Kicking off the Vincents Visit

I am a couple weeks behind. Two weeks ago we were bogged down with Cub Scout Camp, Skate Camp, Ballet Camp and Swimming Lessons. I was in the car all week long. I don't have any pictures but they took lots at Scout Camp so I will have to do a post about that when I get copies because they did a fantastic job and Alex loved it.

But for now, consider yourselves caught up on that missing week and let's move on to the next missing week.

Seth and 3 other youth leaders took a group of boys up to the Boundary Waters (in MN, 10 hour drive) from the 20th to the 27th . This is the second time he has done this trip and it takes a crazy amount of time and time off and planning and it is not cheap either. I think he is awesome for doing this trip, especially since he is the only one who didn't have a son going.

The point in telling you that he was gone was so that I could tell you what we did while he was away. My sister Valerie and her kids, Luke and Audrey flew in to hang out with us and it was awesome, and tiring and stressful, but mostly AWESOME, or if Valerie were writing this post she would use the word RAD.

They arrived at 10:30 PM on Monday the 22nd so we didn't have time to do much that night but we did have some midnight McDonalds (which caused Chloe to puke twice but then she seemed fine in the morning). Of course Val and I never went to bed until 3AM the whole trip because with 5 kids that was the only quiet time we had. Thankfully Val's kids were still on CA time and my kids are lazy so we never woke up before 9 AM.

But who cares about our sleep schedule, let's move on to the fun stuff.

July 23rd
We figured we might as well get the obligatory stop at Jelly Belly over with first. As always, the kids were thrilled and the adults underwhelmed, or maybe just over it. But unlimited free candy samples always create happy children.
 


Chloe's upset stomach came back at Jelly Belly but by then it was coming out the other end. Why, you ask, is she telling us this? Because it would only happen once a day so we kept thinking we were rid of it. She was totally fine in between episodes and then she'd be rolling around in pain again. I don't know if the sick had something to do with it but Chloe was so difficult all week. None of my kids have ever behaved as poorly as she did all week. Constant crying, tantrums, and fighting. I have never been so frazzled as a mom and I felt so helpless because I couldn't leave her home with Seth or punish everyone by making them all leave wherever we were for the day. I felt very trapped and pretty much like a huge failure as a mother. But again, back to the fun stuff.

Tuesday evening we went to the drive-in movie to see Turbo, because the whole carload is only $12 on Tuesdays. They are tearing down the drive-in after this summer because it costs too much to switch to the digital format. I will be sad to see it go. We brought pizza with us and played games before the movie as well.
 
Valerie playing Candy Crush with the girls. She got me hooked on that game for a couple days but I am so bad at games that I never stay interested for long. 
 
Last time Chloe and Audrey were together, Chloe was so jealous of her but this time Audrey was the only person she liked. I think Chloe and Bernie both like their regular routines because they are both having a harder time behaving this summer. 


Audrey is the funniest weirdest little girl. She had us laughing non-stop. Here she was telling me why she doesn't like old people because they have what she called "ugly faces, like this".

 
Chloe agreed to one picture and then she wanted me to kick everyone else off of the bench so she could lay down to watch the movie. I almost walked her home but I ended up taking her inside the car, behind the rest of the gang, and holding her during the movie. I couldn't see the movie but it was fine because it didn't sound like I was missing much.



July 24th
Alex and Alyssa had swimming lessons everyday until noon. I couldn't really have them skip because it is offered free through summer school so I hate to take a spot someone else could have had and then miss class. It was no big deal, they were done at 12:20 and then we headed to Six Flags. As usual, I only got pics of baby rides because I ride the other stuff with them, but I did finally get to add some shots to USB key chain I bought at the beginning of the season. Thankfully Chloe's stomach did not cause any trouble this day so I thought for sure we were out of the woods. She was still not in her best mood but at least she was healthy, or so I thought.


 
Sharing a shake after getting drenched on Buccaneer Battle. The high that day was 70, so perfect theme park weather but I stayed off the water rides because it has to be much warmer for me to want to get drenched.


 
Alex suddenly had a need to pose with Bugs and Audrey is the only one who would agree to go with him.





 
Tweety flew in to Audrey's hands.
 
And then Speedy Gonzalez ran by.
 
Val, Chloe, Al and Luke on The Dark Knight
 
Me and Lyssa swapped Audrey and went next. Alyssa rode the whole thing with that Home Alone pose. She wasn't scared, just silly.
 

We lost rack of time and forgot to eat dinner until 9:30 and then when I went to use the meal cards we bought they told me they were only good until 7:30. Oops, and lame! We went across the street and had dinner at Steak and Shake instead. And I think I will stop there for now.