We Love Our Cousins!

This week, we had a great time with Tayla.  She came to stay with us all and it was awesome!  The minute we walked in our house, she got a puzzled but excited look on her face and said "I didn't know you lived in a log cabin!"  She and Emma loved sleeping on the pull-out bed on the couch each night, giggling and talking 'til the late hours of the night.  She was a good listener and a great helper the whole time she was here, though it was hard for our kids to focus on workbooks, practicing and chores in the morning.  She especially loved Covey and wanted to hold him the whole time!  Tayla and Emma made a list of all of the things they wanted to do while she was here, and I think we completed them all.  We made pillowcase nightgowns, went out to eat at McDonalds, made hair clips, went swimming, went to the movies, rode bikes, went on a picnic, field trip, and more.  The thing that cracked me up on their list was "No little brothers allowed!"  Well, they got away from Tayla's little brothers for most of the week, but luckily, they were nice and included Cal in most of their plans.  They didn't want me to take any pictures of them so most of them looked like this:

On Tuesday night, Em and Tayla went with me to Relief Society service auction (all girls 8 and up were invited).  It was the first activity I was in charge of, and it was a success!  We had a great turnout, lots of unique service was offered, and lots of sweet sister bonding going on!  I helped the girls make fabric and felt flowers and bows to auction off.  I gave away music lessons.  It was a really nice night!

Later that night, Tayla got sick with a fever, bad headache and a little nausea.  Poor girl!  Nothing's worse than being sick, and it's even worse when you don't have your own mama.  After some tylenol, lots of sleep, cool cloths on her forehead, and a Priesthood blessing from Dave, she was able to get better.  Luckily, it wore off after a day, so it wasn't too bad.  But the next day, Cal and Cov got it and they were sad little guys who slept a lot!

We went to the museum here, and the girls loved it!  We had a picnic outside, and the kids played in this wagon forever!  They gathered firewood, took turns driving the wagon, did their pioneer chores, slept on the loft in the wagon.  It was pretty cute.  We also played I Spy at the museum, which we've never done, and scored some swag from finding all of the items in their booklet.

I was even brave and went to the store with all of the kids by myself.  Five!  I got extra looks, but luckily they were all on their best behavior so they weren't crusty looks.

Friday, we spent the day cleaning, cooking, and getting ready for Jerry, Stacy & boys to come up to visit for the weekend.  And we got ready for Kaison's birthday party.  Since his birthday was in just a few days, they thought it would be fun to do a surprise birthday party for him.  And it was great!  They came up with all of their own plans and game ideas and decorations for a Lego Movie b-day bash for him.  They made some signs and colored big legos on construction paper that we put around.  Then we blew up balloons and put them in a large garbage sack to throw over him when he got here, which they got a kick out of.  They helped prepare the games, and make dinner.  We had "wild style" pasta and salad for dessert.  Tayla and Emma helped make the cake, which turned out to be pink because I was running low on red dye.  He he!  It was a giant Lego though, and super easy for Tayla to do.  We were all so excited when the cousins came!  Lucy loves Brody and Kaison is Cal's favorite!  We played "Pass the Resistance", "Everything is Awesome Musical Chairs", "Where are my pants? Hiding game" and "Pin the helmet on Emmet".  Those were all kid original ideas, so creative!  We had lots of great times together and I think Kaison liked it and the Legos we got for him for his present.  That night, the kids watched their movie and Dave & I stayed up with Jerry & Stacy and had a blast playing games together.  Love these guys!  Then we got all of the kids to bed, which was not an easy task.  They were having so much fun and it took forever for them all to wind down!

Saturday, we woke up and made cinnamon roll cake and scrambled eggs.  Then we got ready to go to Summerfest in Rawlins.  We saw the car from Back to the Future, walked around the booths and said hi to our friends, scored some Wyoming shirts for all of the kids.  Then it was time for the Outhouse races.  Yep, only in WY, folks.  Different organizations in the community built these outhouses and decorated them.  Then they had to go through obstacle courses, make baskets with TP, have two people go back to back and get a roll of toilet paper on a plunger, and more.  It was a hoot!  I guess usually the Fire Department wins, but not this year!  This year it was all policemen!  Then we did a ping pong drop, where each ping pong ball had coupons or prizes on them.  It was fun at first, until Cal got knocked over.  Poor guy!  He got a bump, scrape on his forehead and bloody nose.  Dave grabbed him and held him so he didn't get trampled.  One of our other friend's sons got stepped on.  So we suggested for next year, do one for adults and one for kids.  It was kind of crazy.  But we scored some free stuff though!  Sweet!  We went to Buck's for lunch then, and half of our food was free thanks to that ping pong ball drop.  Jerry & Stacy's clan liked it.  Then we got cotton candy for the kids, played musical chairs, and moseyed around a while longer.  After that, we took them on the tour of the town.  Their kids love the deer and antelope walking around our 'hood.  They wanted to get out and pet them, ha ha!

We then went up to Saratoga.  We tried out the hot springs a little, but it was way to hot!  But not for Jerry, he was in there a long time.  So we went to the North Platte river to splash and swim and catch crawdads.  The kids named them FiFi and Kaiki and ***.   They all were a little hesitant to pick them up, but made homes in the sand for them, and loved watching them.  Lucy explained that "Cal screamed like a girl like this - eeeehhhhkkk!"  It was pretty funny!  And they loved floating in the river and jumping and splashing.  It was nice.  We got home, and we noticed a bird stuck in our fence, poor little birdy!  Dave helped it get out, but it flew over the fence and landed on the ground.  Sad.  We had a BBQ and made bacon wrapped chicken with some salads and sides.  I love summer cookouts!  Everyone was pooped Saturday night, so we all went to bed pretty early, even the kids!

Sunday, we woke up and got ready for church.  Dave and I were speaking in sacrament meeting on how faith in the Savior has blessed our lives.   So it was nice Jerry & Stacy were there to help with the kids!  It's nice too to be done with talking in church for a while, but it went well.  :)  We went home, had lunch, took a few photos with the kids (who were tired and not wanting to cooperate) and said goodbye.  It was fun to have them visit!  Thanks for coming!