Card Table Rockets

I had to take pictures of this. I remember doing this when I was a kid all the time, and when I told Darryl about it he said they did the same thing at his house. I didn't show the boys how to do this, in fact they flipped the table over themselves and proceeded to fly their rocket like that is what it really is. Maybe we had these in our premortal life. ;D They wanted play with the shaving cream so I had to get a picture with them and their messy hands. My boys can't stand to have messy hands but they can handle a few minutes covered in shaving cream. Kade had no school today so they spent the whole morning on the table.

Miniature Golfing

I had to make sure I labeled this miniature golfing I made the mistake of saying we were golfing as did all the cousins and Clint corrected each of us, "It's miniature golf." Ann wanted to do something fun with her kids today and said they were going to go golf at Trafalga-- since we have our passes I couldn't just stay home, we had to join them! The boys thought it was great. They have a fun black light course set up inside that we played on. The only thing I would like them to change is that all their golf balls need to reflect the black lights. Clint had a purple ball that he could never see but it worked out. Clint got a hole in one on the first hole! I was surprised at their talent but it all changed quickly. The kids all got tired of trying to hit the ball hard enough that it wouldn't roll back down the hill to them so they started dragging the ball to the hole with their club. If there was a cool feature--like a path for the ball to go down they would just pick up their ball and drop it down the tube. We had 6 kids golfing and they would all finish a hole before the 2 people in front of us could finish their hole. It was pretty funny. Cole sat around playing with my club, and he loved to stand next to the benches and slap them but he fell a couple times on the uneven ground so mom wouldn't allow that activity any longer. After golfing Ann got lunch for us-- pizza! It was fun to stay and eat but a little torturous too since we were right by all the video games. Thankfully the kids were content sitting on the bullet bikes and pretending they were playing the bullet bike video game.

The Ward Derby

Our ward left the Pine Wood Derby track up this week after the scouts had their Pine Wood Derby so we could have a ward party. It was so fun to have everyone make crazy cars but even more fun to see them race. Some designs were sure to win--like EJ Raven's wood splitter wedge that was duck taped to a car. :D Darryl's 2 lb tank didn't do so bad. Kade and Clint's cars were pretty close to regulation rules-- all made by their own design: they both drew their own design(Darryl cut them out), they nailed on their own tires, and painted them. They were so proud and extremely excited for the race. We loaded up with Ann and her crew and invaded the party. It was so much fun. Clint would get so excited when they would announce that he was up to race. Each car got to race about 5 times. Clint and Kade's cars took 2nd and 3rd places. This was a unique party and it turned out to be a great one! We actually ducked out early because we had 10 kids there and there were 70 more races to go. We took everyone to Dairy Keen for an ice-cream cone. Good times.

My Jack-of-all-trades

Darryl really could do almost anything. This is what he spent his Thur, Fri, and Sat. doing-- framing Eric's(Ann's husband) mom's basement. He learned the trade from his Uncle Wayne back when we lived in Cedar City. Wayne builds homes and Darryl worked for him while he was going to school. He enjoys doing it but it's not everyday that you get the opportunity to do it--nor do I think he'd want to do it every day. This project did introduce him to a new toy that he really wants to own-- a ramsetter(not sure how to spell it). It's basically a 22-gun that shoots nails into cement. It is as cool as it sounds. :D He wants to get one but I'm not sure what he'd do with it. I don't think we need anything nailed to the cement.

Brady Bunch-- Supersized!

We had a bigger bunch than the Brady bunch this week-- it truthfully didn't feel that big most of the time. Darryl's sister Ann came and stayed with us for a whole week. It was their spring break and so they came up so Eric(her husband) could help his mom with her basement. They were cleaning it out and wanting to frame it. Eric cleaned all week and so Ann and I took 10 kids-- yes 10 and we went to the Olympic Park, the Disney program at JR Smith, and Trafalga. Darryl and I also took her 4 oldest with our family tubing. It was a super fun and busy week. It was so quiet after they left and the boys didn't know what to do with themselves. They were so use to finding someone in every room of the house playing something different. With everyone gone their entertainment options significantly dropped. I know I've said it before but it always amazes me how there is a natural connection between cousins. We don't get to see Ann's kids much but they all act like they're brothers and sisters. We can't wait until they come again. Also while they were here Courtney celebrated her 10th birthday. Kade and Clint love any excuse to hang the Birthday decorations so they were tickled to put up streamers and balloons-- cake and ice cream were an added bonus! It was also St. Patrick's Day. We'd forgotten all about it and Kade was so concerned as he headed out the door to school because we hadn't made a leprechaun trap this year. So while he was at school Brittany and I came up with a cracker box. We didn't get a good picture of it set up with the gold painted rocks but it was pretty cute. Again, we didn't find the leprechaun in the trap but he did have to empty a few gold coins(gold dollars) from his pockets so he could jump out of the trap. I wonder what we'll find next year--really, I wonder what we will find (any ideas?). Just in case you were wondering: At times we had 4 adults and 10 kids-- 14 people living in our house! Holy Smacks! There was a 4 mon, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, & 14-year old. :)

Redmond Minerals' Tubing Day

Today was such a great day! Cole was tired so he eventually fell asleep in one of the tubes(he did have a sporadic laugh while I was taking his picture). Kade wasn't feeling 100%(he'd had a bug a few days prior) so he eventually wore out. Clint was stoked and ran until they kicked us off the hill. The bonus was that some of the cousins joined in on the fun! Zack, Brittany, Courtney, and Melanie all came along. Ann and her 7 kids are hanging out with us all week while Eric is in Pleasant Grove helping his mom work on her basement. It wasn't bitter cold but it did lightly sprinkle on us a couple times. After a fun day on the hill we had the traditional crockpot chili/soup/stew lunch. The hardest part is deciding which one you're going to try.