the trampoline park

Another picture of sleeping cousins. Poor Ella got pushed out of bed by little Lucy more often than not. 

 Tuesday found us heading to Chuck E Cheese. The kids had fun playing the games and picking out junk prizes.

 Even grandma got to play a game or two. :)

 We stopped for some cake on our way home and the kids loved having a tea party when we got home. Maybe I should start serving meals on mini dishes....

On Wednesday we took the kids to the trampoline park. It wasn't too crowded and we had a lot of fun. Declan couldn't coerce the girls into sitting around to watch his "race" and cheer for him and that sent him over the edge. He decided to throw a fit about that for quite some time but did eventually join back in the fun.

 I hope these pictures will illustrate just how awesome of a grandma these kids have. I don't think jumping on a trampoline rates very high in the list of things my mom enjoys doing, or even is just willing to do. But there is very little she won't do for her grandkids. I hope they know how lucky they are.

Mom and I played a little dodgeball against the kids. They didn't really get it and they totally just hoarded the balls at the top of the side trampolines.

 Tatum and Jade worked for quite some time to hang from these hoops. They both eventually got it.

We tried to get a group jumping picture but as it turns out kids are horrible at jumping at the same time. Who woulda thunk? haha. The whole place had horrible lighting but the foam bit was especially bad. And I didn't bring my real camera.

 Love this one of Declan.

 Sweet Lucy.

 The kids even got grandma to race them!

 I love these of all of them lined up for a race. This is a fun group, I'll tell ya what.

 The foam pit was a lot of fun until they all started swimming around in it. Everyone was covered in little pieces of foam. Gross. And annoying.

 So blurry but Lucy isn't blurry and her pose is so stinking cute I couldn't get rid of it.

 I finally got a decent one of Lucy jumping and she covered her eyes. What the heck?! haha

 Playing outside later in the day. You can count on a sassy pose from Jade nearly every time.

 But if you wait a moment she'll give you a nice smile. :)

 Sleeping Emry. This baby is so happy and easy. But man sleep was hard to come by on this trip. She had a cold to start with and then for some reason got in the habit of wanting to be wide awake at 12 am or 3 am or 5 am. Or maybe all three. If I were at home I would have done a little cry it out but I didn't want to wake the kids or ruin sleep for Ben who had to go to work every day. So I was just getting her out every time she woke up. Finally about halfway through the trip Mara convinced me everyone could survive if I let her cry a little. It got so much better after that!

 The women got some gel polish to try Wednesday afternoon so naturally all the girls wanted their nails painted. It was quite the salon we had going. Of course they had to choose a different color for each individual nail!

 Goodbye hugs. Leaving in the early morning has it's perks. Including the fact that the kids give hugs and say goodbye without really realizing what that means. Which means my heart doesn't have to break quite as much.

 Ella was being silly and asked me to take her picture.

 We found Tatum and Ella quite cozy that last night.

 We were up and out of there just a little after 5 in the morning. I'm happy to report that the trip home was quite unadventurous. And about 3 hours shorter!! The most excitement we had was when my mom tried to climb back into the front seat and got herself stuck. That was worth a laugh or two.

What a great week! I'm so glad we were able to visit. I'm grateful that Brennan was supportive of us going and leaving him to a lonely, empty house. And I'm glad my mom could come with us! Mara and Ben were great hosts and we can't wait to go back. I will probably hold out hope that I will one day live near (ish) all my siblings until the day I die. But until then I'm glad to be living a little closer to one. Family is the best.