Parades Gone Bad...

At the beginning of the week, we were talking to our neighbor and she mentioned how this was Lehi's Round Up Days.  They have the rodeo, fun things in the park and THREE parades.  I'm all about a good parade, especially ones that throw candy.  The first, on Thursday, was a prelude to the rodeo and mostly had animals, the second, on Friday, was a miniature parade with mostly floats from primaries, and the final, on Saturday morning, was the Grand Parade.  At this point we were expecting our van to be done NO LATER THAN Wednesday, so this was the perfect time to finally have some great family time that we've been missing without our van.  Come to find out our van would not be fixed for at least another week and a half, which meant the parades were out, but I wasn't going to give up that easy.  It rained of Thursday, plus Jacob had a meeting, so that parade was out from the get go.

Friday:
I get the great idea to just walk to parade, since it's only a little over a mile away.  Steven and Christopher would ride their bikes, which they would love, Jacob and I would wear Spencer and Max and push William and Ryan in the double umbrella stroller.  It would be fun.  It wasn't fun.  Most of the time there wasn't enough road for Steven and Christopher to comfortably ride on the busy road, so they walked with their bikes positioned on the handle bars of the stroller.  A good portion of the way is also gravel, and with 3 or 4 blocks to go, the left wheel breaks off.  So Jacob pushed the stroller with the metal part scraping on the cement pushing around 70 lbs of twins.  When we finally get there we're hot and tired.  But the boys and I had a good time, Jacob was too annoyed from some guys behind us to really enjoy the show.  But candy was had and that's all that matters.  Jacob also figured out how to put the wheel back on!  That lasted for about 3 blocks when it fell off again, this time he broke off the metal piece so the stroller was running on the middle and right wheel.  We let the boys ride their bikes really close to the road this time, because I just wanted to get home and that was the fastest way.  But it did scare us pretty bad.  A little over half way there the middle wheel starts to get loose and coming off.  Really it's wonder we all made it home.  But we did and then promptly threw away the stroller.  (After complaining about now not having a stroller since our quad was still in the van, our nice neighbor with a big new truck picked it up for us on his way home from work.  Best Neighbor Ever!)

Even Spencer smiled.

Have I mentioned I love my family!

Jacob put Max down as soon as he could.

Trying to fix the stroller he had created.

Saturday:
We originally were going to have my brother Matt come and watch Spencer and Max while we took the oldest four boys (in his car plus ours), but Friday night kind of ruined Jacob's mood to go, so Matt come with me instead.  Since we didn't have our double stroller I figured we could easily carry William and Ryan the few blocks from where we parked to the parade.  I underestimated the people in Lehi going to this thing and we had to park a bit farther away.  By the time we got there, we were late and trying to hurry a short legged Christopher along, both Matt and I were exhausted but ready for a good show.  Which it was, most of it was just a repeat from the night before, but this time it was SUPER hot and I of course didn't bring sun screen for my kids.  (luckily our neighbor next to us did!)  But the boys got quite a bit of candy and had a good time.  When we made our trek back, Steven and Christopher complained most of the way there about how tired they were (while Matt and I had to drag them along while holding a heavy William and Ryan).  At one point I looked back at Steven dragging his bag on the ground.  I told him to pick it up because it might get a hole in it, right then we both looked back and saw a trail of candy behind us.  We begged him to just leave it, but he couldn't.  We had to wait another three minutes for him to pick it up.  Oh and did I mention Ryan was eating a salt water taffy, which was also now on his shirt that he was trying to eat.  So I had to hold him out making it even more difficult.  So this parade trip, although the parade was fun, was a dud.  BUT the boys came home and played outside with the neighbors, putting on a parade and playing in water, and had lots of candy to eat!

Sunday:
I pretty much begged Jacob to pick his favorite 3 kids and take them to church and I'd stay home with the others, and go to another ward's sacrament meeting when they got home. Since all we have is Jacob's car and we both didn't want to ask for a ride a third time in a row. He didn't listen and walked the over a mile trek to church with the four youngest boys in the quad stroller and I came later with the older two.  Oh and we were late because I couldn't find Steven's other shoe.  I looked everywhere, just knowing that William or Ryan put it on and walked to some obscure place and left it there.  I never found it I just put on his other shoes and rushed him to the car.

This was the first time in Sacrament meeting that Max and Spencer were not in the car seats so half the meeting Jacob got them to go to sleep on the floor between his feet.  William and Ryan were pretty good for the first half, but the second half they had a couple of favorite games they were rotating through;  throwing sippy cups or toys through the space between the backs and the seats of the folding chairs, going head first through that space into the isle way behind us and then running back to do it again, going to visit the people in front of us (a neighborhood girl and her extended family we've never met).  Christopher gave them the idea of going head first, because he was laying that way on his chair for a good 15 or 20 minutes.  Steven was pretty good the first half, but then kept asking a bit too loudly to read him something or tell him the story that goes along with the gospel art.  As we were singing the closing song, I mouthed to Jacob, "We made it!" Then during the closing prayer William and Ryan wondered 3 or 4 rows back from us.  Luckily some other neighbors grabbed them and asked if they could take them to nursery.  Thank heavens our ward is so great and understanding of our crazy family.

We all took naps.  It was a miracle!

We normally have family dinners with the Morrise's, which Jacob and I love to visit with his siblings and the kids love to play with cousins.  We didn't have it today so I decided it would be fun to make pizza and then use the extra dough to make cinnamon rolls.  It was fun, but William and Ryan were just into everything and they have now figured out how to open the fridge. It's dangerous.  So about the time I grab the hot sauce they are trying to down, Jacob grabs the pack and play and put all the boys inside.  They actually liked it for a while until the older two got out and William started holding Ryan down and pulling his hair (from what I could see), so I took Ryan out and let William stay in there for his punishment.  William was crying for a couple of minutes when Christopher came over and said, "It's okay, I'll come in with you.  I'll be here for you."  He's usually a great peacemaker.

At bedtime, after we finished out book, we sang and prayed and gave each other "knock down hugs."  We even had a group family hug that turned into a "knock down hug".  Christopher LOVED it.  All the boys were laughing and playing when we left them.  I'm glad they are such good friends.

Monday:
Well today was a day that you don't really want to remember.  There was a lot of crying.  All day long.  They cried because I didn't get them fed fast enough, they fell off their chair, they tripped over a shoe, their chubby fingers can't pinch the paper claw (fortune teller thing) both ways, their brother was too close to them, their brother pushed them, touched their hair, or took their toy.  Pretty much they cried over anything at all.  And I ate.  Mostly cinnamon rolls and no bake cookies.  Don't judge.  It was just one of those days.  I did mow the lawn though, so that makes up for it all right!?