Ice Cold

 On Monday Tyler took the day off so he could spend time with his parents before they headed out Tuesday. We thought we'd take them to Cherry Republic because it has such tasty things and then we could stroll the cute town. It all ended up being a bit of a bust. It was terribly cold oustide so the walk from the parking garage to the store felt brutal. Then his parents ended up not buying anything at the store because they weren't interested in packing any of it onto the airplane. And then appparently none of the shops opened for another half hour so we ended up just walking back to the car. Boo.

Our next stop was Hell, Michigan- his mom was real excited about being able to say she went to Hell. On our way there we ended up coming across a park full of ice sculptures so we had to stop and see them. The kids were freezing and mostly kept asking if we could get back in the car and then Penny slipped in snow and became even more cold but the sculptures were really, really awesome and I am glad we stumbled upon them.

Then we drove the rest of the way to Hell and I think his parents enjoyed the shop with all its super fun souvenirs. We were all hungry by this time so we headed next door to the Hell Hole Diner for some lunch. It was alright for food from Hell.

That night Tyler and his dad got a bunch of junk food and we all watched "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark." This may have been a poor movie choice- it was a little much for the girls- especially when the guys face melted off. That night Penny insisted we read a book because she couldn't stop seeing the melted face. We traumatized her.

Tyler's parents left early Tuesday, before we even came downstairs for Seminary. Also Tuesday the kids all went back to school and that was so nice. I finally had a chance to really clean up the house, with nobody coming behind me and messing everything up. As much as I love my children, I think the breaks from eachother are much needed. 

Tuesday after school Ben and Jacob shoveled some driveways in the neighborhood for money. Jacob is always looking for way to make money and I appreciate that he included Ben in his latest scheme. It was nice to see Ben working hard. After all his shoveling he had a meeting with a Bishopric Member where he was called at Deacon's Secretary. I think he will be good at this once he learns the ropes.

Wednesday morning for seminary I asked the teens to bring a bowl and spoon without telling them why. The lesson was "role of the learner" and I wanted to teach them that they if they are active learners (bring a bowl&spoon/reading ahead of time) they can better feast off the lesson (eat the cereal I provided/learn). Only 2 out of the 12 kids brought bowls and spoons. It was such a flop but maybe they learned something? 

Thursday morning we had a party for our seminary students to celebrate them reaching their class scripture reading goal. We were going to have it on a Saturday but we just couldn't align schedules so we decided to do it during class instead. It totally stressed me out. Tyler went to pick up bagels but it didn't open when we thought it was going to so he waited for it to open. Meanwhile I cooked bacon, waffles, and eggs...and while I was baking the smoke detector went off (despite a lack of smoke) which woke up the kids and upped my anxiety. Then the teens started to arrive and needed help with getting controlers to work (video games was part of the deal for reaching thier goal). Oh man was I releived when Tyler finally got back with the bagels and I wasn't alone with all the chaos. Then I was able to relax and play a racing game with the teens. I think they needed this fun morning and I am happy with how it all panned out.

Friday after the kids finished thier schoolwork we went on a little outing to the Henry Ford Museum. Steven stayed behind because he had planned to play online with a friend. The rest of us had a good time. We hadn't been in forever so it was fun to be there again- although all the fun building toys had been put away because of Covid. We watched a really cool video about race car drivers and then we had a really awkward time with a museum worker who told us the Rosa Park's story and then ran up as we were leaving to apologize for calling Lucy a girl. Um, she is a girl so now you just made things weird. Lucy was wearing pink and red and had a cat mask but I guess in this modern world you can't make gender assumptions.

Friday night I threw a belated birthday party for my friends Caroline and Melissa. They have thier birthday on the same day and Melissa had said we should throw a suprise party for Caroline but since they have the same birthday I felt like basically she was telling me I needed to throw them both a party. Whatever. I made it a 90s theme and it ended up being a lot of fun, I just ended up spending more money than I would have liked to spend at this time. Between the traveling to Arizona, and Tyler's parents being here and Steven's birthday coming and having to pay to get some things done on my car....I just need to not have so many extra expenses for once. But like I said it was a good time with lots of laughs. We rocked the 90's look, ate 90's candy, played a 90's trivia game, did a puzzle of 90's tv shows and listened to 90's music. I just failed to document it. All I have is a pic I took of myself and a pic of Caroline holding some chip dip she had brought that I want to buy. Fail.

