Reunited

We were all so excited when Jen said she was going to come to visit with her kids and my parents for a few days before Thanksgiving!  The time went by way too fast!  Luckily, between the two of us, we took enough pictures to help us remember what we did while they were here!

 

The boys were thrilled to just hang out together.  I can't tell you how happy I was to be around these guys every day!  It made me feel like I was at home and life was "normal". 

I didn't get as much time as I would have liked with this little peanut, but Brynne wouldn't be herself without a social agenda to attend to!  I love this little girl and her great big personality!  I did get a couple of her famous monkey hugs that I miss so much!

Jason loved having Wes around to talk shop with! They both love motors and anything with wheels.

We went to Janelle's for a big Sunday dinner with all of my sibling except Sterling.  Between us, there are 17 kids! 

And somehow, everyone was all smiles!

Jessica has missed her chats with Grandpa!  I love the relationship that my dad has with my kids.  It has been so hard to be away from him and know that they are missing out on having him a part of their daily lives.

The boys were so happy to be "the boys" again.  All together just doing anything or nothing.

 

I loved just having them hang out around the house!  They are all so sweet with my girls.

 

We had a fun girls day, shopping with my mom and sisters at the new outlets that just opened up nearby.

Billy and Peter have birthday's a week apart.  We thought it would be a good time to celebrate since we were all together.

They are so funny!  Pictures are in reverse order from events, but we went to Airborne with the whole clan and then dropped the kids off so we could enjoy each other without our responsibilities as parents interrupting.

 

So, the first time I felt old was a few years ago on New Years Eve.  Jason and I were driving a bunch of kids around in the bus and it just sort of hit me.  "We are the grown ups!"  Anyway, it's not a very interesting story, but it was an interesting feeling.  The second time I had an ah ha moment of feeling old was on this night!





 Everyone was taking turns jumping into a huge foam pit, doing tricks, etc.

 It looked fun, but I just lacked the interest to join in.  Not really like me, but I was just going with it until I was nudged into trying.  I really didn't want to, but got on the trampoline anyway.   The idea is that you jump up onto this ledge and then bounce down and it throws you into the pit.

Easier said than done.  It turns out, I'm not seventeen and super athletic anymore!  Surprise, right?  So after (not so)gracefully slamming into the wall right under the ledge, I managed to heave myself up onto where the "starting" point was.  Unfortunately, after I got up there, I realized that the little ledge, isn't quite as close to the ground as I thought it was and the only way back down was to land on the super bouncy trampoline and be thrown into the foam pit!

Did I mention I had an audience?  Super.  They were all chanting and shouting out advice like "don't try to jump!  The trampoline will do it for you!", "do a flip!" and "try to jump in the middle!". 

So, I jumped and if the picture of me being thrown into the foam pit wasn't filled with my enormous back side, I'd show you just for the humiliating proof, that I am old, and no longer athletic or capable.  I'm pretty sure that I didn't make it look quite as fun as the pictures above of Jen's flying squirrel or Jason's flip!

I guess it's time to make some changes.  I'm not really a fan of being old!

Poor Lauren was bored silly until I told her it was probably safe to play in the foam pit if she was careful.

It was a really fun night filled with lots of fun memories we will always have!

At one point, my dad tackled my mom into the foam pit!  She was so surprised!  I couldn't quite get my camera on fast enough to capture them as they were going in, but it was a memory that made my heart smile and I glad I could capture part of it. :-)

 Jeremy and Talli were also in town visiting family and we were able to spend the day with them while Jen was here. 

 

 

We took them to our favorite frozen yogurt place here in town called Orange Leaf.

 

The Rozier's were also in town and our friends, the Lawrence's, moved to Mapleton a few months before we moved to Utah, so the kids had a big reunion! Tess, Kate and Taia came over with Scott, the Poulsen's were here and the Bohn's were here!   It was so fun for them to all hang out together!

I loved having the house alive again!  It was such a fun few days! Saying goodbye is never fun.