Jade and John Boy

I can't EVEN express how busy my life has been the past couple of weeks.. Not only are we packing, cleaning, trying to find a place to live, shopping for a new car, and trying to close on a house... but we have puking kids AND lots of visitors. Yes, it's crazy with a capital C. Jade and John have been planning a trip to California for a while (celebrating her 24th birthday next week) so we were excited to be a pit-stop on the way. When my sister Kristy called to say they were flying out of the Vegas airport and needed a place to stay the night before, my kids of couldn't have been more excited to see their cousins. The only problem was-- they needed to stay the same night as Jade and John. The more the merrier, no? Last night, we had TEN extra guests in our 3 bedroom townhouse (nine kids total-mind you.) Can you spell CHAOS? I certainly can.

Actually, it turned out great.. we were able to leave the kiddos with my sister and take Jade and John to a fancy buffet dinner and THEN to see The Dark Knight. The movie was SO good that I almost threw up my food and peed my pants at the same time. I am not sure I ever want to see it again... at least for another week. Jade has pictures of the evening on her camera.. who knows if I will ever get copies of them. But rest assured-- we all looked fabulously sexy.

This morning, I took the Kimballs to the airport and came home to Jade scrubbing Zack's vomit off the carpet. The look on her face said it all... she was SO glad to be visiting this particular day.. No. I did NOT pull out my camera and take a picture of her in her misery.. geez. You think I document every second of my life or something.

For lunch we met Aaron at In n'Out and stuffed ourselves. Doesn't this picture tell you that our food was scarfed down.. like, ANIMAL style?

To celebrate our fullness (and the boys' nausea) we went to the Adventure Dome at Circus Circus. Because if you're already throwing up, you might as well go on a few rides that spin around and tip you upside down. The truth is.. there was no where else to go because it's "FREAKIN' HOT" (according to Luke) and we wanted to be indoors having fun. The Adventure Dome was our best option. Here are a few pictures to prove that you can take three boys out with messy hair and dirty faces and STILL have a great time.

I realize that I started out this post by stating how much my life sucks-- and it still does-- but I can't help but grin just THINKING about how happy my kids were on these rides. Their expressions are good, but the pictures don't do justice. I hope I never forget their squeals as they got unbuckled and BUSTED out of each ride to tell me how exciting it was.. AS IF I couldn't hear them screaming (or see them waving frantically EVERY time they passed by.) My favorite picture of all is the bottom right corner.. this is Ben trying to tell me how much fun he's having.. as he's speeding past. He could barely keep his head up as he's yelling, "I love this ride! This is the MOST fun we've had since my BIRTHDAY!" It just makes me realize that no matter WHAT we're going through-- and no matter how crazy life can be-- it's worth it. Completely and totally worth it.
Zack is finally tall enough to go on a few kiddie rides, but I wasn't sure how much he would like them. Let me just say that I could not pull him outta the seat after the ride was over.. he wanted to go again and again and again. He fits right in with our other two and I love seeing them together. A few times we had to sit out because he wasn't big enough to ride and he was bummed.. but only until he realized that he could wave to Ben and Luke as they passed by. I am surprised he didn't lose his voice after screaming "HI GUYS" a million and one times.
And even though we had to wait AN HOUR for J&J to take Ben and Luke on the 4D Spongebob ride (I hate going places in the summer. why are all these kids out and about.. Shouldn't they be in school?) we kept ourselves entertained. Well, actually, Zack entertained me. I really love hanging out with him. I don't know how his HUGE personality fits inside his tiny body. The following pictures are some of the shots from a ten second silly face camera game. Next time I need to get it on video to show you how quickly he changes faces-- it's seriously hilarious! And it's so much better live because he has sound effects for each expression.

(click on any image to see it full size)

The day ended with pizza, ice cream, a fort in the living room and a dip in the pool. Jade and John headed to the Bellagio water show by themselves because we are just too tuckered out to even THINK about anything else. Life may never slow down, but we are definitely enjoying the ride... most days, anyway.