Visit from the Hatch's

This week the girls went into their school Tuesday afternoon to take their reading assessment (they passed) and all the kids turned in their work. It was a relief to get that done and soon we will get back to our regular school schedule. I cannot wait until I can drop them off for the day. It's been a long week of me feeling super frustrated and annoyed with the kids. I don't know if it is hormonal or they really are just this frustrating. At dinner that evening one of the things I talked to the kids about was their need for everything to be fair. I tried to talk about how fair looks different for everyone but near the end of this lecture I turned to joke scenarios and asked Lucy if it would be fair if Penny stole her boyfriend. Lucy kindly responded, "She's not even hot." BURN. 

Tuesday evening we went to watch one of our seminary student's basketball games. He has only come to seminary a handful of times and that was at the beginning of the school year. I really do enjoy watching sports in person, especially when I have a team to root for. His team did not win unfortunately- it was a close game up until the last quarter- but I think our coming showed him that we care. 

Wednesday we had a very light load of school work to do since we had turned in the majority of it and the kids still managed to complain. I spent most of the day trying to clean and get the house ready for Tyler's parents who were coming Thursday. It always feels good after a good clean, I just wish the kids could let it stay clean longer. That evening the kids all had activities at the church. When we got there the girls refused to go in without me (I had wanted to leave a message for my mom before going inside) and then they left a car door open as we were heading in. I was so annoyed and frustrated and overwhelmed with them so it was a really nice thing that they all had activities and I got to hang out with All my friends (Grace, Caroline and Melissa) who were also at the church- girl's night at the church ;). I needed that. I was glad to have some time to just vent about how much my kids were driving me nuts and chat with my friends. 

Thurday I ran some errands in the morning and then rushed home to get some food made before Tyler's parents came (banana bread for a snack, a bean salad his mom could eat for lunches). Of course my rushing was unnecessary. His parents went out to eat, stopped at a few shops and made it to our house about 3 hours after their flight had landed. I should have know better. That evening we had a nice dinner (where I made red sauce for the first time and it turned out meh) and then Tyler's dad turned on "Moana" and watched it with the kids. I was inspired to play one of the songs from "Moana" at seminary the next day, it the perfect ending to my lesson.

Friday Tyler had to work so I was the entertainer of his parentals. After the kids did some reading I took the kids and his parents to Belle Isle. His dad really seemed to enjoy the aquarium there and even though we had just been there recently, the kids enjoyed it again. Although the kids were much faster than Poppy Hatch who took his time reading all the plaques. Penny and Steven had both brought their own cameras and they enjoyed taking pictures. Lucy ended up taking my phone and was in charge of taking pictures for me. Mostly she took the fish but she did get one of her and her Grandma Hatch.

Our next stop was the Conservatory next door. It was a frigid walk there but nice and toasty inside. This one interested Poppy Hatch less but I think Grandma Hatch thought all the plants were neat. We were all especially excited by the bananas that were growing.

My phone needed to charge so we didn't take any pictures at our last stop, the Dossin Great Lakes Museum. Poppy Hatchwas real excited by the Edmund Fitzgerald stuff and from a plaque he learned that right around Lucy's birthday they do a memorial service for the Edmund Fitzgerald. Maybe we should go to that one of these years. The kids liked the icy lake outside of the museum and enjoyed throwing rocks trying to break the ice until they slipped and realized that was a little dangerous.

After Belle Isle I drove them by the Heidelberg Project so they could see all the "artwork" in the front lawns and so they could see downtown Detroit. They agreed with me that the art looked quite a bit like trash. On our way out of Detroit I had a little trouble not getting lost and may or may not have almost side swipped a car. Thankfully they saw me but that was bit embarassing. 

