

The kids were all super stoked to see the "funny uncle."

Sean was talking to Jonas, I think trying to "guess" how old he is.  Jonas was getting a kick out of him... I was getting a kick out of all Jo's facial expressions...

"Let's see, I know you're old enough to vote and you have to be 32 to vote..."  Funny uncle, indeed.

Sean took the time to come back to our house to hang out for a few hours too.  We put the kids to bed and had a fun time catching up.  I sure have been blessed with some amazingly awesome brothers.  So glad I got to see them!

Cousin Camp: Day 6

Saturday we ventured out to the Kentucky Horse Park!  It was a lot of fun!

First off, we found some miniature horses to pet.  It was a great way to start our adventure.  Nothing excites kids more than a hands on experience.

I just love this kid's face.

We picnicked here where the kids could pretend to be the horses and do all the fancy jumps.

Then we took a trolley tour around the horse park.

They have a Kids' Barn that the kids really loved playing in and exploring.  I think some of them may have even learned some things.

Our next stop was the Horses from Around the World or Through History (something like that) Show.  As you can see, there was a lot of excitement in the air!

The first thing they did was bring out the American Flag and played the song, "Proud to Be An American."  I can't believe how emotional I get when I stand for the flag.  It gets me every time.  Tears were just pouring down my face.

They brought out lots of horses that were really neat.  But my favorite part of the show was the guest performers, they were pretty awesome!  I think they were called horse vaulters, something like that.

It was crazy the things they did.  And scary, too.  They even had a little mishap and had to pause the show, but no one was injured thankfully.

Bryant says this horse was his favorite, a Marwari.  They are known for their curled ears.  Its a really lovely breed.

Bolton was really taken with all the horses.  It was fun to watch him watch them.

Then we headed out for pony rides.  It was less exciting for the older kids than it was for the littles.

I love Levi's face here.

And I loved when Bolton reached out to pet his horse's mane.  What a sweetheart.

They had a playground for the kids to play on after the pony rides.  Poor Lincoln slipped and broke open his eyebrow.  He handled it like a champ, though.

We finally ended up touring the museum.  My boys, of course, had to be crazy with the statue.

The museum was a lot of fun and had a lot of interesting things to look at and read.  Poor Ethan did get stuck with a tough crowd and spent most of him time chasing and requesting quiet.  As we were trying to get everyone together to leave we couldn't find Levi... the little stink had run away from his dad... well, the doors got locked and before we knew it Levi was standing at the gate in tears.  He was so scared that he'd been locked in!  There was a guy in the lobby who could unlock the gate for him, but you'd think we'd asked him to fun a 5K with the way he grumpily huffed over to get his key.  Makes me hope I don't get too grumpy when I'm old.

We ended the day with the Man O' War Memorial.  I had no idea people were so taken with horses.  I suppose, as far as horses go, Man O' War was quite a horse!  He only ever lost one race in his career.  On a side note, I learned that the term "hoss" came from the word horse said with an accent.  I'm sure that wasn't news to anyone else, but it sure was for me! :)

While I was finishing up at the memorial, Ethan took some of the kids down by the water and they were all impressed with amazing amount of frogs!

Just one last shot of the day, Ethan showing his mad fence hopping skills. :)  Man, I sure love having him around!