7 Girls and a Harrison

I do not like it when Buck has work trips out of town. I get all mopey, sad, and pathetic, pining for him in the lonely house. So when I learned he was to be gone for a week at the end of July, I knew I didn't want to stick around either.  One thing lead to another and my cousin in law, Chelsea, decided to come adventure with me as well. She has two girls about the same ages as June and Hazel and they all love each other. And then she has a 1 year old son named Harrison who also came along and was very much "girl trapped" the entire time. (and no, their last name is not Harrison, so it's fine. 😉)

And then, speaking of boys, my sister had her new baby boy (first male in my dad's posterity! haha) and so we decided to venture to Idaho!

We squished all six kids into Chelsea's mini van and she drove. And I planked across all the seats to grab toys that had fallen. 

We made a stop at Shoshone Falls, which, for some bizarre reason, I've never thought to stop at before during the hundreds of times I've made this trip. And it was AMAZING. The falls are 45 feet higher than Niagara falls! It was blazing hot outside so we didn't stay for too long but we will be stopping here more often I think- there is also an area to get in the water and play or go boating.

Long hair = Heat stroke. 

BUT I will not complain because A) I'm the one who wont cut my hair and B) It's still 100% better than being cold in the winter.

 We made it safety there that evening and the kids went bonkers when they got out of the van but once they were asleep Chelsea and I decided to rebel and go in the hot tub even though it was 11:00 pm. We ended up staying up talking until 2:00 am because husbands will never stay up that late just to talk. 

And the next morning we got to go see baby Harvey! My first nephew!

Ginny was excited and a ham, as always. Here are some photos I took another night I went over.

Holding a tiny baby!

Then the rest of the day was a pool day!

We also had Ginny over to play and give my sister extra rest.

Burying a dead honey bee to soothe June's tender heart. And okay, so maybe mine too.

That day was also a Utah holiday called "Pioneer Day" and in Utah everyone shoots off just as many if not more fireworks than they do on the 4th of July. Fireworks aren't allowed in Idaho on the 24th so we settled for some innocent sparklers. Some also affectionately call the day "Pie and Beer Day" so we made some pies and feasted on those as well. 

Needless to say, the girls were wonderfully worn out after such a "hard" day.

The next day we decided to take our friends to see the exotic animal petting zoo. After some tire catastrophes we made it and despite Chelsea having some medical issues and ending up at a Walmart in Oregon, we had a great afternoon! It was cloudy and we were practically the only people in the whole place!

And then, you guys, we got to go IN the pen with the kangaroos and it was THE BEST. I really love animals. I've never been in a pen with a kangaroo and able to hang out with it for as long as I wanted. His name was Jack and I kinda fell in love with him and now I want a pet kangaroo...

These girls! They got to hop around and pet a kangaroo and they have NO IDEA how cool that is. 

We got some more special attention along the path as well since nobody else was there. It was great!

And what else would we do but go swimming again once we were back home? I love the chaos of this photo and Rose going for the floaty.  Thank you Chelsea for getting some photos of me with my girls! (p.s. any photo on here that I am in was taken by Chelsea.)

And she got this adorable one of her son!

And then the adventure continued. 

We headed back down to Utah to stay the night at the Marriot in Park City. The drive down was long due to some accidents on the freeway (one of which was an airplane! So awful!) So we were in the car for what felt like forever. But it's hard to feel bad for yourself when there are others who had much worse days and were in the actual accidents. We are grateful we were safe the whole time and sad for those who were not.

And finally we made it!

And the girls went wild with excitement. We might as well have been in Disneyland.

And then, despite the urge to just all go to bed, we instead seized the day and went night swimming. It was fun because they had some hot tubs with a lower temp for kids to sit in.

And everyone slept well. Except Chelsea and I who stayed up till 2:00 am again talking in the king sized bed. And Harrison who decided to punish us by waking up at 6:00 am. haha

But it's okay because while the kids ran amok, Chelsea and I had breakfast in bed. haha

They made a club house in the shower. 

So we threw them all in the tub.

We were all pretty tired but Chelsea had promised them a trip to the little chocolate factory on main street in Park City so we braved that.

Our triumphant return to the mini van.

Many people commented how we were "brave" for traveling with six kids. But the line between "brave" and "insane" is a thin one. ;) But actually, for the most part, everything went really well and we had quite the adventure. I think one of my favorite moments was right at the end. We were leaving the chocolate factory and Chelsea and I started talking about other things we could possibly do around town but then we looked at each other's tired face and our squirmy kids and Chelsea said, "I think we've been pretty adventurous and would be fine to go home." HAHA Because, really. We HAD done quite a lot and had earned ourselves a lazy evening at home. Why were we even thinking of adding anything else on at the end? I guess that was the moment we tipped over the line to "insane." Thanks for bringing us back over Chelsea. 

And a huge shout out to you Chelsea! Thank you for being so willing to go with us! To go anywhere and do anything! And with all the things you had to deal with with your tires and body! You are a warrior in the mom department and one of the few women I could ever do this with. Thank you for the late night talks, driving the van, laughing, herding kids, and for leaving your husband to single parent-it with me. 😘