Family Staycation 2015

Like tradition now Jacob took two days off next to July 24th and we had a family staycation.  We started on Tuesday night with $2 Tuesdays at Jungle Jims.  Neither one of us had been there but the boys LOVED it.  They were the perfect age for all the rides.

Max and Spencer weren't so sure about the sounds of all the rides at first.

Dad having fun while waiting for boys to ride, and
Max actually liked it.

We ended the night with running to a local D.I. we don't get to that often. A great start to our family time.
Wednesday we started the morning eating breakfast in mom and dad's bed while watching a show.  Jacob took Spencer and Max to a check up doctor's appointment while I took the older boys to see "Rise of the Guardians" at our local dollar theatre.  It was William and Ryan's first time watching a movie at the theatre and they did pretty good!

We were going to go out to lunch and have some more fun, but it was evident to the parents that most of the kids needed naps, so we came home and everyone had a nap.  When everyone woke up we got some dinner and at a picnic at neptune park.

Then we dropped the kids off at the house, put kids to bed and Jacob and I had a date night at the temple and some random shopping.  A great day for Day 1 of our staycation.

Thursday we started the morning off at the aquarium.  We knew if we ever wanted to go, it needed to be before William and Ryan had their birthday so we didn't have to pay for them.

We rushed home and put kids down for a nap and went to my 21 week ultrasound.  Everything looks great; our little buddy is as healthy as can be!

When everyone woke up from naps, we went to eat out and the kids were beyond crazy. They were loud, disobedient, and just plain exhausting!  We were going to go out for ice cream or something afterwards, but after that experience I was done and so we ended up going to a park instead and found one that we LOVED in Draper.  But Jacob and I were excited to get back home and put those crazy kids to bed.  It wasn't greatest end of the day, but I guess not every day can be wonderful.

Speaking of wonderful, Friday was wonderful.  We started out at a Nickle Cade near Salt Lake, after going to a Savers or two before it opened. Of course we had a blast, we always do.

William will be a scary driver, if he keeps going like this.

Ryan was actually much better

Max's first time on these small rides.
He LOVED it! Was smiling and laughing the whole time.

William

Spencer was not so sure.  He didn't cry, but he kept giving me these faces...

There may have only been 3 horses to ride but we fit all 6 kids on there for a ride.

We skipped out of there with our treasures and went to Dickey's for lunch. The kids were much better here and we actually quite enjoyed ourselves! It may have been the unlimited ice cream we could supply them, but we're not complaining.

"A toast to the ice cream"
A tradition for us at Dickey's

These two are beyond cute!

We went to City Creek to let the boys play in the splash pad, and ride the escalators.  They LOVE those.

Then to let the boys dry off we walked over to Temple Square and let the kids run around and see the sights.  We were really quite the attraction while in downtown Salt Lake, we often saw people just staring at our family trying to figure it all out.  It made me laugh and made Jacob stare back....awkwardly.

I love how the oldest four are just staring at Christ.

Oh and in between all of that we went to 4 Savers (we would have gone to D.I.'s as well but they were closed for Pioneer Day).  But here was our load from those thrift stores!

Saturday we went out early and got donuts and juice to eat in the car on our way to Salt Lake again.

This time we went to 4 D.I.'s for mom and dad and for the boys we went to the Clark Planetarium.

Boys on Mars

Max on Mars

"The triplets" on the moon 

Max on the moon

"MOM! Cheese!"

William sat down in Spencer's spot

But Spencer wasn't having any of that!

"Mom take our picture!"

While at Gateway mall we ate lunch, another horrible eating experience, then let the boys run through the splash pad.

Spencer was upset because I had my phone to take pictures,
and he didn't get to hold it.

Anytime we passed escalators we HAD to go on them. Finally I said okay you can go up them and down these a few times since we were about to leave.

We came home for naps then felt like we needed a big finale for our vacation so we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant.  Again, you'd think we'd learn, it was a horrible disaster.  So much so after we ordered I asked if we could just get it to go, but what we ordered couldn't do that we instead we endured the loud children getting out of their seats, making big messes and climbing on the table.

Fortunately we got the best fortune cookie fortune ever:

So we dusted ourselves off, went to a D.I. (or Jacob ran in while the boys and I decided what as next) and we got ice cream cones and went to the duck pond at BYU.

I LOVE these boys more than words.

Ryan

Christopher pointing out the baby ducks.

I loved when Spencer tried to be like the big boys

Christopher and Ryan chasing ducks

William and Ryan chasing the same ducks.

Jacob pointing out some turtles

All in all a great family staycation for the books! While driving the boys would watch, "Mr. Peabody and Sherman" where the song "Beautiful Boy" is played. This line always gets me teary eyed, especially at this point in my life. "Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans. Beautiful beautiful beautiful, beautiful boy."  I never thought my family would look like it does, but its life. It's my life. And it's real beautiful.