my week with "the boys"

About a month ago I headed out to Utah to hang out with my brother's four boys while my brother and his wife went to Mexico. I'm pretty sure one of us had a much more relaxing trip than the other. :) It was a fun week, minus a nasty bug some of the younger kiddos got, and the kids were all good. Tatum even cooperated and slept pretty well the whole week, which was an awesome surprise. Looking back on the trip, it definitely doesn't seem like I did a whole lot of cool, crazy, fun things with the boys. They were probably pretty bored. But while I was there it sure felt like I was doing everything I could to make it fun. But keeping all five kids alive was my priority and seemed to take a great deal of time and effort! :)

Tatum and Wyatt enjoyed mornings together just the two of them while Finn slept and the older boys were at school. They played remarkably well together.

My cousin, Alex, came for dinner and to hang out one evening. The boys loved building domino towers with him, since "he was the best at it!".

 Bathing the three youngest was an interesting endeavor without a tub. They got to bathe in this inflatable pool. The only trouble was that if I was trying to bathe someone other than Tatum she would insistently try to get in too and there was nothing to keep her out.

 Tatum was slightly obsessed with baby Finn. She loved giving him hugs and kisses. But they look a little more like choke holds and I'm not sure how much he enjoyed them but he was generally a good sport about it.

Caleb has a lot of Science magazines around the house and it became Tatum's favorite thing to do. She would frequently sit on the fireplace ledge and thumb through them for quite a long time.

 Being a stinker.

It wasn't terribly nice the week I was there which was unfortunate. But one day it was finally a bit warmer and so the boys flew their kite after school. 

My mom was in Utah at the same time babysitting my other brother's 5 kids about a half hour away from where I was. We might have been slightly crazy to do this, but we decided to get together and join forces over the weekend. Ten kids, 11 and under, and some nasty bugs being passed around made for quite a weekend. It really was fun and I think I'm still glad we did it. The kids are definitely glad we did, they like playing with their cousins.

Jaren and Wyatt, the best of friends one minute and bitter enemies the next. You really have to watch these two. But they sure looked cute matching for church on Sunday.

 We took the whole crew to Wheeler Farm. Tatum was in heaven.

 Grandma told Jaren to stand really close to the goose. (or is it a duck? I must admit I really don't know how to identify them. Is that pathetic?) Jaren is always happy to be the daredevil.

 The whole gang. It was amazing how often grandma was the hardest person to get to look at the camera.

Wheeler Farm was definitely a hit. Saturday was a day to go down in history. :) Mom and I tried to make a pancake breakfast for all the kids but (sorry if this is too graphic) two of the diapered kiddos were having the runs just about every time we turned around. It was quite a circus. We burned quite a few pancakes, shouted lots of things at each other, disinfected what felt like the whole kitchen, bathed both kids at least once and all 8 of the others were completely oblivious through the whole ordeal. It was quite stressful in the moment but by that evening we were getting quite a laugh just thinking about it.  The rest of the day was spent taking many kids to many soccer games and freezing our tails off. Sunday I stayed home with the sickies (somehow the runs morphed into the barfs with some of the older kids) while mom trucked it to church with 7 kids.

I was there for one more day after Caleb and Marci got home. It was fun to be able to spend some time with them. Marci and I took the younger kids on a walk to get Henry from school. Tatum passed out. She was definitely tuckered out by the end of our week. I was too!

It was a fun week and definitely a learning experience. Suffice it to say I am glad kids come one at a time! (for the most part anyway) Because I'm pretty sure I couldn't go from one to five very smoothly. All the kids were alive and had relatively few bumps and bruises so I would call the week a success! Hopefully Caleb and Marci and Nathan and Stacy were able to have fun in Mexico and not worry too much about their kids with crazy grandma and crazy aunt Rachel.