Another week of cousins

I worried that having six extra people here for over a week would be overwhelming for me, but it worked out surprisingly well. I love that our house is so big that we can spread out and not be on top of each other all the time.

Jules, as always, was highly entertaining most days. She decided that she wanted to sit on me one day while I was lying on the floor and jump up and land on my stomach over and over again. Good thing I've been doing sit-ups lately!

An art project of Cecily's one day while the Staleys were gone. She got a new pokemon (the one on the left). She printed out 7 copies of the same coloring page of that pokemon and colored each one to match one of the other pokemon she owns. I thought it was pretty creative.

My parents and Alison came out most days. And Ben came out with Dylan and Lincoln three of the days.

Everybody was here for the 4th of July and we barbecued and lit some smoke bombs and parachutes and did a crap load of snaps.

Around 8:30, the Frohlichs left and Megan, Ariana, Me, Steve, Emilia, Alison, and James all drove over to the Thanksgiving Point area to wait for the fireworks to start. I was worried we wouldn't get a good spot, but because of Covid, they'd closed the actual park and I guess people mostly just watched from home. So we got an amazing spot across the street. We were able to watch all the rich neighborhood displays until the big ones started going off. And there was a full moon!

The city display was even better (and longer) than usual. I love the heavy artillery so much! I guess I'm lucky because I've never experienced actual heavy artillery. I appreciate those who have even more than I love watching fireworks. Thank you veterans and active military!

The kids played a lot of video games during the week.

They also did a photo scavenger hunt. Here are some of Emilia's pictures from that:

We also took the Staleys to the Butterfly Biosphere.

We adults played a ton of board and card games and ate a lot of food.

My mom wanted all of us who've learned the cups song to do it together at one point. There's a video of it somewhere, but I don't think I have it.

Alison did Megan's hair all fancy one day.

Of course we had to do a puzzle together, too.

The Staleys left Friday morning and the kids were loath to get back to our daily routine. I don't blame them. :) We did a bunch of cleaning yesterday and washed sheets. I even got the gumption up to clean part of the carpets in the living room.

Today we got to go to church in the church building for the first time since March. They're just doing a 45 minute sacrament meeting and everybody wears masks. (Except Jules, of course.)

I hope everybody is safe and happy! Love you!

visits

This is going to be super quick because I don't want to be doing this. Haha. We're having a good summer. All the kids are getting better at jumping on the trampoline. This is Cecily doing one of her tricks. Jules can almost just with both feet at the same time on purpose and she's getting good at not falling off when her sisters bounce her. Emilia can land on her back and twist to the side. Mira I haven't watched as much, so I can't tell you where her talents currently lie. :)

All the kids but Emilia had doctor appointments a week and a half ago. They're all perfectly healthy and doing all the things they should. Jules had her last shot until kindergarten and we're both glad. When that girl cries it breaks my heart.

My parents gave us their bunkbeds a week and a half ago, too, so we could have more room for the Staleys to sleep. We were putting it in Mira's room and we'd already painted the beds in there gray, so I decided we needed to paint these before putting them in there. The whole family pitched in with both sanding and painting. We finished it all in one day.

The Staleys arrived Sunday night and stayed in an airbnb for the first five days so Alex would have a quiet place to work. They spent the days at my parents' house and so did we. This is how my mom entertained Jules while we played a game one day. Those are stickers that she stuck all over her face, arms legs, shirt and every family member.

The ladies playing a game.

The men doing their thing. :)

I took a hair painting challenge on facebook. These are some of the paintings I did (just the hair, not the people).

The Staleys will be staying until this Friday, so we'll have more adventures to report next week!