Saturday we took his parents to see the Christmas Story House in Cleveland. Tyler and I had been there before but that was before I had actually really watched the movie. It was a little more fun to me this time around and I think the kids and his parents enjoyed seeing it too. Also this time they actually had someone giving a tour of the house- she wasn't the best, a little sour- but we learned some interesting stuff, like most of the movie wasn't even actually filmed there and the main character ended up not getting any royalties because of a studio change. 

Our last stop in Cleveland was the Westside Market (Tyler and I had also been there before). Tyler bought some super expensive dried fruit that had basically been turned into candy, I got a strawberry shortcake treat, we got a bunch of Kale for guinea pigs, and the kids all got to pick out a treat which was (as always) an extremely difficult decision for Steven. I wish he didn't have my annoying habit of being super indecisive. Then we took it up to the ledge and took in the view while we enjoyed our food.

When we finished up at the market we had the almost 3 hour drive home and that was our exciting day out.

Sunday Ben was ordained as a Deacon and Steven was ordained as a Teacher. It was nice that they were able to have one set of grandparents there and Tyler stuck with the tradition of giving them his tie (he brought multiple ties to church that day).

I didn't take any pictures yet but they kids have put together 2 puzzles already with their grandparents and are now working on a third. Poppy Hatch claims he hates puzzle but I keep putting them out and he keeps doing them. I think he's just to ADD to sit still and I think we have ruined his life by not having the news channels he like to watch.

Also this week, Poppy Brady has been sick and having health issues. He's got us all pretty worried but he is currently checked into the hospital and showing improvements. He was stubborn about eating and drinking and taking his medicine and now he has to do all these things so I am hopeful this will help him get back to good health. We love him and want him healthy.

And ending with a funny story. I was complaining that my hand hurt from cutting a bunch of stuff for seminary and so Tyler was massaging my hand and I was making all sorts of awkward noises to express that it felt good and suddenly we hear Ben shout "What!?" Totally caught me off guard because I thought he was still upstairs sleeping but apparently he was hiding out by his heater vent.

January Things

Sunday we ditched church, just in case we were still contagious. I also felt like I just didn't have the energy for it. It was a very quiet day in. I worked some on seminary lessons, baked cookie bars, took a nap...nothing too exciting. Around midnight Tyler and Ben finally made it back to Michigan. Of course I couldn't expect Tyler to wake up and do seminary after a 32 hour drive with minimal sleep so I was on my own for seminary Monday morning. Honestly it was a super hard wake up for me and I felt super groggy that whole day. The lesson itself was a bit of a flop. It was focused on Satan's role in the premortal life and during the Fall. I had made a Kahoot for the lesson and half the kids forgot to bring devices. They are teens, aren't they supposed to be attached to their phones!? Then I had some of my students implying that God had been too harsh on Satan and that God was against freedom of speech. Ugh. Teens.

Sickness has also been running rampant out here. We ended up having only 3 days of seminary this week because we were missing so many kids due to sickness. I'm hoping they will all rest up with a 5 day weekend (there's no school Monday) and come back to us healthy. I have such a love/hate relationship with seminary. I was SOOOO tired those 3 days we had it but I also love that it gets me up and going, I fit more in the day. And I also love starting my day talking about the Gospel- even if teens can be "sassy".

My kids' school is still "virtual" this week which means they have a list of things they have to accomplish for each subject. It was a rough week school wise and it reminded me why we stopped straight up homeschool. Lots of whining, complaining, frustrations when they didn't understand how to do things...I miss them having teachers twice a week to help them understand things. I also miss getting a break from them twice a week. Next week will be the last week of virtual school and then we can get back to normal.

Tuesday night I had Bunco...which maybe we shouldn't have because 2 people from Bunco now have Covid...like I said sickness is running rampant here. I did have a lot of fun at Bunco though, even if most of the fun is because I am such a weirdo. I ended up getting the lowest score by a longshot so I won the loser prize. Go me! 

Wednesday afternoon I took Penny,Ben, Steven and Jacob to the mall. I wanted to get some Lego minifigure keychains for something and of course they all wanted to go to the Lego Store too. I also had a couple other stores to hit so I allowed Ben, Steven and Jacob to wander the mall without me and then we met up at the Lego Store. It feels weird letting them be independent. I know it's good for them but I worry. Anyways I think they enjoyed their independence and Jacob bought them ice cream at Dairy Queen so that was nice. 

