Fun Weekend

We had a fun weekend. Brian's sister Julia came into town and there was a get together at their cousin Jessisca's house, so we made a weekend of it down in Sandy. Well, kind of. Julia wanted to take a road trip down to Bryce Canyon, but I didn't think it would be all that fun with the kiddos, especially the drive back, so I opted to keep them wit me and let them go have their fun. We ended up going camping with my fam, which the kids actually did great. Not to say there wasn't frustration and chaos, but when isn't there?!
We had fun with the campfire. Papa John had Elizabeth light her first fire. She was freaked out about it. All the other kids wanted to do it, but she was afraid of getting burned. Papa John helped her do it and she was pleased about it in the end.


We had smores, a trip to see the rushing stream, hang out time, and then I slept in the back of the suburban with all but Elizabeth. It would have been just great, but Isabelle isn't a huge fan of sleeping out of her bed. We had it set up in the other car, but I couldn't get high enough to lay her in it. I had to kind of drop her in it, so that didn't end up working out.
Everything went well though, except I took 3 of the kids to the potty and then on the way back I had to grab something out of the car and let them walk the 30 ft up the trail to the campsite. Well I got up there and Cooper wasn't there. He had started up the trail with Caroline, but I guess she went faster than him. There wasn't really any other trail to go off on, but there was an almost trail that he scooted off on. I was freaking out because that water was moving so fast, but it was a pretty far way off, so I knew he couldn't make it there that fast, but in the time it could take us to find him he could have. Anyway... he took a moment off and we found him in less than 1 min, but that was a scary min. I asked him if he was scared and he said no. He then proceeded to tell us that he was poopy. Guess he knew what he was doing. Just needed a minute alone.
This is how we found him

This was Mom's reaction to his reason for disappearing.






We came back from the campout and had a little birthday celebration for Isabelle. It was her 1st birday. Very very low key. About 10 min to open a few presents and let her demolish her cake. Good enough. It amazes me how much we did for Elizabeth's and how much less we did for the others. Took us a few tries to realize how much the 1st party is for the parents and not the kids.



After the cake, Brian and Julia took the kids back to Logan and left me behind to have a girls night with my Mom and sisters. They had planned on buying me some clothes for my birthday. We started out eating dinner at Johnny Carinos. It was super yummy. Then we headed to the mall and shopped shopped shopped. They picked out the clothes for me to try on and a lot of them I was like, "um no!". But they ended up being everyone's favorites, so I just went with it. Especially Caroline. She picked out 3 or 4 things and I was not a fan, but they actually did end up looking good on. After a successful run there and then at TJ Maxx, we headed to the movies, but not without a quick pull over in Melanie's car. Tail light out. Warning, no ticket. Then we watched 17 Again. Cute movie.
It was a fun night. It was so nice to be able to lood for clothes and not have to rip them on and off as fast as I can to get in and out with all the kids. It was nice to not have to run them to the bathroom, stop fighting ,crying, crawling under the dressing room doors. Just calm taking my time. It was nice that they were up in Logan and Julia was there too so even if I did feel like I needed to hurry and get home, it was too far away to really make a difference. I ended up sleeping over and got to sleep in until 9:30. Nice! Then I got ready and headed home.
It was a great weekend. However, then I got home and they all broke out in tears and needs and wants and I just about ran back out the door! So far this morning though, I think I'll hang around for a while. :)