A Busy, Crazy Weekend

So we had offered to take Carisa's four girls for the weekend to give her a break. We almost skipped it because my kids had only been on antibiotics for strep 24 hours as of Friday night. But Rick was really great and insisted we take them still but meet Friday night so our kids would be in bed already. It was really important to him that he do this for them and I really appreciated him for that. I love my nieces, but I'm really tired and don't have a lot of patience right now so I didn't know if it was the best timing.

Friday night Rick put the kids to bed and I headed to Provo to meet Carisa and the kids. They were all asleep even though it was only 9:30. I was happy about that because it would mean they'd go to sleep at our house easier. Every child was awake by 8:10 Saturday morning. Didn't anyone teach them to sleep in? My kids usually do but for some reason they didn't. We messed around for a little while then started on a huge breakfast of bacon, sausage, pancakes, and eggs. I should explain that they are 13 (almost 14-very important) , 11, 8, and 5. 4 extra children added quite a bit to the quantities of food we made. We all got ready and made lunches and headed to the Safe Kids Fair. They have booths and activities and I usually go on Friday, but as we were still in the contagious period, decided against it. Plus, it provided a good free activity for all 9 of us.

I knew we were in trouble when we got there and had to circle for 15 minutes to find parking. There were literally thousands of people there. It was insane, especially with 7 kids. We also wondered what people thought of us. 7 kids plus I'm pregnant. :) We got a few funny looks and a few not so nice comment about there being so many of us. I have a lot of respect for anyone with that many kids and I am reminded why 4 is plenty for me. It was crazy because they usually have spinners or games to win a prize and there were huge lines for these and the prizes were sometimes nothing but a pencil or sucker. CRAZY. We tried to skip the busiest things and let the kids take stickers and candy from tables without lines.

We ate lunch after awhile and realized that we were about done. We'd promised that if they were good they could get their faces painted. Well, we found that line and it was terrible! It was longer than any line we stood in at Disneyland. I wish I was exaggerating. We barely moved and it took us an hour and a half to get to the front. We had one adult stand with Darren and the stroller in line and the other would take the kids to different booths. One of their favorites was the company that had the Burmese Pythons. They went nuts petting those. Yes, 6 girls.

Somewhere about then Evynn, my niece who is 5, had wandered away from her sister who was her "buddy." We aren't even sure exactly where she was because she wouldn't tell us after we found her, but she was missing for about 15 minutes. I think she was in line to see Spiderman. Well, once we realized that she was missing, Rick stayed with the kids in line and I ran around trying to find someone "official" to help me. I mostly got pointed from one person to another and I was getting frantic. Finally I found a very helpful lady who got a description from me and told me to stay put. It felt like forever that I waited there praying that somehow we would find her, but looking around me realized how many people where there. I heard them announce it and burst into tears. The lady came back and told me to stand somewhere else which was where they would bring her. I don't know who found her or anything else, but when I saw that little girl with a look like, "Oh, I'm going to get it now" look on her face and not an ounce of being scared I dropped to my knees and hugged her. I'm sure she thought I was going to yell, but I couldn't. I was so relieved. How scary that was. I would like to thank those people who found her but I don't know who they are. Well, that's when she made a comment about wanting to see Spiderman. Her older sisters had been a upset too and were relieved to see her. The line was getting to everyone, but they all insisted that they didn't care. Darren was going crazy and we tried to sedate him with suckers and his bottle. He finally fell asleep when we were at the end of the line and got a little nap. On the upside, their face painting was awesome. Sharice had half of a rainbow butterfly. Jaycie's whole face was a colorful peace sign. Aili and Evynn had bunny faces. Carlyn had half a pink butterfly and a flower on the other side. Annie had a whole brown butterfly. They were super cute.

When we got home I was totally sore and exhausted. I said I was making spaghetti and everyone complained so we got pizza from Papa Murphy's. We ended up making butter noodles too (long story) and most of them wanted that. UGH. That's why I don't do special orders, but butter noodles tasted better to my picky pregnant tastes so I couldn't be too grumpy. Rick wasn't too pleased though. We rented High School Musical 3 (wow, was that a dumb show!) and the kids all loved it. Rick watched a few minutes with us, but couldn't handle it and left. :) We had ice cream sandwiches and went to bed later than we meant to. I meant to give the kids all baths/showers that night because church was at 9 the next morning.

I woke up really early and had a hard time getting anyone to get in the shower after me. Sharice did the best, but everyone else was sluggish, even Rick. Jaycie complained of being sick and Annie and Carlyn came up with fevers and feeling sick too. For crying out loud, they'd been on antibiotics for days so I really wasn't expecting that. Annie was supposed to have her first talk in Primary that day. I was so sad that she didn't get to. She'd done so well when we'd practiced. Anyway, Jaycie stayed home with my girls and they rest of us made it to church on time! A miracle in itself, I know. Darren was really difficult during Sacrament, probably just tired, but he and Rick (who wasn't feeling too great himself) went home after Sacrament.

We had tons of leftovers in the fridge so we had a leftover lunch and then we played some wii. I don't know if it was just that nobody had enough sleep the night before but they kids were all driving me crazy because they were fighting over everything. Which game to play, who got to play, etc. I really just wanted to put on a movie because I thought it would be more mellow. It really doesn't seem like a lot of time looking back on it and we really did have a fun time, but it was crazy. It was really good for the cousins to bond a little. They've been out of state so long and every time we see them it seems like its always a little hectic. This was a nice way to just have fun and spend some time together and let them know that we love them. I really, really appreciated Rick that he made such efforts to show them he cared and he did a lot of the work. He was great and I love him so much for making the effort with my sister's kids. Rick met my sister late Sunday afternoon in Provo to do the switcheroo. She sounded so happy to have had someone look after her kids while she was working and to have a little time to herself. I'm so glad that it was so good for her, and that is a lot of why we did it. We love you, Carisa, and we love your kids too.