family matters

last year, my sisters and i decided we needed to do a girls trip this summer. just the girls. well then i got pregnant and would be nursing and my sister was a human pacifier so we decided little babies could come. and then my other sister recieved a foster baby and the pacificer sister wanted to do her annual utah trip the same time as our trip. so that's when the girls trip was moved to las vegas. well my mom started to feel bad about excluding the boys and the pacificer sister had to bring her boys so the girls trip at my house became a family reunion at my house.

oy vey.

since my mom moved to utah, we don't really have a family home base. a place where we can all go to be together. everyone either lives too far or their house is too small. and my house is big and centrally located but it's not really the best option but it was really the only option. i thought this would work out perfectly because justin was going to be gone for 2 1/2 weeks in june and i would love the chaos and noise [while justin despises those things]. then his trip got cut short and my niece died so things just got more complicated. i had big plans of doing a fun zobrist olympics on my tennis court and have a day full of swimming and fun. then i got busy and depressed and lazy.

my oldest brother and sister came into town thursday night and the kids ran wild while we ate dinner. i have a 14 and 12 year old nephew/niece who loved playing with my little babies. we have some intense rounds of 'just dance' [where i was sabotaged by the 12 year old] and we all had fun. friday morning my other two sisters came into town and we went swimming at my aunt's house and BBQed. all six of my siblings came together with the 11 grandkids - something that does not happen often! sadly we didn't get a picture together because it was so chaotic [and we were all mad at one of my brothers]. that night, my mom and brother in law watched all the babies at my house while the sisters [and the brother we were mad at] went to see 'beauty & the beast' with the big kids at spring mountain ranch. again, this was going to be a girls trip thing but we had to improvise. justin was out of town in DC and there was too many kids for our brother in law to watch by himself [although he was very willing to watch 2 infants, 2 toddlers, and 3 kids. i would not be so willing]. the play was cute and it was fun to picnic out in cooler weather, but the play didn't start until 8pm and i was beyond exhausted. and i wanted to see my husband who was flying in.

saturday my extended family was having a reunion in st. george that i had previously planned to attend but due to my niece's passing, i stayed in town to attend the funeral. sunday was crazy-town hectic because my two sisters and mom came to church with us. during the summer months, our ward is usually slim pickings but this week we were at max capacity! and the night before i had been asked to do sharing time so it was a busy and crazy day! [but i must say - my 'jonah' lego into a balloon whale that they got to pop was a big hit]. night time brought popsicles and a sunday stroll to see some neighborhood animals.

monday we swam at my aunt's again [my pool is nice and warm but she has a big backyard with a jungle gym and lots of room for the kids to go wild]. after lunch that day is when the real fun begin. i took a nap with griffin and my sisters were watching my kids. porter decided then to start throwing up. and did so several times. i woke up just in time to have him throw up all over me. luckily my sisters were there to help hold the puke bucket and take a picture of me in that shining mom moment. natalie also threw up a bit and there were a few of us who were having some other gastrointenstinal problems. not fun. luckily by nighttime, most of the puke had passed and we were able to enjoy a few rounds of catch phrase [which my mom had a bit of learning curve, which was hilarious].

tuesday, wednesday and thursday were a blur. it was just my sisters shannon and anna with her brood. we swam, we did crafts, we went to the natural history museum, we went to the park. i honestly can't remember what else we did. thursday justin and i flew off our on couplecation and i didn't look back.

it was seriously so much fun to see and hang out with my family. i miss them all terribly - until they're around 24/7 and then i get sick of them. i wish my mom had a house so that we could do these kind of get togethers there [and mess up her life as opposed to mine] but that's probably never going to happen. so i guess justin just better get used to chaos.