Hatch Reunion

Friday July 10th we headed up North to do some camping with Tyler's family and extended family. When we arrived there we set up our tent and got situated (Tyler and the boys had been staying in his parent's toy hauler because he hadn't brought the right poles for the tent we were to use). Once we were set up the day was pretty uneventful...except for Tyler getting into a fight with his sister over the designer rain boots she was wearing. I thought they were a bit overpriced too but not worth fighting over, I mean they're just boots and she can buy whatever she wants. But I managed to get myself involved in their silly argument too. It was all way over the top and silly and I would prefer to never fight over someone's shoe choice again. Ever.

Saturday morning we were in charge of breakfast and let me tell you, the french toast, bacon and eggs we made were a hit! Ok so the french toast was a little over cooked and the bacon a little under cooked but people still ate it and pretended like they loved it ;). After breakfast the kid's had some fun games they got to play. First they did a sack race and then they did a 3 legged race. Here are some cute pics of the 3 legged race:

Steven was with his best buddy Bryson. Note the 2 girls in the pic to the Left of him? Steven and them kept flirting like crazy. I kept trying to explain to him that they are related to him and therefore flirting is not allowed but it was to no avail. I can't wait to use this information against him later.

Ben, on the other hand was less than thrilled about being tied up with his girl cousin Ella, can you tell?

After the 3 legged race we had a slight intermission while Tara went to go find her husband and other 2 kids so that they could join the festivities. Too bad finding her husband did not end well. A Forest Ranger & Sheriff happened to see Travis riding on a quad with 3 kids that were not wearing helmets. When Travis first saw the Sheriff and the Forest Ranger, he had hoped they hadn't seen him and had turned around and headed back to get helmets. But they saw him and took that as running away from the law. So not only did he get in trouble for "endangering children" he also got in trouble for "fleeing." In the end he got felon status and a court date. Not a good day for Travis. But on the bright side, that distracted Tara from the "rain boot fight" and I got these fun pictures while we were awaiting the Sheriff's decision (because yes, taking him to jail was a possibility):

Once the drama was through the kid's finished their fun with a relay that involved filling a bucket with a sponge...

And then they did an obstacle course which basically was just a walk through the woods holding onto a rope :)

After each game the kids all got a prize. Of course when all the games were done, the kids had to compare and then play with prizes:

When the kids finished with their fun, the adults got to play a rousing game of water balloon volleyball. I chose not to participate because his family is way too competitive for my lack of skill so instead I held his brother's baby Bradley, while Tyler played with Mariah:

Us spectators:

Tyler's team won the game- whoot whoot! Usually after the game ends a major water balloon fight goes down between all, but they decided to have the kids play a round of water balloon volleyball instead. Except when it came time to start the game, Uncle Doug basically told the kids to go crazy and they easily complied and soon the kids were sopping wet: 

And since Ben decided to fall and catch himself on dirt, he got muddy too:

After the games Lucy decided to throw a royal fit because she wanted to ride on a quad but wasn't able to (remember all the quad drama with Travis?). She would NOT calm down until I asked her if I could take pictures of her. It was the perfect distraction and she had fun making all sorts of different faces for me:

And after her photo shoot she decided to get cozy and take a nap with her BFF Aunt Mariah: 

Gram Hatch got a little snuggle time with Penny. Penny still has stranger danger issues and only lasted for 5 minutes before she started hyperventilating.

Despite Penny's stranger danger issues, we still managed to escape for a bit to go on a quad ride of our own:

Night time was party time! Some families did some lip syncs- Tyler's favorite was "Chicken Head" a hilarious song that Tara and Travis lip synced too. After all the practiced lip syncs were finished, the kids got a chance to come on up and just dance. My kids had a blast- it was so fun watching them get their groove on:

After a brutal night in which Penny worked hard at not sleeping, it was time to wake up and pack up. Penny was not up to helping with the cleaning up since she had had such a rough night but she was definitely up the chilling:

Besides cleaning and packing, we took some time for some photo op'sL

And after all the cleaning and packing and picture taking, we had our traditional Hatch Sunday service and then it was time to head back to Chandler. Unfortunately the trip back was not pleasant. It involved way too many stops on the side of the highway for certain boys to go pee and lots of screaming by a certain crazy girl of mine. We were very grateful when we finally made it to my parent's house!

2nd Week in Arizona

We started off our second week in Arizona swimming at Gabby's house. Gabby was one of my students that I used to tutor and as soon as she sees on Facebook that I'm coming to Arizona she makes sure I put her on my schedule for a visit. It was nice getting together with her and her family. I had a nice conversation with her mom, Gabby seemed to enjoy seeing my kids again,their pool was way fun and Tyler had a blast bonding with her younger brother ;) !

