Kansas Came to Us!

We were blessed with a visit from the Perrins' family on July 25th.  Our kids are so lucky to have cousins their ages and genders all in one family.  We LOVE our visits with them and are grateful for any chance we have to get together with them.  Not only do our kids match in ages and genders but they also get along really well.  What a blessing!  Not even 5 minutes after arriving at our house the boys had paired up with their cousins and taken off to play.  Kai and Owen went straight for Kai's room and Legos and Minecraft talk and Finn and Isaac picked right up where they had left off with the belly button dance and running around like wild children.  It was so fun to see.
On Saturday Kai had his last baseball game at 8am.  The game ended at 9 and since we were all up and ready to go we decided to head to the park from there.  Reid and I packed some snacks and drinks for the kids and then we went off to Fox Run Park.  The kids had a good time climbing and playing.  Kai and Finn enjoyed being able to show off "their park" and the secret grove of trees that they like to play in there.  Reid even took out his quadcopter and flew it around a bit.  But soon everyone started to get hungry and tired so we headed back to the house for lunch and naps.

Kai and Owen at the park

Ethan...yep this is the same kid that was the cute 4 year-old in glasses and a tuxedo at our wedding as the best man.  He is now taller than me--wow!

Finn and Isaac being Spider Men

Finn and Isaac (poor Finn has always struggled with light and his eyes)

This is our super cute niece Maci.  She is a doll and I love her.

the quadcopter

Me and Bree (with her bed head) at the park.  Don't mind me bearing my testimony there.

Climbing....again

Finn

Our super sweet niece Bryn.  Yep, she was only 2 when we got married.  How did time go so fast?!

After the two little girls took their naps we decided to brave the weather and visit Red Rocks Open Space.  Our timing turned out to be pretty good and we were able to take a walk around and even watch the boys climb up some rocks that led to a little cave.  It made the moms pretty nervous at the bottom, but everyone survived the climb....thank goodness!  We stopped at Chick-Fil-A for dinner on the way home.  It had been a fun and full day.

Trying to get 8 kids to look at the camera is tough!  Don't mind the top of my head here, I'm holding onto Bree to make sure she doesn't fall off of the rock she was sitting on.

All of the boys in the little cave that they climbed up to

The Perrins Family

Us

The kids lined up to make a train and hike out and Maci got upset (I don't remember why), so....

Kristi asked all of the kids to make a sad face to match Maci.  (Finn is hanging his head to show he's sad.)

On Sunday we got up and got everyone ready for church.  After Sacrament we headed home for lunch and naps again and then that afternoon we went back to Fox Run Park to feed the fish and walk around the ponds.  We had promised the boys a place to throw rocks and this was it.  The kids collected pinecones and threw them out into the pond.  It was perfect weather and was a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon.

After church (see here for last year's picture and here for 2011--our first couch picture)  The poor babies were ready for naps and were not happy at all.  But look!  The couch is FULL!  These kids are getting big.  I don't think there's room for anymore of them on that couch either.  :)

Our four matching boys all feeding the fish.  Can you even imagine how much trouble we are going to be in as these kids get older??  I LOVE that they are all so close.

Pine cone gathering

I love Isaac's face here!

These two had quite an impressive collection of cones that Finn was diligently guarding.  They thought they pulled a trick over on Kristi when they managed to sneak home an extra 4th pine cone (she told Isaac he could bring home 3) in his pocket!

Kai and Owen

It was a quick trip as they needed to continue on their way to Utah, but we were so glad to spend the weekend with them.  We were very sad to see them go and the boys were already asking about our next trip out to see them.  We ended up with a nice surprise the next Sunday when they decided they needed to stop for the night and we were able to give them a place to sleep.  We got to enjoy dinner and the kids got to play together for a couple of hours before everyone went to bed.  They snuck out our back door before we got up the next morning.

Bree and Maci playing together during their couple of surprise extra hours

We are so glad to have family just a state away.  We can't wait for our next visit!