Wednesday night all my kids had activities! Both girls are now in Activity Days, Ben is now a Deacon so he at last will have weekly activities (the Activity Boy leaders were terrible and only held activities like twice a year) and Steven is now a Teacher. Jacob also came with us and is planning on coming weekly with Ben. Apparently he was offering to lead activities and LESSONS. That neighbor of mine is quick to volunteer but I am not so sure about the follow through.

Friday my friend had surgery on her foot so I had her kids over for a bit. Her teen daughter came over too. Steven and Ben were over at Jacob's house for his birthday party so she had no one her age to hang out with. She did play Mario Kart for a bit with the littles but she's not very good at it so she never lasts long. I ended up taking her with me to get the pizza and decided to stop at 7-11 and get slushies too (just to kill more time). I felt like I was back in YW's for a bit and it was kind of nice. I do miss my YW that I don't see in Seminary. Eating dinner was loud- my friend's one kiddo is so wild and does not just sit and eat. After they left the girls and I had a girl's night and watched "Enchanted." They got grossed out on all the kissing scenes, lol.

This week I also got a Samsung Galaxy Watch from Tyler as a late anniversary gift. It's pretty neat to be able to get and respond to text messages on it and I was really nerded out when I was able to take a phone call on it (when I was at the mall and Jacob called to tell me where they were at). Man technology has come a long way! It also monitors my sleep which is interesting. I usually get a sleep rating in the low 70's. I think mostly I am not getting enough deep sleep and REM sleep. I sure feel like I am not getting enough sleep.

Sick in Arizona

Sunday morning we went to Melissa and Logan's Ward because they were blessing their baby Addison. The testimony meeting afterwards had a lot of children bearing their testimonies and also a teenager telling a way too detailed story about an intoxicated person she helped. It made realize that every Ward has it's quirky people, we're not unique here in Michigan. Melissa also bore her testimony about how God will give you what you want (ie a baby girl) all you have to do is ask.  This is so untrue and honestly made me really upset. God is not a genie. And if He was I would have a baby right now. I really wanted to get up after her and clarify that God will NOT give you what you want but He will give you what you need in this life, He will be there for you when things are hard and all will be made right in the next life. But I'm not sure she would have appreciated that so I didn't.

Sunday afternoon Keshia, Logan, and Jezerea's families all came over to the Hatch house for dinner. We hardly saw Tara's family this trip which was disappointing for our kids. Tyler actually helped make the spaghetti for his mom since his mom had been at his grandparents house. We haven't seen his grandparents for years because apparently they are anti visiting with extended family. So weird. The boys also helped their Poppy make the garlic bread for dinner and it turned out SUPER salty because Poppy got a little too generous with the garlic salt. We all tried to scrape off the salt but it didn't help much. 

All of Sunday I was starting to feel achy and a little congested and just off. That night it hit hard. I was super achy and alternated between chills and sweats. I took some Tylenol and it helped but I was not feeling great Monday morning. We had planned our one and only outing with his parents and Keshia's family for Monday and I really didn't want to miss out so I had Tyler buy me some medicine. We were going to Out of Africa in Camp Verde and since it was all outdoors I wasn't worried about spreading my disease but I just needed to not feel so crappy. The medicine helped manage the symptoms and quite honestly I think the fresh air was good for me. By the end I was definitely exhausted and ready to just go home but it was a good time overall.

The first thing we did there was go on the Safari Tour. We all got to feed a giraffe a leaf during it and we were told we were lucky because every giraffe on site came up and ate- that usually doesn't happen. All of the kids enjoyed feeding the giraffes except for Lucy, she was terrified and Tyler had to basically do it for her. Seeing how giraffes mostly use their tongue, I was more grossed out than scared. There was also a fun zebra I documented who kept "smiling" because it wanted more cookies from the driver. It's funny that the driver said they don't train the animals to come to the bus but I am pretty sure giving them cookies everytime they come to the bus is what you would call "training" them...

