Birds Nest

Yesterday we went to a museum. In the back they had a garden. We were so surprised to find this nest. It was so much fun. Now I want one in my backyard.


Total capacity 11 kids, with room to spare.

Surpise Surpise

Thursday morning My hubby and I slept in and let the kids sleep in. The first child to wake up was our oldest. She came in our room about ten minutes before we normally leave for school. "Mom we are late for school!" my hubby's response was "If you were going to school. Lets go on vacation. If you could go anywhere on vacation where would you go?" she said that she would go to see Grandpa and Grandma. Ok we will go there, go pack. Then the 8 yr old boy came in we again asked him if he could go any where on vacation where would he go? He said that he would go to him favorite cousins and we said ok, go pack. Then came in the 10 yr old girl. We asked her and she said that she wanted to go camping. We said that we weren't going camping but what else would she like, she said that she wanted to see her cousin we said ok, go pack. I then went in to the little girls room and asked them one said Grandpas and grandmas and the other Nanas and Poppies. My hubby soon left for school and the kids and I packed and loaded the car. Then picked up daddy on our way out of town. At about 9:15 that night we got to the town where grandpa lives and went to the hotel. A few minutes later Grandma came and gave us the key to her house for the next day. Grandpa thought she was at walmart.

Friday we had a lazy morning then went and got over the hill birthday balloons for grandpas 60th birthday and went to Grandpas. He was at the doctors. At about 1:45 the oldest boy showed up with his family. They moved a few things in from their car and moved it around the corner to where ours was parked. No more then 5 minutes latter Grandpa and Grandma got home. We all said surprise. He was still a little loopy from the meds from his procedure that he had just had done and didn't really comprehend all the people in house. Just the two lasagnas on the counter and why they were there. I watched him over the next few hours as the med more off and he just glowed. the third son showed up latter that day with his family. While eating dinner Roger(my father-in-law)jokingly said that he had everything a man could want except maybe a telescope. After dinner we had cake and Ice cream and then had grandpa turn around while we brought in his present. He was so excited to have a good telescope. The evening was spent looking at different things in the sky. And a DVD that grandma made of pictures of grandpa from the time he was a baby until he was 60.

Grandpas graduation photo

The last time that all of my father-in-laws family was together was about 9 yrs ago. He was so excited to have everyone there and we just all enjoyed each other.

Saturday we had a Thanksgiving lunch with all the trimmings even grandmas homemade rolls. yummy. Then in the afternoon we had a family picture taken. It was the first one with all of his grand babies.

Sunday was a travel day again, most went home. My hubby flew home and the kids and I drove to my parents where we are now. We plan on spending the week helping them pack up their house so they can leave on their mission in 13 days.

It was a great surprise.

Fall Break

Fall Break? I had spring break as a kids but not fall break, OK as I think back we did have that week where the teachers went to some conference so I guess we did have one. I am excited for the week and the things planned with the kids. Today hubby is off school too. Thanks Christopher Columbus. We are all going.... come back tomorrow and see.

Beach

My sister in law is here with her children so after school yesterday we drove the 5 minutes down to the beach. I know we have lived here for over 10 months and this was only the second time we have made it to the beach, Did I mention that the water is COLD.

We didn't take towels, or have them put on suits, no they were just going to put their feet in. They had a blast and definitely got their feet wet, and their legs and their body's and even the hair, OK next time we will take towels and have them change. Everyone had a blast.




We even found some sand dollars.




















We hosed then off to come inside.



After the beach and a spray down we made soup and bread sticks. Everyone needed a bread stick with their initials. What a cool Aunt.



Before we went the boys loved our climbing tree.

Wind Sun and Sand

Our recent vacation was mostly for a family reunion on my Hubby's side. All three boys, two wives, Grandpa and Grandma and 13 cousins. Can we say fun. Camping at the koa. We were the first ones to arrive and got to pick our spot first, not that it really mattered. We set up tents and waited around so that we could help everyone set up theirs.

Food Mack style
Each family was to cook dinner one night and their own breakfast and lunch. What really happened was everyone cooked the group dinner and shared it but also every other meal was eaten by who liked what was being made. Or it was all combined and we all ate. I think that everyone brought enough food to feed everyone by themselves. Needless to say we had plenty of food. But it was good.

Games
We love to play games, all kinds, some that we played were settlers, skipbo, boggle.
I was surprised with three boys age 8-9 and the words that they came up with. They didn't connect letters just used all the letters that they could, one game they all wrote down "cute". Not all the games were finished some were ended by bedtime or 1am... or the wind.

Sand
All Macks are fish. We had a great time at the beach, it was so nice to have a warm beach with great sand that went out forever shallow.



We buried kids up to their necks, made sand castles, and holes.





Wind
The wind at the beach was great for flying kites. I think that the little ones enjoyed this the most, there is something about holding that string while watching your kite up in the sky.



The wind also had its downfall too. Two nights it started to blow and blew for about and hour each time but it was strong. Just look at our dinning fly. It didn't come home with us. It did calm down and we were able to sleep in peace. It made it hard to have a campfire, at least it wasn't cold. but no smores.



Other actives
while at the beach we rented a skidoo. Everyone that went out had a blast on it even those that got a little more wet then they had planned. Miniature golf at the KOA was a nice treat and the pool the afternoon we didn't go to the beach. They also had a bounce bubble, think really big tramp. Blowing bubbles both little bottles and a huge big bubble wand that got some big bubbles, even by little ones. Water balloons were a hit once one cousin figured out how to blow them up.

We all enjoyed each other and just had fun.


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And I thought getting ready was the work

Well after 2 1/2 weeks of vacation, it is nice to be home. But I thought it was a lot of work to pack. It is just as hard to unpack, This is what my kitchen and mud room looked like last night.





This is what the kitchen looks like now. If only I had the mud room done too.