I made an attempt today to bribe the kids to do their chores. It worked. It took them until 7pm to get their rooms clean, but still, it worked, yay. While they had been dragging their feet all day, I checked out some of the entertainment options that are included in our Get Out Pass. I looked at hours and driving distances. The Rush Funplex was in Syracuse. I've never been to the Rush Funplex before, never heard of it, but let's see, it's toddler friendly, it's almost an hour away, and it was for a 2 hour pass. That would get little kids out of the house for probably atleast 4 hours. Corey might appreciate that so he can catch up on consulting hours, seeing as he spent a lot of time this week looking for a replacement for the van. So, with the rooms cleaned, we headed out to the great unknown in Davis County. I don't think I've ever been to Syracuse.
The kids were thrilled to take their first semi long drive in the new van. Time to watch a movie! Cause we never get to watch movies, right?! "We love this van!" So they watched and I listened to Megamind on the drive up. That one is a good one, very funny and clever. I like it when movies have lots of clever things that the grownups can appreciate. Really funny flick. So, we arrived at 8, redeemed our pass, and then tried to figure out where to go inside. I thought I'd take the boys to the bounce houses, but Owen saw the bumper cars on the way in and insisted Wesley take him there. Wes did. Owen tried to drive the car. He kept crashing into a wall. The Funplex attendant tried to help him. Owen didn't like that, and that was the end of their fun at the cars. I was over with Daniel, who liked the balls in the inflatable "connect four" game.
So he sat in the balls and played with the balls. Sure, Daniel, that can be a ball pit for you, whatever makes you happy. Luckily this was one of the least interesting attractions, so other funplex passerbys didn't mind this game being monopolized by my one year old.
Soon Natalie came and found us, and with her leading the way, Daniel followed her into a bounce house.
They could use better lighting here. The sun was barely setting so they hadn't turned on the night time party lights. I had to concentrate to not loose the kids. This was about when Wes brought Owen back from the bumper cars. Poor Owen was a little sad. He didn't want to do anything. He had tried to be confident and brave and try something new, and it failed. He wouldn't go in the bounce house. He just stayed close by my leg. It was 8:30 and he seemed ready to leave but I was going to try and stay the whole 2 hours. Hey, there are some fun lights over at the rollerstaking rink! Daniel ran over there, he thought it was a dance floor.
I was slightly concerned he'd get run over, but luckily it wasn't very crowded, so I just let him run around. Daniel led the way that time and Natalie joined him.
Ok, we're done with that, what else? Another bounce house, this one was a farm theme. They turned on the lights. They were red lights above this bounce house.
Then Daniel led us back to the connect four area. Three kids in a boat of big balls.
They had fun pushing the balls up the floating and having them roll back.
We went to check in on the other kids. Natalie climbed a ladder. I looked for the kids - they had been waiting in line for trapeze swing that lands in the foam pit.
Daniel and Owen looking at the fun the big kids are having. Yeah, you guys probably can't go in there, you'd sink in and get lost!
I told Natalie she could keep climbing the ladder rope thingy, Daniel was leaving for the dance floor again. I'll be right back... Owen went with him! Yay Owen!
Then back to the foam pit. We found Sophi, Lily, and Abi. They had a look of "uh oh" and "this is not good" on their faces. And Sophi didn't have her glasses on her face. I asked Sophi if her glasses were with her shoes. No. Then I could surmised what had happened. Yes, she lost her glasses in the foam pit. Someone coming off the trapeze swing hit her in the head and knocked them off. Oh drat. That was at 8:50.
Owen and Daniel were done with the bounce area and we were going to go buy a pizza or something to kill time while I waited for the second hour to finish up. I told them to try and find the glasses and I'd be back. The little boys got distracted by the arcade on our way to get pizza.
Lots of flashing lights and pretend cars and motorbikes to ride! A little boys dream land.
"Vroom vroom!"
After 20 minutes of pretend driving in the arcade, never putting in a coin mind you, we finally made it to the pizza parlor. I ordered a large cheese pizza. The kids came and said they couldn't find Sophi's glasses. Oh well. Then they said "The pizza's still not ready?!?!" Sorry, I just ordered it... the boys got side tracked by the arcade. Soon the piping hot pizza was done. The kids ate it up while I went to report Sophi's lost glasses to the lost and found. They clean out the foam pit in December, but kids find lost objects all the time, so I gave them my name and a description of Sophi's glasses and we'll see if they turn up. If they do get found I think there's a good chance they'll be bent or broken, esp since they got knocked off near where the trapeze rope riders land. After eating pizza, Natalie and Sophi pretended to play games in the arcade with the little boys.
