It’s been a busy week around here, with 12 people filling our big-enough-to-handle-it-but-wow-it’s-crowded home. Many summers we travel to South Carolina to visit our dear friends the Godseys. But this year it was their turn to come to us. We’ve experienced a very full eight days.
Last Sunday, most of them awoke and attended church with us. We spent most of the afternoon at the pool, allowing them all to recover from the looooongg drive the day before.
Monday we packed into our two large vehicles, children and spouses remixed and matched, to head over to Frisco for a little bowling. Two surprises: Godsey child #4, who is 20 months old, decided she really liked to bowl. Got a little aggressive about it at one point. š And, two parents (not married to each other) tied for the high score. A score not worthy of announcing (but since you’ll wonder…127. See?).
IKEA was the next stop because they offered free lunches for all children. Hey, you take those deals whenever possible. And the Swedish meatballs are pretty nice. Then the daddies headed home with the babies and boys, while the mommies took the big girls shopping for shoes and fresh produce (not at the same store). And I don’t remember exactly but I bet we all went swimming again later.
On Tuesday the skies fell in, so the pool was not our friend. After some hasty craft shopping, we presented several painting and drawing projects to the kids, the first of which was a birthday present for my hubby. Later that day we went outside to play with water balloons and draw with sidewalk chalk on the wet driveway. The boys started a raging computer multi-player game–the wireless network has never worked so hard. We topped off the evening by celebrating the University of South Carolina’s College World Series win.
Hubby started off his milestone birthday veeeerrrry early, taking a friend to the airport at 4:30 a.m. He returned before breakfast :). The kids presented him with their creative, handmade birthday poster. He opened our other gifts to him as well, then proceeded to spend the rest of his afternoon lounging with a book and/or pillow. The rest of us went swimming (of course). Wednesday evening the parental units escaped to the Studio Movie Grill in honor of the birthday boy. We saw Knight & Day, the new Tom Cruise action/comedy. Very entertaining!
Thursday morning we piled almost everyone into the vehicles, drove down to Plano, and boarded the DART light rail. Destination: Museum of Nature and Science at Fair Park, near downtown Dallas. The train ride was as much part of the experience as the IMAX movie was. We spent the day walking (and walking) through exhibits on physics, history, geography, environmentalism, conservation, speculation, archeology, erosion…you name it. Armed with a bag full of juice pouches and chocolate meal bars, we survived the snack hour and ride home with some very tired little people. The proof is in the photos. At one point, Jack actually started falling off his train seat, zonked out, when a kind stranger standing by caught him before he hit the floor.
Stay tuned for the rest of the story…the weekend was a little crazy!