After that tour it was lunchtime so we walked over to where the food was. We were told walking was better than talking the shuttle because we'd see more animals. Well all we saw was a rhino so I am not so sure it was worth it but whatever. When ordering lunch we got the last 2 pizza slices much to the disappointment of Keshia's kids, we're the worst. When we finished eating we went to watch the Tiger Splash Show. We got the lame, old tiger who was not in the mood for much of anything. They got him to pounce on a couple pairs of pants with balloons in them and he did one cool jump and that was it. The kids still seemed to think it was cool though so I guess it was still a win.

We did some walking after the show and saw a bunch of different animals. We had hoped to see a capybara but never did find out where it was hiding. We did see some lemurs, and Emus- one Emu that seemed to perk up everytime we spoke of pecking out someone's eye. We stopped in at the reptile house and got to learn about some of the snakes and the kids got to pet a really big snake- I can't remember what kind it was.

After the snakes we walked around seeing more animals. The animals were all pretty active and close to the fences so it was a really cool way to end our visit. We saw (and heard) lots of lions and tigers. One lion followed Tyler and that was slighlty creepy. We also saw some hyenas, wolves (there were workers in the cage basically snuggling with the wolves) and one bear who looked super unhappy to be awoken from his hibernation. I really think this last walk through with all the active animals was one of my favorite parts of the outing.

By this time we were all spent so we took the shuttle back to the gates, did a quick walk through of the gift shop and then drove the 2 hours back home.

Monday was also our anniversary so when we got back Tyler's parents told us to go out and they would feed the kids. We had talked about going to Benihana but since I wasn't feeling well, I didn't want to do a big long, fancy dinner. Instead we went and got some dinner at my favorite, Mi Amigo's and then called it a night.

That night was another bad night of aches, fevers and chills. I decided with me flying out Thursday I better not do anymore outings, I needed to rest up and stop diseasing people. Tyler was starting to feel congested too so he probably needed to rest as well but he still had work and he had a car to finish fixing, poor guy. So I spent Tuesday at home, doing some packing but mostly resting. My family was nice enough to entertain my children. My parents picked up the kids and took them out to lunch and then Mike picked them up after work and brought them to his house to play. We had been planning to go to the temple with Tyler's parents that night but I wasn't going to spread my disease there so we had to cancel. I was super bummed because this was going to be my opportunity to see the newly remodeled temple. Instead Tyler picked up dinner for us and his parents. We had an interesting conversation with them about how they rated as parents. His mom gave them a C and Tyler's dad was offeneded and felt they should at least get a B. There was also a lot of political talk.

Wednesday I did more packing and resting and Tyler did more working while still feeling under the weather. Once again my family rescued the children. My parents took them to Uptown Jungle in the morning and Rebecca picked up the boys in the afternoon to play at her house. The girls stayed home because Reese came over after school to play with them. I am glad they were able to get so much cousin time despite me being stuck at home. 

Wednesday evening Tyler's dad took us all out to ice cream at the Golden Spoon. I still was feeling miserable but the kids enjoyed their ice cream- they got way too big of sizes but that seems to be the Poppy way.

Also, this past week I had bought a pack of Pokemon puzzles with Ben and he had promised to help me with all of them. He kept his promise and actually ended up doing the last one mostly by himself. He told me that he actually likes puzzles, as long as their Pokemon ones ;)

Thursday morning it was time for me, Steven, Lucy and Penny to fly home. Penny woke up that morning with aches and a fever. She was in tears all morning and I was stressing out thinking of having to have her stand in lines for luggage and security like this. I gave her some Tyenol and Tyler gave her a blessing and the combination was perfect. She did so good at the airport (and thankfully the lines were short). She only had one complaint as we were boarding that her tummy hurt and then she was miraculously fine for the whole flight. Such a blessing. The flight for me was a bit nauseating- there was quite a bit of turbulance- but I didn't have any crazy coughing fits. 

My friend Melissa picked us up from the airport and her timing was impeccable and she was right outside our door for the luggage with a nice and toasty car. It was just what I needed as we re-entered this wicked cold climate. She filled me in on all her life drama since I left and so it was an entertaining ride. She ended up taking us back to her house because that was where my car was at and this was when Penny finally broke down and started crying again. She did not appreciate my cold car and I think the blessing had just "wore off" ;). She basically whined and cried until I put her to bed for the night.