There was a mom with her kids at the skee ball area and Daniel wanted their balls. I kept him away so they could finish. Then she swiped her card to play again. The balls didn't come, so I guess she thought it didn't work and her kids were off to another game anyway, so she left, then after a minute, all of a sudden, here came the balls! Sweet! What a tender mercy!
This could keep these little guys entertained for hours!
Yay, looks like I'm gonna make it unscathed until 10. I wasn't sure where the older kids had gone, but I had the little kids covered, so I trust we'll all find each other again. It was so fun to watch them. They weren't strong enough to roll the balls up the ramp, and they didn't know that that was what you're supposed to do anyway, so they just rolled the balls up the ball return the whole time, it was super funny. Here's what it looked like from Daniel's angle -
Isn't that funny? So cute. And then you can see Owen behind him, bending down and peeking up the hole -
Owen only had one ball, but it kept him quite entertained.
Natalie and Sophi playing a game. This one it looked like they were actually doing it, so I don't know how that worked since they didn't have any game tokens or credits.
Owen taking a break from his skee ball game to go pick up the Player 2 gun and join some guy who was shooting virtual buck deer.
The guy didn't give me a "Hey, get your kid away" look, he didn't look at me at all or seem to mind, so I didn't stop Owen from pretending he was participating. This game had a zombie option - you could shoot zombie deer and bears. Woway to go zombie culture, you guys are everywhere!
I made it past 10pm, and as I feared, the Rush employees didn't really check the wrist bands to see what time my kids were supposed to be done. I feared we might be there until 11, but at 10:20 the 3 older kids came back from the go karts.
They didn't do the miniature golf, laser tag, or bowling, so I'm glad they were able to make it off without the little kids following for a little bit so they could enjoy some of the more advanced activities.
Ok - 10:30 pm and we headed home. This was a good activity. And it was a good deal with the Get out Pass - we redeemed seven 2 hour passes, normally $17 each, so that would have been $119, so with this one activity alone we've already gotten our money's worth for the month, yay, go team. (Well... not counting the $80+ it's going to cost to replace Sophi's lost glasses...) I guess we'll need to do a few more activities this month to break even. Still, I like the Get Out Pass, it's like a timeshare for family fun - we're already paying for it, so it makes me want to use it. I'd like to do a Saturday activity like this every weekend this year. That might be a little ambitious of me, but we'll see, maybe I can do it.
We had a fun 4th, as always. We enjoy the tradition in our neighborhood and community of a 3k fun run, pancake breakfast, parade and carnival. I left my phone at home, but thankfully Mel took some. She and Wes pushed Owen and Daniel in the fun run, ...or maybe Wes pushed while Mel took pictures?
After the fun run - did you guys survive?
Daniel, you are a funny character.
The little girls are proud of their medals!
Enjoying breakfast.
Pancakes, ham and eggs but none for me or Hyrum, we both ate fruit before we came.
(The peaches at Costco are perfect right now!) After breakfast, I walked home to drop of the little boys to get my phone so I could document the fun too. Melodie painted faces again this year as we waited for the parade.
A line of customers, ready for a free face painting.
The parade started at 10. They threw out better junk food this year - like not just taffy, but swedish fish and sour patch kids. Abi was on the front lines ready to grab goodies.
She scored a lot of treats and the girls all came home with a bag that could almost rival a toddler's trick or treating loot. Two of my favorite parts of the parade were a family that seriously put on a whole Greatest Showman performance - all the characters were there, even a big dark haired dad as the bearded lady, so funny. Another one was a neighbor who had the biggest pink flamingo pool floatie I've ever seen up on a trailer. Corey was impressed. I said Corey is just like him - that dad and Corey both make ice rinks! Corey said that Jon has much better execution. It was really fun.
The boys slept over at the church to set up and then watch guard the tv and food and stuff. Unlike last year, they stayed and ran the 3K. Ethan ran it on 2 hours of sleep and a tank engine full of Joritos, KitKats, and Airhead candy. He said it sucked and he doesn't know how anyone enjoys running. A neighbor always challenges the boys and says he'll pay $50 to whoever beats him. Ethan blamed his performance on lack of sleep and a poor breakfast, to which Jim replied "If only you'd had a bowl of Fruity Pebbles..." We all laughed at that - Jim knows Ethan well from the high adventure trip. Lol.
So Eth came home and crashed, Hyrum and Wes came home to play the new Xbox that Corey bought that they've been dying to play.
The little girls didn't express interest in going to the carnival, and I didn't remind them about it, cause I was happy to go home too - it was a hot July day. So they watched movies in the messy basement while I exercised.
Later that evening, Corey took kids to watch the fireworks - Ethan, Hyrum, Wes, Abi, Lily, Sophi, and Owen. I stayed home with Mel who was practicing, and Natalie and Daniel. Natalie took a really long nap after getting up early for the fun run. She ran almost the whole thing!
