The Campbell Visit, part 2

We had a kid's table set up so all the adults could fit at the regular table. The kids enjoyed eating there with just the kids until Cari showed up. Then she had to sit with them. And next to Rachel AND Lena. What's going to happen in a few years when Annie and Sophie are as jealous of Cari's time as Rachel and Lena are? There's only so much of Aunt Cari to go around...

Sunday afternoon as it should be:

(Notice baby Miriam asleep with the rest of them.)

Both sets of grandparents gave us a bingo game for Christmas. One was an LDS Bingo, the other regular Bingo. Both were very well loved and oft played while everyone was here.

Lisa with a content Miriam:

Some of the cleaning crew:

The nice thing about having the Campbells stay at our house for a week was that even with 14 extra people the house stayed cleaner than it does with just 5 of us. That's because after every meal and at the end of every day the little worker bees would get all the dishes done, the floor cleaned, etc. It was so nice. And it helps to have the kids outnumbered, 12 to 7 instead of being outnumbered 3 to 2 or often 3 to 1. :)

Notice the kids on the floor playing the other Bingo game with Grandma, while the 1-year-olds walk around pushing things.

After the kids were in bed we had a game of modified Twister. Swedish Twister, was it called? You have to have your feet touching your neighbor's feet at all times, moving a foot when theirs moves out of reach. It resulted in a good tangle and balancing and laughs.

The next few are from the morning that Jake let me sleep in, so I don't know any details, but the pictures are self explanatory, it seems: doing some coloring/art, dancing around, etc.

Monday we headed out to hike in the Saguaro National Park.

We took a trail that's nice and flat and about 3/4 mile and we all survived with minimal cactus encounters.

We brought a picnic to enjoy before we turned around and hiked back along the same trail.

The children bummed a ride for most of the time.

That night we had a nice BBQ outside, enjoying the December weather in Tucson, then came in for a short FHE lesson Sharon shared about faith.

Tuesday was the last full day with everyone there. We went to Lakeside park to feed the ducks (just like 100 other people decided to do) and to play on the playground. After the park we came home and everyone was introduced to Eegees, a delicious slushy only available in Tucson.

After dinner we celebrated the New Year with Greenland at 6pm. The kids shot off poppers and we all had Martinelli's and cookies.

And Sophie cleaned up after us all. :)

Everyone except for Cari headed out the next morning. It was great having everyone come visit. And REALLY great that we didn't have to drive! We should make this a yearly tradition: Christmas in Tucson. Of course, come on back sooner if you want, Campbells! Love ya!

Family Pictures

Since everyone was in one place we decided to get some family pictures done. For both sides of the family. Since everyone was going to be dressed nice on Sunday anyway, we took advantage and met between our church which ended at 11:00 am (last Sunday of 8am church-woohoo!), and my parents' ward which began at 1:00 pm. I brought fruit snacks for bribes for the kids and an alligator puppet to try to elicit smiles and make the kids look at the camera. Here's some of what we got:

Jacob wielding the alligator puppet:

We got some cute ones. Our family picture (just the five of us) didn't turn out great, but I like the one we took a few weeks ago that we used on our Christmas card, so I'm okay with that. Now to make sure we actually print them up and hang them on our wall. The only picture we have of Jacob's family (nice, wall hanging quality) is from when only Mark is married. Many years ago. It's about time we update that one.

The Campbell Visit, part 1

The day after Christmas Jacob’s family began to arrive. By Saturday, the 28th, everyone was here. We had a blast with everyone here. Thankfully our new house is big enough to fit everyone—there’s no way we could have pulled this off in our old house. Every one at least had a door to close out the sound of our early-rising children. Each family unit got their own room, the single girls got the playroom, and Jesse got relegated to the laundry room. But at least it was big enough to lay out the couch cushions and provided a little bit of privacy when needed.

The first order of business when Grandma arrived was painting nails. Rachel and Annie got some nail polish in their stockings and Grandma was happy to sport some green and orange polish herself.

 

Grandma, Grandpa, Andrew & Heidi, and Mark & Ashley arrived Thursday night and got settled in with the kids and went to bed. But first thing the next morning the kids were outside enjoying the Arizona weather. For the whole time they were here we enjoyed highs in the 60s or low 70s. The mornings and evenings were a little crisp, but after Utah and Idaho weather it was a breath of fresh air for them. And we spent a lot of time out in the fresh air.

 

 

Beverly certainly enjoyed herself. She’s a little daredevil and was not happy that the monkey bars were not considered an activity for a one-year-old to attempt on her own.

 

 

After a short time the kids realized our old swingset was on the other side of the yard and had a bucket swing, which was easier for the smaller ones to swing on. That realization doubled the number of available swings so all the kids could swing at the same time. Thankfully Justin waited until the Campbells were gone to come haul this away to his yard for his girls to enjoy.

 

 

Movies were a popular pastime, especially at nap time for the younger kids, as it kept the older kids occupied and quiet. The closing credits to Wreck It Ralph has some awesome dance music that inspired the girls to bust a move.

 

Here’s Ryan taking advantage of Grandma’s willingness to read to him.

With only one boy out of all the Campbell grandkids so far, there was a good amount of princess dress up going on among the girls.

Bevy must like Cinderella. :)

If you were looking for Bevy, chances are she was out here, or standing at the back door wanting to be out here:

The kids occasionally noticed baby Miriam. She's a cutie!

Saturday we planned to go down to the park, and after waiting for Grandma and Grandpa Campbell to get back from picking up Cari in Mesa, then waiting some more, we heard that I-10 was shut down from a big accident and they wouldn't be home any time soon, so we just went without them. I'm sure we enjoyed ourselves a lot more than they did stuck at a standstill on the freeway for a couple of hours.

Andrew brought his radio controlled helicopter and they got it to go super high before it lost contact with the remote. The kids just enjoyed running around in lots of open space.

I got some cute pictures of Ryan and Annie when they were running back to the slides.

Lena was a little monkey and she and Rachel had fun climbing all over the place at the park.

Finally we decided to head home to eat dinner and hopefully see the new arrivals.

Cari (and Grandma and Grandpa) finally got there much later than anticipated. That was our last arrival and officially put our count at 19 people staying in the house. We enjoyed some funny videos all crammed onto one couch after the kids were in bed.

More to come...