Friday, Penny's fever had broke and she seemed to be doing much better, just congested. I spent Friday trying to clean and organize the messy house I had left behind and I also had to order and pick up groceries. I did all this in the comfort of my jammies. It is so nice to be back in my own space again. Now we just need Tyler and Ben back here too. Hopefully they will arrive Sunday night as planned and then it will be back to real life as usual.

New Years in Arizona

On Monday Tyler and I did a little bit of after Christmas shopping, there wasn't much left in the stores but I did get a few good things for Christmas next year (a few Christmas prizes and things for our Christmas countdown). That afternoon Tyler and the boys went shooting with his dad and the Bowman boys. My dad was going to go but he decided against it because it was cold outside and was during his nap time. Ben really enjoyed it but Steven says that he doesn't enjoy shooting. I think he is like me and just doesn't appreciate the loud noises. 

While they were shooting the girls and I met up with my mom and Mike's family at Signal Butte Park. It was pretty chilly outside so we didn't last super long but enough to get some good wiggles out. 

Afterwards we hung out at Mike's house for a long while. His wife is always good to us and feeds us. We are very spoiled.

On Tuesday we spent most of the day in Scottsdale. We met up with Mike's family at the McCormick Railroad Park. It was sprinkling when we first got there and started to sprinkle again when we left. Dumb weather was supposed to give us nothing but sunshine while we were here. I also would like to think that I'm tough because of Michigan and can totally handle the cold in Arizona but I'm not. It's still cold to me. I'm dreading going back home this week where the highs are in the 20's. Going to be a shock to the system.

The first thing we did at the park was get tickets and then the girls rode on the carousel. It was sort of lame since it didn't have any music playing.

Then we all went for a ride on the train. Thanks to the rain, the seats were a bit wet so Tyler was nice enough to wipe them off with his coat sleeve. They still had their Christmas lights out so even though they weren't on, we could still see them. The best was the cactuses with creepy faces on the back- probably repurposed Halloween Decorations. 

After the train ride the kids played Lava Monster with Uncle Mike and Tyler. It was fun to watch them get thrown into a prison without doors, that prison definitely needed some better funding. Although at one point a toddler sat down right in front of the empty door frame and he made a pretty good "door". While the kids played, Grams sat on a bench, huddled underneath all the kids' discarded jackets, trying to keep warm.

Before we left the park we checked out the model train. I had never seen that building with the model train before and thought maybe it had been built after we moved to Michigan. But actually it came a few years before we moved so I must have just been out of the loop. I think the best part of the model train was the Wizard of Oz city built out of Lego's.

Our next stop was lunch at Wendy's. Our huge order with Mike's family, my family and Grams totally broke Wendy's. It took them a long time to get our orders out and the customers that came after us probably weren't super happy about their long wait. The cashier was really nice though and complimented our beautiful families. 

Our last stop was the Sugar Bowl. Tyler and I had gone there on dates once upon a time so it was fun to reminisce. However, it took a bit for our huge group to get seated. In the meanwhile we had to wait outside and we pretty much took up the whole sidewalk. I think Scottsdale is not meant for large groups. They ended up sitting us in a back part by an arcade so our kids could wistfully stare at the games we weren't going to pay for them to play. But they all got an obscene amount of yummy ice cream in the end so I think they were happy.

Tuesday night Reese spent the night. Wednesday I had plans to do a fun morning with the kids and her but then tragedy struck. Lucy woke us up crying that her earring front had broken off. She went to hand me "it" and in my tired state I dropped it and then I couldn't find it. Looking at her ear we definitely couldn't see the front part of it and her ear was a swollen mess so we assumed what she said was true. Tyler tried to pull the back out but had no success. It was stuck good. We were going to take her to a doctor but he decided it would be just as painful so with some lidocaine. neosporine and pliers he got to work. Lucy actually did really good at staying still but oh did she shriek and cry. And when he finally got it out we discovered that the earring top had not actually fallen off. He had pulled the whole earring backwards through her ear. Poor Lucy. This whole earring experience has been so traumatizing but we have certainly learned a lot.