Except for one part where I gave her a piggy back ride for 20 seconds and the end, when Corey met us, and carried her on his shoulders the rest of the day. I'll update here after the fun run pics are posted online.
Natalie woke up around 8pm, and didn't notice that everyone else was gone or that she was missing out on a family activity. She's a cute little girl. I'll update later with pictures that Corey took at the fireworks.
Corey has been down in St. George this weekend with Ethan for the All State Jazz Festival. Abi, Lily, Sophi, and Natalie also went with them, cause we don't consider it that bad for them to miss a day of school - they don't get a ton of homework that they need to make up. Ah, the bliss of elementary school. So, they took 4 little girls with them. They left on Thursday shortly after noon and got home late last night. Thus providing me with this good chance to do "Family History" on this sabbath day as I blog about their adventure. So, Thursday they got there in time for Ethan to make his first rehearsal (Corey had let Eth's concern about getting there in time influence his driving, thus the $120 speeding ticket he got in Beaver county...)
They had rehearsal on Thurs and Friday and then their performance on Saturday.
They also got there in time for the girls to enjoy some night swimming.
Corey worked while they played - notice his feet kicked up in the right bottom corner of the photo. Corey had Natalie say "My name is Natalie. I love my Dad. I'm a mermaid."
Enjoying dinner while watching TV - gotta love vacations!
Friday morning 2 February - more watching TV... then bringing their stuff in from the car -
Thursday night they came, swam, and crashed. Now it's a new say, time to settle in.
Lily brought Bunky Bunky. Luckily, with just 5 kids, there was room for him in the car. I have always refused to let her bring him on trips. I probably wouldn't have let her on this one either, had I gone down instead of Corey. But lucky for her, Lily's dad didn't find it irritating.
Abi and Lily eating chips while they are most likely asking him if they can go swimming... and that's another feet-kicked-up-on-a-chair-with-a-computer-on-his-lap photo.
Natalie participating in a vacation activity that isn't watching tv, good job Natalie!
Looks like they talked him into taking them to the pool -
But not without them having to do the work of carrying his computer bag -
Work those muscles Lil!
Swimming, swimming, and more swimming
Natalie striking a pose while her partners in crime swim behind.
She's got the goggles on - ready to show off her serious swimming skills!
On Friday, after Ethan was done with rehearsals, they went to the theater to watch the Greatest Showman. Can you tell that anyone is having a squabble over who gets to hold the popcorn?
Hint: left side of the photo. I think their faces are pretty funny.
Yes, that's right, its Abi and Lily. Ethan gets to be in charge of a bowls and the 4 girls have to fend for themselves. It's tough being the food scavengers in the downline. I'm guessing they got it figured out.
They all enjoyed the show. Ethan said Corey was crying. Corey and I saw it on a date night a few weeks ago. It was so fun, but now that I know the lyrics to the songs, I love it even more. Corey felt like the Tightrope song was about me and my trust and love for him and my patience as he pursues his dreams. When they told me that tonight it made me cry. So we pretty much love the Greatest Showman, like everyone else in the world. Ok, back to their trip... Saturday morning breakfast - doughnuts and orange juice!
Watching TV again
Corey takes a lot of pictures, and also takes like 5 shots of each picture. So this has taken me quite a while to filter through all these... I've seriously transferred 422 photos and videos from his phone!! It took over an hours, gosh!
I'm sure not each of these moments in time in necessary to document, but I'm just trying to give an appropriate recap of their weekend, not that I know much of the details. Corey went to a "Owner's presentation" for some more points/credits. We had just done that two months ago at Wolfcreek, but they're always pretty insistent. When Corey was checking in, he was thinking "...and I know what you're going to ask me next, and the answer is no, I don't want to go to an Owner's presentation meeting..." but they don't even listen, and Corey's excuses didn't work "I don't have anyone to watch my little kids!" "They can come! We'll give them lunch!" Well lucky you, girls.
Waiting for their lunch. (Natalie is inside that pink hooded coat there)
It was short and only a little painful, then they checked out and went out to the mall? Maybe? while they waited for Ethan's performance to start. They went into a photo booth, but instead of paying for the booth to take a picture, they did a group selfie.
Corey trying to give the girls a small taste of what we did before smart phones. Fun memories!
Over to take pictures in the unicorn cut out -
Like I said, a lot of pictures, sorry.
Probably not necessary to show each one, but don't want anyone to feel left out.
Finally, the moment that they'd been waiting for came - the All State Jazz Performance.
Ethan did a great job. Corey has a lot of videos, each one is long and I'm not sure if he has a preference on which one he wants to share so I'm just gonna let that wait until Corey gives me some direction. But thanks for your amazing skills, Ethan! And for giving Corey and the girls a good excuse for a fun trip down south with you!
