St George

My sister got to go to Mexico for her 10 year Anniversary, they hadn't had a honeymoon before and had only been away from their kids for a long weekend and even that was six years ago.  So she asked if I would come stay for the week with her five kids while they were gone.  I was so scarred to fly alone with Jackson, but luckily we had taken a few flights before so I knew what to expect at an airport with a baby.  On the way to the airport at 4:30 a.m. I realized I had forgot to grab the Ergo.  I freaked out.  How would I get him through security and all the stuff while holding him.  Aagh...  But it was fine.  People were really friendly and offered to help and hold stuff, and push my things through, so it ended up being OK.  Nonetheless, Ryan felt awful about me not having the carrier and shipped it to me as soon as he got home.  (It really was so helpful during my stay and on the way back home, to have my hands free. Thanks Ryan :)

I got to Vegas at about 10:30a.m. and so my sister didn't have to make two trips, I had my friend Carly pick us up.  It was  so good to see her.  She hung out with us all day while we waited for Cathy and Scott to come down.  First we went to breakfast at the Cracked Egg. (just like old times, down to the waitress and sharing the delicious coffee cake) Then we went back to her place and I got to see Leo and Jackson got to play with him.  I loved it.  I really miss them so much and it was nice to just sit around and talk. 

When they arrived we went to dinner and then dropped them off at the hotel and I headed for St George.  This is where it got difficult.  Jackson had been so good for me all day and I guess he was just Done!  I don't blame him it was a long day, he had to wake up early, and we traveled for 5 1/2 hours on two different planes, but knowing how exhausted he was didn't make it any easier on me.  He cried from Vegas to Mesquite, I stopped four times to feed him, change him, move the car seat to the other side of the car, I tried everything I could think of.  Nothing worked, and it just made our 1 1/2 hour drive much longer.  I felt awful for him but finally he cried himself to sleep :(  We got to Cathy's around 10:30 p.m. everyone was still awake and waiting for us.  Grandpa DeMarcus was also there so he finally got to meet Jackson.  That was really special and made me really happy.  My Dad had also brought my Grandma up from San Diego so Jackson got to meet GG (Great Grandma) as well. So I put Jackson down and got the kids into bed.  Luckily Jackson slept fairly well that night.

The next few days were filled with a lot of excitement.  The kids were so excited to hang out and have some fun, we started out by going to the dollar store to get Ean a reward.  We got everyone toys and gum, it was the perfect start to our week.  The next few days were filled with playing games like Monopoly, Candy land, and Mexican Train, doing the girls hair, Baseball, playing in the sprinklers outside, Violin lessons, jumping on the tramp, Writing and Boy Scout classes, Dylan and Braeden playing X Box,  Braeden on the computer, riding wiggle cars, hanging out with their friends, Star and I got Pedicures,  hanging out with Cousins, staying up late and watching movies, and a lot of playing with Jackson.  It was so cute how many times I heard, "Can you wake your baby up?  I want to holds your baby." (Ean)  or a million other adorable things.  They loved him a lot.  I know people would think the five kids might be hard but the only difficult part was Jackson didn't sleep very well the whole time and as a result was fussy throughout the days.  I thought it was really bad allergy's due to the weather change.  He was so stuffed up and congested he couldn't breathe well at night (one night he actually didn't sleep at all, no joke! That next day was a hard one for me, I wasn't on my A game and Star missed her softball practice that morning, I felt really bad about it.) but then two days before we left his top two teeth broke though, so maybe that was the problem and the rest were just symptoms, who knows.

While the kids went to church with Grandma and Grandpa I went to visit my friend DeAnna and her family.  It was cute to watch our little ones play.  Back in the day we always said we would get pregnant at the same time and the funny thing is years later that actually happened we just lived so far from each other.  But now we have babies the same age and its so fun to have that connection.  Jackson also got to swing for the first time and that was really cute to see he loved it.

The last day Breaden asked if we could go to the water park so he could hang out with his friends, so we went and this time Jackson was in a better mood and got to go in the water.  Ean played with him and let him play with his spaceship too.  Everyone had a good time.  Later we had a really great family night, Star was babysitting so wasn't able to come but we went to the park with Grandma DeMarcus and Uncle Dave and Aunt Trish.  We packed a picnic dinner, and Trish had created a really neat scavenger hunt.  When it was time to search, Ean wasn't done with his dinner so Braeden and I waited with him, and then went on the hunt together.  It was actually really fun to be behind, and really focus on them.  Braeden did a great job finding a pine cone without any pine trees, we laughed about it a lot, and Ean said the cutest thing running across the lawn,"my tummy needs you to hold me."  so I picked him up and we found all of our treasures.  It was so cute.  Then we got to the meeting ground and saw the tiniest ducklings, and tadpoles.  The kids played on the toys until we left.  When we got home we stayed up late and watched Nancy Drew.  We had popcorn and licorice, it was the perfect way to spend my last day with the kids. I didn't get many photos as my hands we full most of the time, but it was amazing to spend so much time and get to know these kids again.  They had a blast, and I did too.  I didn't get to see Cath and Scott when they got home but It sounds like they had a ton of fun.  I'm so glad I could help them out.