After we finally got the earring out and Lucy had watched some "America's Funniest Home Videos" to help calm down and she had taken some advil to help with the pain, we could now have some fun. We went to Gilbert Regional Park. We brought Lucy's bike so she was finally able to ride it, and Tyler brought his drone so he could get some more practice with it. I rode my bike with Lucy for a bit, while the kids played at this massive park and then when we were done riding bikes, Tyler went off with the boys to play with the drone. As I sat and people watched I realized how old I am getting. I am not the young mom I used to be. Also Ben coming over complaining he was bored helped cement that. I really don't have a whole family of kids who like the park anymore. Although his real complaint was the park was just too crowded which I totally get.

Wednesday afternoon while Tyler went out to dinner with my brother and dad, I hung out at Rebecca's house. Once again she was nice and fed us all and she even had a fun craft for the kids to do. They all made shrinky dink necklaces/bracelets/etc. They also lined up all their Beanie Boo's for a picture because they all just love them so much.

When Tyler came back from dinner, we left the kids so they could have another sleepover at Mike's house and then I had a meet up with my friend Karen. I totally misremembered the time and got their a half an hour early but there was a Barnes and Noble next to where we were meeting up so I hung out there for a bit. Then I headed over to Creme and Chocolats. Their dessert was super yummy- raspberry ice cream with white chocolate sauce in a waffle cone- and it was really nice to catch up with Karen. She caught me up on things happening in our old ward, we talked about her husband being the new bishop and we just talked about all the things. It was a good chat and nice to feel like someone in Arizona still cares about me. I also managed to drip ice cream all across the floor when I went to get a bowl for my cone which was embarassing but I am basically a child in my eating habits soo...

When I came back from meeting Karen, Tyler's Aunt Jacque was at his parents house so we stayed up late chatting with her about politics and life. We had thought she was going to be staying all the next day but it turns out she was leaving that next morning. We felt bad because we would have totally shifted plans with my family and me with my friend if we had known she was leaving early. Then we could've spent that whole evening with her but alas. In the morning Tyler picked the kids up early from Mike's house so at lesat they could see her before she headed out.

Thursday after lunch we went with my parents and my brother to go see "Ghostbusters:Afterlife." Tyler stayed behind to clean his dad's guns. After the movie we dropped by a nearby "Barnes and Noble" because I had seen a good deal on Lego Mario sets and Ben wanted to get one. This was located at the San Tan Mall and it was so crazy busy that just parking was an ordeal. I let a "damn it" slip out at one point and Lucy was quick to point out that I had just said a bad word. Awesome.

Thursday evening we went to Mike's house for a little party. Lots of yummy appetizers (including a great salsa) and we played some games. We even got Poppy to do a "Just Dance" song, it was pretty great. We also had to get a picture of all of us in our jean jackets- we're all so hip, just like Poppy! 

Friday morning I attempted to do a little bit of school with the kids while Tyler went shooting again- this time he went with my family. Our kids are officially supposed to start school next week but with some plans we already have and traveling home, I know they're not going to get much done so I wanted a head start. Then that evening his family came over to celebrate New Years Eve. It was rainy but they still managed to light the fireworks and one of the fireworks exploded at the end like we were all being shot at. Our kids thought it was great, their younger cousins not so much. The kids also played the "quarters" game. That was probably the most fun part. In the end Navi won but Ben got pretty close to winning.

Sautrday morning they had a surprise birthday party for Jezerea. Her husband had the breakfast food catered and the pineapple pancakes with vanilla sauce were real delicious. The party ended in sadness for my girls though because one of the littles had gotten in their room and destroyed their LEGO sets. Me being a great mom, put them back together (look at me becoming a lego expert). The annoying thing is that they still have to be transported home so they'll probably need to be rebuilt yet another time. The rest of our Saturday consisted of Tyler working on his car (trying to fix a couple more things before he heads out next week) and me being fairly lazy while the kids complained of boredom. Just your typical Saturday.