Daisy's baptism day

Oh the Summer We are Having!

June 8-10th

I am so far behind! For starters, I created a chore list for the summer to give the kids daily chores and responsibilities. Along with the chores are lists of small and fun activities we can do each week (go to the library, bowling, swimming, have friends over, etc.). These items are my rewards to them for doing their daily chores. I stole the idea from my friend Heather here.
Anyway, as a bigger reward for consistency I listed four large activities they will get to do this summer: Legoland, Grandma Jo's, Camping, & the cabin. It was easy to put those because we already had plans to do them anyway :)

So the kids have been doing pretty well at their chores, which is sooo helpful for me! For their "reward" they got to go to Legoland (thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Ellsworth, who were planning on taking all who could come anyway). On the drive over, I pulled out our camera and found that for whatever reason it wasn't working (probably dropped one too many times be our sweet children). I'm no camera expert, but I believe the aperture was not closing, and so every time we took a picture, everything bright was a bright purplish color and all the color hues were off. So basically we couldn't take any pictures of our family on this trip unless we were indoors in a pretty dark room. Luckily I had family members with cameras, and they snapped a few pictures for us and sent them to us.


Here's the whole crew when we finally met up inside the park (minus my older brother, Dean, and his family, who couldn't make it). Lots of strollers and babies!

It took a while for all of us to figure out where to go first. We ended up hitting a dead end when we followed a path up to a ride that was closed.

 Then the whole crew had to turn around and go back down...

Kalvin (Duane & Angie's oldest) and Adaira were happy to be buddies. Kalvin is a sweet boy who just loves all his cousins.

There was one ride where people went through in boats and when they passed by you could squirt them with water. They had these squirt stations about every 8-10 feet and we all hung out there for a good 20 minutes squirting strangers and trying to get them as wet as possible and laughing our heads off. I must admit I'm kind of a bully at heart. I stayed there longer than anyone squirting and laughing at people. I'd position the "squirter" so it would spray them as they passed and then I would just stand next to it looking ahead and just watch them get wet out of my peripheral vision. Legoland was so naughty to put such a thing there!!!

I haven't laughed that hard in a while, but I did take my own turn and other people got their revenge on me as well.

 Justin took Dale on a ride and they got splashed. It's funny how much of a crazy dare devil is at home, but put him on a ride where he gets a little wet and he flips out.

 He was so miserable being cold so we put Adaira's sweater on him. The guy behind him in the picture below told his daughter to give the other "little girl" a turn. Ha Ha!

Again, get Dale behind a horse that could kick his face in, or put him on a counter top where he could fall and break his arm, or in a stall with a violent Ram, and he won't be phased. Put him on a little ride, and it's time for a FREAK OUT!

 The boys and their babies from L to R: Duane & William, David & Charlotte, Don & Scarlet, Justin & Daisy. I don't know why Duane looks so short in this picture...

 Saving money be eating cereal for breakfast in our hotel room one morning.

Inside the Legoland Sea Life Aquarium. These are the only pictures we were able to take with our camera.

Man Eating Crab! Or Spider Crab, whatever... it's gross.

Dale was all over the place.

Love this sweet girl.

This picture makes me laugh. The look on Justin's face while he juggles two kids just screams the definition of  "PARENTHOOD"

 We are so lucky to have been on so many great trips with my parents. It was cool that Dale was actually free to get in because he is still two, yet he is so tall that he was able to ride almost every ride. Some of his older cousins didn't even get to go on the rides he did, and they had to pay to get in!

This was the first one for the whole family (kids included) that they have sponsored. Justin and I were thinking that we wouldn't have nearly so many cool vacations memories of different places if it weren't for them. Thank you Mom & Dad!