Labor Day and other days (long post)

The month of September has been a busy one but the busy really starts back in August. The week of August 16th, CJ's mom came to visit which was really fun, then the following week was the first week of school for the girls. In the middle of that week I get a call from my mom who said that the annual Labor Day family trip to the Someday Ranch (the land our family owns by the Grand Canyon) was going to be extra special this year because we were celebrating my dad's 65th birthday and she really wanted our family to be there.We don't usually make the trip because of our lack of reliable transportation. Anyway, arrangements were made and we had transportation to the Ranch. I was really excited to go but had a lot of last minute preparations that were going to be needed and so the busy first week of school got even busier. It was a good busy though and I was so excited. I'd say the whole family was but unfortunately CJ had to work so he wouldn't be able to go and I didn't tell the girls we were going because I wanted it to be a surprise so I was the only one who really was able to be excited. The girls knew we were going camping for Labor Day they just didn't know where. The last week of August was busy to say the least.

The second week of school wasn't any less chaotic as every day's schedule was full leading right up to Sept. 3rd (my Dad's birthday) when we were to leave on the 10 hour drive to Arizona. We were a little late getting started but we were off. We were about 2 hours into the trip before the girls asked why we were headed so far south to go camping. That's when I told them our real destination. They couldn't believe it and were so happy...it's moments like those that make being a parent so fun. The kids traveled so well and really didn't complain. Even poor Rebecca who had car sickness and a migraine didn't complain. Side note: Traveling in a car for 10 hours by yourself with 5 kids (including a toddler and an infant) would be daunting to most people, but our kids have always traveled well so I wasn't stressed.

The time we had with our family at the Ranch was sooooo much fun. We celebrated my Dad's birthday of course

as well as my niece's birthday with a luau complete with pinata. In the pinata were gold coins that the kids used to buy prizes. My Mom had also set up a family challenge where all the families would compete in activities for a trophy. The winning family would get to keep the trophy until the next family challenge in 6 months. I wish I had taken a picture of the trophy because it was a beautiful crystal cup on a black base with silver glittery lettering. Some of the activities for the trophy were tug-o-war

(My brother David's family)

and our family favorite, horseshoes. That's Dakota doing her best horseshoe toss.

My brothers David and Matt. I had no chance of winning against these pros but I had fun trying.

They also had a treasure hunt set up for the kids, arts and crafts, the traditional pick-up truck rides, and quad (4-wheeler) rides. (Lizzie taking Megan on her first quad ride.) And of course plenty of dirt for the kids to roll in. This is how Megan looked almost the entire time. Needless to say, she had a blast.

How can you not have fun with all those activities going on. Well...I guess you wouldn't have any fun if you couldn't do any of those activities because you were always stuck in "jail" watching everyone else run around and have fun.

Just kidding. Alex did really well considering the fact that he was never allowed to get down on the ground (he would instantly have picked up the dirt and tried to eat all of it.) He was only mad in this picture because I wouldn't give him the camera (yes, my smiley boy does indeed get angry on occasion.) He had plenty of people that wanted to hold him...especially when the kids learned they could earn their family points for the trophy for holding and playing with him.

For the celebration there were 16 adults and 16 kids. There would have been more but many family members couldn't make it.

15 of the 16 kids that were at the Ranch...Alex was sleeping.

It was really fun and we were sad to have to leave the family but we had to get back to reality. We spent the morning of Sept. 7th with my parents and they took us to lunch before we loaded back up in the van for the trip home. We got back home at midnight after a very long drive. Alex of course was not ready for bed though because he had slept most of the day in the car seat so I had to stay up with him until he was ready for bed. Thankfully he went to bed at 2am.

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The next day, Wednesday last week, I had so much to do because I had to take care of things from the trip to Arizona while preparing for my next big trip to Colorado the next day on Thursday. The most important thing on Wednesday though was taking Lizzie to the Orthodontist. She finally got the news she has been waiting for. On her next visit the Dr. will be putting in the finishing wires. Her teeth are all aligned the way he wants now he just has to do a little tweaking here and there and she is done. He told her she could be done anytime from November to May depending on how the tweaking goes. Her goal is to get them off by Christmas. Wish her luck.

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Thursday morning last week Megan had her first day of school. It was something that has really come together quite quickly and will only last for a few weeks but for now Megan is in pre-school 4 days a week. She is so excited to finally be going to school like her sisters. When I went to pick her up she came running to me and jumped into my arms, threw her arms around my neck and held on so tightly that I almost couldn't breath. She held on to me like that all the way to the car. I know she had fun but I think she was not prepared for how long she would have to be away from home. She is loving school and it has done wonders for her communication skills already. This public pre-school will only be for a short time then she will be part of a neighborhood pre-school. The moms of the other kids and I will take turns being the teacher of the pre-school two days a week.

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Then Thursday night I flew with Alexander to Colorado and stayed with CJ's grandparents for a day. When CJ's Aunt passed away she left a beautiful kitchen table. CJ's grandmother wanted the table to stay in the family and we are the only ones with a dining room big enough to fit the table. The only way to get the table to us was to rent a moving truck and drive it here and since I am the only one without an obligation to an employer I volunteered for the drive. We had set this trip up long before I knew about the trip to Arizona otherwise I would have waited a while before going to Colorado. We had to fly to Las Vegas before we could fly to Denver so I was a little nervous about Alex. He had just spent 5 days confined to a little area not to mention two 10 hour drives in his car seat so I wasn't sure how he was going to react to 5 more hours of airports and airplanes. He did great though flirting with the ladies in the seat behind me on the first flight and sleeping the entire second flight.

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We spent Friday with his grandparents just playing with the baby, resting up for the next (and final) long journey on Saturday. Again I wondered how Alex was going to react to such a long car ride this time without his sisters to entertain him, and again he did wonderfully. By Saturday night I was exhausted. I am so gald that Sunday is a day of rest because that is just what I did.

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We couldn't wait to put the table up in the kitchen. It fit better than I thought but it is also taller than I thought. I have to climb up into the chairs and I feel like a little kid when I sit at the table but it is beautiful so I don't mind. It looks small in the picture but there are 8 chairs around it so it is bigger than it looks.

It has been a long few weeks for me but I would do it all over again in a heart beat.