Benny's Birthday and Spring Break - Part II

Congratulations for making it to part II! Wednesday last week, we headed down south to see Brennan's family. We hadn't been there for way too long so it was wonderful to see Brennan's step-sister, Emily and kids, Sheldon and Maya, and meet her fiance and his kids. The kids love Sheldon and loved being with him again and we all fell in love with cute spunky Maya. We had a great visit with his Grandma Ena and her husband Wayne, she just ate the kids right up. We really enjoyed just hanging with Jamie (Brennan's Mom), John (her husband) and Brett (Brennan's brother). They're such good sports about being totally overrun by our motley crew. Brett is such a fun uncle and the kids just adore him. They spent hours hunting for lizards in the backyard.

Jamie joined us for a beautiful hike through Snow Canyon to the Petrified Sand Dunes. It was a blast.

We got to visit a good friend, Jed, and his kids and try out their fun go-carts. Brennan put Benny on and before he could finish explaining what to do he took off. Fortunately he steered it in a perfect circle and came right back to us. Scared us to death!!!

We had a little family photoshoot so pray they turn out! The photographer did a great job and it was actually pretty painless. She was so kind to work us in last minute I'm so excited to get the results back. After pictures, the kids were anxious to change into their summer clothes and run through this beautiful water feature. What a fabulous change from the snow we left behind!

It really was a much needed wonderful get-away for our family. Thank you so much John and Jamie for hosting! We drove home on Saturday and Monday we had Ben's official birthday party. We were lucky enough to have my brother and his family from NM in town so we had most of us his cousins there which made it extra special. With the cousins, my kids and a few neighbor kids we had a total of 17 kids there. Perhaps you'll understand why I lacked hands and time for photos. It was a fun little party with a jungle theme. We had a snake cake and played pin the tail on the giraffe, and feed the monkey and whacked at an alligator pinata. Good times!

Lastly, it was Ben's very first soccer game last night. His uniform is, of course, gigantic, but he doesn't mind. He also felt like a headband would be a great addition. When we asked him if he wanted to sign up for soccer he told me, "I uhzackly (exactly) know how to play soccer, Mom." So, he's already a pro.



The end!