That afternoon we went out to dinner at Red Robin's with my family to celebrate my dad's birthday. Steven and Mikey Dude enjoyed being twinsies:

Oliver is always thoughtful and brings a toy to share with my kids:

Silly old men

This girl loves to take pictures:

Toys are apparently more delicious than corn dogs:

Loved being reuinted with my sweet sister-in-law:

After Red Robin's we had some birthday cake at Grandma's house. It's my favoritest cake ever (my Grandma's special recipe) and I may or may not have eaten several large pieces of it that night:

I think these 2 were less impressed with the cake?

After stuffing out faces Tyler and I went and watched "Jurassic World" with my brother and dad. Such an entertaining movie- not be analyzed mind you due to the large amount of plot holes- but I still enjoyed it thoroughly!

Tuesday was Tyler's fabulous 32nd Birthday. We celebrated with a quiet lunch date to Chili's. We think we're rather funny...

And then after dinner we had a big hurrah at Iceberg with all of Tyler's family (minus Tara's family because they were out of town) and my parents. Since Tyler is not a huge fan of cake we just stuck a candle in his ice cream. Yeah, we're cool like that:

He got a super exciting survivial knife from his parents:

Let's just say that maybe we should have had the celebration somewhere a little less public. Hatch Family in public= pure craziness. There was shouting, dancing, kids being bounced around on shoulders and all manner of loudness and chaos:

But at least Penny minded her manners:

The next morning was spent with Tyler busily packing things to take the boys camping and me running out with Ben to try to find him some jeans to wear camping. Who knew that finding jeans that were long and skinny could be so challenging? Oh wait, I do. I SO do! After they were finally packed and had the proper attire, Tyler headed up North with the boys to do some camping with his family and I stayed behind with the girls.

Thursday my mom, Rebecca and I went out to breakfast at Village Inn while my dad watched my kids. It was nice to have such a peaceful morning with my favorite people and the strawberry crepes there were amazing! After eating we went to JcPenney's where I had Rebecca pick out some clothes for me to buy for her baby-to-be, Lillian. I ended up getting her a super cute 4th of July dress and a fun little outfit that would be perfect for Valentine's Day. Hopefully they end up fitting her at the appropriate times!

Thursday afternoon I paid a visit to Mary Williams. It was nice getting to chat just us ladies. The girls, however, didn't hit it off too well. Her daugher was not too keen on sharing her dress up clothes with Lucy and that broke Lucy's poor "pretty princess" heart :(

And Friday Tyler came back to pick me up so that I could join for the official Hatch Family Reunion Camp Out. Pictures coming in next post...

Weekend Trip to Greer

Friday we headed to Greer, AZ to stay at a cabin with all of Tyler's siblings and their families. It was a lot of driving for the boys who had just spent all Thursday driving home from Legoland California but we somehow managed. We did make a stop at Arby's where Lucy got these very darling bull horns in her kid's meal: 

Shortly after arriving at the cabin we all headed into town for some milk shakes at a local place. The place was small and there are a bazillion of us so we waited outside for the shakes and, of course, we had to take some pictures while we waited:

The rest of the day went normally with lots of socializing and kids playing in mud and dirt and it ended with Tyler's brother, Logan, leading an exercise routine for the family. Not going to lie, there was some Yoga poses happening that were pretty humorous...

Saturday was the 4th of July so we started off our morning watching a parade in Greer. This parade included lots of candy throwing and water balloon throwing too. There was a group on the other side of the street of us that was loaded down with water balloons and there were certain floats where the people were more than prepared to take them on. It was quite fun to watch but also quite dangerous if you got near the crossfire. 

After the parade there was lots of raining going on which spoiled our plans of doing anything fun. We attempted to go play at a nearby river but with the relentless rain we didn't last long. Thankfully the rain let up that evening and we were all able to go watch an awesome firework show. Lucy loved the fireworks and kept saying "Pretty princess!" I didn't get a picture during the actual fireworks but I did take a group shot afterwards:

Saturday night was pretty terrible- Lucy did not sleep well. Lucy was not in our bedroom at first but she was in the room with all the other kids which was right by Tara & Travis's room. We were all the way upstairs which meant we were not woken up by Lucy at first. Poor Tara woke up and had to drag Lucy all the way upstairs to us. She was not happy about that and we were not happy about our fussy kid. And of course, Penny decided to fuss as well. Needless to say, it was a pretty long and miserable night.

The next morning was spent cleaning up the cabin. The cabin is owned by Travis's grandparents and they are very particular about how it is kept up (they even sent one of Travis's siblings to check up on us and make sure us Hatch's were not destroying it). Anyways we worked very hard at keeping the kids out and making everything shiny and pretty again and we ended our time there by snapping a fun picture of all the Hatch cousins. They sure do get along well together: