Camp K Overview, Keeping Busy, Salt Lake Tour, City Creek, Planetarium, Dino Park x2



One thing I forget to mention last post was about Aaron's presents for Father's Day.  I had waited until the three oldest boys were at Kids in the Park and then took Sarah and Noah to pick up a BYU shirt for Aaron.  That way I was hoping to try and keep it a little more secret.  While we were picking out the shirt I told Sarah how important it was to keep this shirt a secret from Dad so we could surprise him.  I thought we were safe until Aaron got home from work that afternoon.  Sarah walked over to Aaron and said, "We got you a surprise for Father's Day, Dad!  And it's NOT a shirt!"  So much for keeping things a secret!!  Oh well Aaron still acted surprised when he got the shirt Father's Day morning.  Gotta love kids!

 

Matthew finished his week at Camp Kostopolous and seemed to have lots of fun.  We were able to send him through a scholarship program through Aaron's work which was a blessing otherwise it is a bit pricey.  He seemed so sad when I dropped him off that I worried all week long about him.  However, he seemed to do just fine.  When I picked Matthew up, his counselor said he was a little bit of a troublemaker.  Uh-oh.  While at camp he just couldn't sleep past 5 am and, of course, if he's awake he feels like everyone else in his cabin should be awake as well.  As soon as he woke up he went over and flipped on all the lights to make sure everyone else was awake with him.  I am sure everyone just LOVED that.  After everyone else was woken up he went  over to the bathrooms and thought it was quite funny to keep flushing all the toilets over and over and over again.  He also thought it was quite hilarious to turn all the water faucets on at the same time.  After that he played the game of 'run away' with the counselors getting far enough away to make them come and chase him.  He made sure he did this every day all day long.  It seems like he was rather a handful, but at least he had fun--I am not sure about the counselors, though....Here's his group A (Matthew is on the second row with his orange hoodie on sitting next to his girl counselor):

There were two other groups as well and as you can see Matthew was one of the higher functioning kids at camp.  When we came to pick him up I thought he would be excited to see us, but he didn't seem too excited.  Maybe he wanted to stay longer...who knows.  As we were walking up the path to check out Matthew walked next to his counselor whose camp name was Hi Hat.  The counselors don't go by their real names they go by their pretend cartoon names to make it easier for the kids to remember who they are.

At the end of camp they had an awards ceremony.  Matthew got the Party Starter award.  Thursday night they had had a talent show.  Matthew got up and started singing and dancing to a Wiggles song and then invited all the campers up on stage to dance with him.  His counselor said it was a pretty neat moment.  That's why he got the party starter award.  Wahoo Matthew!

Matthew's counselor kept a short daily journal to document what the kids did every day and then drew a picture on the page.  Here's the first day:

 The first day said, "Greetings!  Welcome to Camp K!  My name is Hi-Hat and I have a bunch of wonderful people to introduce you to..."

 

The second day said,



"Lo yes, sure...The swimming pool may be out of order for today, but it's not all bad, especially when you have a nearby lake and a bunch of canoes at your disposal.  The winds were blowing swiftly and loudly through the mouth of the canyon, causing a wake that could easily tip the boat over if you couldn't remain calm.  Good thing our campers this week were pretty active, and assertive, and fearless.  The winds did calm eventually to the point where the lake was almost in a state of motionlessness, so our campers who were pining for a more relaxing ride out on the canoes had their wishes granted just as well as our campers who couldn't care less whether the wind was blowing hard or not, and wanted to go regardless. "

 

The third day said, 

"Convincing kids and preteens that Camp Kostopolous' high-ropes challenge course is nothing but 100% safe and sound would seem pretty hard, but you'd be wrong if you assumed as such.  The girls in our group especially had an easier time playing it cool as they were walking 40 feet above the surface, only to brag to, and tease the more timid boys about it later.  Don't get me wrong through, a couple of our boys had stone faces the entire time they spent on the course.  Despite how much fear everyone may, or may not have been feeling, the overall consensus among the campers in or group was that the high-ropes challenge course was a blast, and one of the most fun things we have ever done."

 

The fourth day said, 

"Hay is for horses.  Horses are for riding.  And by golly did our campers in Group A ever love riding the horses at our corral.  Most of us got to trot, jump, and descend and scale back up our hilly campus on horseback.  Our horses are just another way for our campers to feel taller and more able.  It is always so much fun.  Thursday night is talent night and all of us put on a show for our group skit, performing the Harlem Shake.  Some of our individual performers were Matt M. who invited all the camp to sing and dance with him as he sang a tune by the Wiggles.  Asia, who sang the song 'Ding, Ding, Ding!', Austin, who performed 'Since You've Been Gone', Sara, who not only put together our skit, but performed the plastic cup-percussion song from Pitch Perfect, Asha who led us all in a chorus of the song 'Baby Sharks!' and James who danced the night away."

 

It seems like they all had a fun time.  I am already looking into signing Matthew up for it again next year.  Hopefully we can get another scholarship..... :)

 

We missed Matthew.  Our house and car rides were a lot quieter.  I didn't realize how much he talks which is A LOT!  However, we thought that taking the kids out would be easier without Matthew, but we were wrong.  It ended up being just as hard, surprisingly enough.  I will just say that Sarah and Noah are little stinkers!!  Monday morning was field trip day for Kids in the Park.  Josh and Daniel got to go to the Dinosaur Park and they had fun.  They even made sure Matthew got some post cards from the Dino park since he wasn't able to go because he went to Camp K.  That was really nice!  While Matthew was gone we decided to go to some places that Matthew usually doesn't like as much as the rest of us do.  After Aaron got home from work Monday afternoon we went down to Seven Peaks Water Park and swam the whole afternoon.  We have loved having the Pass of All Passes because we get into so many things for free!!  Noah just liked hanging out in the kiddie pool.  However, he thinks lines are for chumps.  He would walk up the stairs to the slide, walk past the whole line and force his way in front of the line and slide on down.  I tried to explain to him why he couldn't do this, but I seemed to be talking Greek to him because he kept doing it.  I guess you learn to be assertive if you are child #5 even if you shouldn't be.....Then after the water park we went over and did the trampoline park which again with our passes was free.  We didn't get home until after 10pm that night, but we had no problem getting the kids to fall fast asleep that night!!  They, and Aaron and me, were completely worn out!  Noah was tired after the water park so by the time we got to the trampoline park he was completely 'Chuckles'.  Aaron tried to get him a little happier by throwing him in the foam pit, but that just made him angrier as you can see:

 Josh loved jumping from the trampoline into the foam pit.  Here he is in mid air:

 Tuesday we just had to go on with our regularly scheduled activities and not go anywhere out of the ordinary.  Josh went to his theater class, Daniel and Aaron went to T-ball and Sarah went to her little rookies class.

Wednesday we headed down and did a tour of Salt Lake City.  We started out at the Conference Center (aka the Mega-nacle).  We had a tour guide for just our family because they weren't that busy.  It was nice.  After that we headed over to the Relief Society Building.  Again it was just our family in there so we got a more personal tour.  After that we headed over to Temple Square and wandered around for a bit.  We then walked into the Church Office Building.  Unfortunately the tour guide was not there, but another worker took pity on us and took us up to the 26th floor to see the view.  It was awesome!  You could see all around Salt Lake.  Next we went over to the Beehive House and had a tour.   My camera was full so I didn't get any pictures, unfortunately.  When we were done with all the tours we headed over to the City Creek Mall and walked around.  The kids spied the fountain and went in played in it.  It was a little chilly since it only got up into the mid 70's that day.

 When they were done playing they went and laid down on the bricks because they were warm.

 Thursday I took the kids on a bike ride to the park.  It was only a two mile bike ride, but Daniel was tired out by the first 1/4 mile and started screaming and crying the rest of the way.  He kept screaming' "MY LEGS ARE GOING TO FALL OFF!!!!!"   I am sure everyone who could hear thought I was torturing my poor child, but what can you do?!  Other than that I think everyone else had fun.  Again we had everyone's T-ball, theater and rookie league again that night.

Friday morning it was time to pick up Matthew.  When we got there  I thought he would run over to see us, but he didn't seem to care.  Oh well.  He told us all about his week as we drove down into Salt Lake.  Since I was down there I decided to take the kids over to the Planetarium to check things out. I was debating on whether I should do this since I was alone because Aaron had to work.  I finally decided to try it and it turned out well which was good.  When we got to the planetarium Matthew loved the cloud maker machine:

 Everyone liked the ball exhibit also known as the audio kinetic sculpture called Newton's Dream:

 They had a scale to see what your weight would be on other planets:

 They had a moonscape:

 A Mars Scape:

 They had some board here that Josh and Matthew liked.   I never got around to seeing  because I was herding the other kids....

 They had this (I don't know what the name is) that all the kids liked playing with.

 After seeing the planetarium I took the kids over to the Gateway Mall Fountains.  Since they had already played in the City Creek Fountains a few days before they weren't that interested.

 Saturday Aaron had to go down and help clean out my G&G G's house since they moved into an Assisted living center at the beginning of the year.  While he was gone I took the kids over to the Dinosaur park in Ogden since it was the free family day that day.  It was SO BUSY!!  Holy cow!!  However, we got to wander around and see all the exhibits.  Here's a mold of an old dinosaur alligator head.

 Here's a skeleton the kids wanted to pose in front of:

 Noah and Matthew LOVED watching the archaeologist at work.

 We even got to see them cut open a geode that the kids got to pick out.

 Here's what the inside looked like:

They all got to make dinosaur hats.

 We wandered around to look at the dinosaurs and had to take a picture behind the bars with a sign that said, "World's Most Dangerous Creature"  I would have to believe that!

 Here's a dinosaur model with the kids around it:

First Week of Summer, Lagoon, Dare Devil #1 and #2, Trampoline Park, Camp K

Well the first full week of summer has just passed and I am glad to say that we (I) survived it.  We stayed pretty busy so it went by fast.  The kids started Kids in the Park which is a recreation program where the kids do activities in the park Tuesday through Thursday mornings.  When we signed the kids up we got to choose two additional classes for them to attend.  Josh chose a basketball and a tennis class.  Daniel chose basketball and a taekwondo class.  Mondays are field trip days and this week they went to the movies to see Despicable Me.  They had lots of fun.  After KIP on Tuesday I attempted taking everyone on a family bike ride.  We rode over to a park then after staying there for a bit we went on a longer bike ride back home.  Sarah and Noah rode in the bike trailer which I towed.  The three oldest boys rode their own bikes.  We ended up going for about six miles, but by the time we got home everyone was tired and in serious need of an Otter Pop.

 Wednesday we came in to a lovely surprise.  One of our friends was able to give us some $11 tickets to Lagoon which is an amusement park.  Saweet!!!  We hadn't been to Lagoon for about 6-7 years and the kids have been asking when we can go.  Well regularly the tickets are $45 a piece and when you have a family of 7 that is too much.  However, for 11$ a piece we can do that.  The kids were so excited.  Thankfully Aaron was able to come home from work a little early to help me out because it would have been really overwhelming for me if I would have had to take all the kids by myself. 

 All I can say is that Josh has always been a daredevil.  There is nothing that scares him AT ALL!!  During this trip to Lagoon we found out that Sarah is just like him!!  She wanted to go on EVERYTHING and was not afraid.  However, on a few of the rides she ended up being about 2 inches too short and when she found out she couldn't ride she got quite upset.  She loved the roller coasters the best. After every ride she went on she would get off and yell, "THAT WAS AWESOME!!"  Daniel and Matthew were a bit more timid.  However, we have a rule that you have to ride each ride at least once.  That is the only way Aaron got Matthew and Daniel on this Re-entry ride which is a free fall ride.   Don't let the smile on Daniel's face fool you he was crying two seconds before this picture was taken because he didn't want to go on this ride.  Afterward he said it wasn't too bad, but he didn't want to go on it again.

 Everyone loved the Log Ride where you got to cool off a little.  Here Aaron is helping Sarah off the ride:

We next went on the Rattlesnake Rapids which is a ride where you get a little more wet.  Everyone loved it except Matthew who just sat in the wrong seat and got drenched.  It took him the rest of the day to dry off.

 

Aaron and I took turns on all the crazy roller coasters and I must say we don't do as well with roller coasters as we used to.  When I was young I used to think my parents were boring because they would only do a few roller coasters with us at a time.  Now I know why after a few trips on the roller coasters we would get pretty sick to our stomachs--blech!!  While three oldest boys and Aaron were off riding some roller coasters I would take Sarah and Noah on the kiddie rides.  They liked them.

 Sarah loved all the rides she went on except the Terror Ride.  It is a haunted house and she started crying after the first scene and cried the rest of the way through the ride--poor girl.  Anyway while we were there Noah thought it was funny to run away from us and hide.  Seeing as it was pretty busy this was not a fun game for Aaron and me.  One of his escape attempts he tripped and did a face plant into the asphalt.  His mouth bled for the longest time.  He gave himself quite the fat lip as well.  These pictures don't even do it justice, but what can you do?

Tripping and falling didn't teach him anything, though.  He still kept trying to run away.  Sigh--I HATE that game!!

 

While we were there we stopped by the photo department and got an old fashioned picture taken.  When I was a little girl my family did this all the time so I wanted to do it as well.  The first picture they took they said to be serious.  The kids didn't know what that meant so Aaron just told them to be mad--something they are very experienced with.

 They next had us do a smiling picture.  I thought it turned out pretty well until I noticed how Daniel and Sarah were holding their gun props.  I guess this is how they really feel about family togetherness.  Oh well we had fun dressing up.

 Friday was Aaron's day off so we headed over to the trampoline park that they just added to the Pass of All Passes.  Oh the kids and Aaron and I had so much fun.  It was a fabulous way to get their energy out, too.  Here's Sarah and Noah in the kiddie area.  Again Sarah is our family daredevil #2 and had no fear about jumping of the trampoline into the foam pit.  Noah just stayed on the trampoline and watched.  He did not like jumping off.

 They had a trapeze you could swing off of into the foam pit as well.  Josh and Matthew are waiting for their turn:

 They had a running trampoline that was Matthew's favorite. 

Here Josh is trying to go off of the tallest trapeze swing, but missed the swing and fell off.  In the beginning of the clip you can see Matthew hop on by on the running trampoline:

Daniel was quite the trickster.  He loved trying the flips and such.  Here he is on the running trampoline doing a flip at the end:

Aaron even took a couple turns on the trapeze.  Here's his first:

It just so happened that Daniel and I were up at the same time.  He went on the middle trapeze and I went on the tall one.

Aaron and I have been throwing around the idea of getting a service dog for Matthew.  We have completed 2 steps of the six step application process.  There was an informational meeting on Saturday that me and Matthew attended to learn more about the process and benefits and also to answer some of my questions.  I brought Matthew to see how he would react to the dogs.  At the meeting there were about 50 + people there along with their training dogs.  It was a good experience.  However, the house they had the meeting at was ginormous!!  It had an indoor pool and an elevator which Matthew wouldn't leave alone.  Now if you know me you know that I like to not draw attention to myself, but Matthew made sure everyone knew who we were.  He is Mr. Chatty Cathy and tried talking to all the dogs and their trainers.  For lunch we sat by and really nice trainer who answered a lot of my questions.  However, we got interrupted quite a bit because Matthew would bolt to the elevator to push all the buttons.  We only stayed for two hours and then Matthew had had enough.  As I was getting some last minute information I mistakenly turned my back on Matthew.  He then took that opportunity to run to the front of the classroom and got everyone's attention.  The teacher had to stop teaching because he had interrupted her class.  He then said in his very loud monotone voice, "Hey I would like to make an announcement.  My mom and I are now going to go and do something fun."  While he was making his announcement everyone looked right at me seeing what I was going to do about it.  I could have died.  Oh well at least one of the trainers say they train these dogs to help special needs kids like Matthew so they have dealt with stuff like this before.  We have sent in the paper application now and have to do a few clarifications on it and then hopefully we will move on to the next step in the application process.  Hopefully things will work out....

 

Sunday was Father's Day.  The kids excitedly helped me make breakfast in bed for Aaron.  We have to make a humongous breakfast because all the kids feel they are entitled to all the food Aaron is getting.  Breakfast in bed ended up becoming breakfast all over mom and dad's bed, but at least they had fun.  This is the perfect shot of our crazy family.  Josh and Daniel are goofing off, Matthew is smiling at the camera, Sarah is eating her toast and Noah is helping himself to Aaron's drink.  Just a normal morning for us ;).

 For Father's Day Aaron basically got the day off.  He enjoyed his quiet time and his roast dinner.  He even got out helping to put kids to bed.  I think he had a good day.  I am thankful for him and know that he is a wonderful example of a dad to our kids.  Before everyone went to bed he was able to give Matthew a blessing since he was leaving for Camp Kostopolous for five days Monday morning.  We got Matthew all packed and ready and I took him to drop him off this morning.  Here he is with his suitcase and sleeping bag.

 When we got to camp to check him in things were pretty hectic.  We had to check in with the counselor and then the camp director and then the nurses.  Matthew was surrounded by very boisterous special needs kids that were very touchy and loud which got him a little agitated and nervous and teary eyed.  After all the checking in was completed he got to pick out his bed in his cabin.  After that it was time for me, Sarah and Noah to leave. 

 We gave Matthew and big hug and he started crying.  It broke my heart.  I hope he has a great week.  I did tell him he could call me if he gets homesick so we will see if I hear from him.  I snapped this last picture of him before I walked back to the car.  He is trying to smile, but mostly trying not to cry.  Poor guy!  I hope he has a good week!

 As I was putting Noah and Sarah in the car I looked over and saw him doing a craft.  He couldn't see me, but he still looked sad.  Oh my poor Matthew boy.  Hopefully this will be a good experience for him!

Craziness, Summer, Blessings, Date, Family Day, Anniversary

The other day I was on the computer and Sarah wanted to color.  She finished what she was coloring and came to show me.  She put them on her face and said, "Look Mom I have eye brows!  Haha take a picture of me!"  She stood there and wasn't about to move until I took a picture of her.  She was quite proud of her home made eye brows.

 

We finally got our broken window fixed, but not before Noah quietly snuck upstairs and threw handfuls of Legos outside the hole in the window.  Now we have some nice Lego pieces on our roof and in our gutter.  Awesome....

The company that came out to fix the window gave me a call at 9 am Thursday morning.  They set up an appointment to fix the window saying that they would come sometime before noon.  Seeing as I had not showered yet, I quickly got in the shower thinking I still had plenty of time to get dressed.  Boy was I WRONG!!  I had stepped out of the shower and had just put on my bathrobe to answer the phone when I heard the doorbell.  Aaron was on the phone so I had to tell him I couldn't talk while I was running to my bedroom to get some clothes on.  I had enough time to throw on a shirt and pants (no time for underwear) and run to answer the door.  My hair was sopping wet and I had not bra on so I kept my arms folded while I walked them upstairs to show them the window.  When they started working I ran back to my bedroom to get dressed.  I had just finished getting dressed (this time with underwear) when they were done.  They were fast!!  Anyway, it was embarrassing, but I am hoping we don't have to see the window repairmen again anytime soon.  Oh the craziness!!

Sarah started Little Rookies.  It is a starter class offered by our City's recreation department to teach the basics of baseball/t-ball.  She was so excited to go.  She was even more excited to come home and show me her new shirt and baseball cap.

 Since it was the last week of school there were lots of programs for the kids.  Josh had his fourth grade County Fair.  He got to display his float of Morgan County and answer questions for people as they walked by to see all the floats.

After the float display was over the fourth grade went outside on the front steps of the school to perform their history of Utah program.  Here's Josh walking out with his class.  He is getting so tall and he LOVES flip flops if you can't tell.

 During the program this is how Noah kept himself entertained by trying to look at me upside down between his legs.  That lasted until he tipped over and hurt his head.  Poor kid!

The fourth grade have been working on these songs for a long time (the whole program was about 40 minutes).  Josh would come home and try and sing them for us, but he would forget some of the words.  He was excited to finally show us all the songs his class had been working on.  This clip-it is one of his favorite songs:

 That afternoon it was Sarah's dance recital.  She was so excited to get dressed up and to wear makeup.  Here she is talking to Grandpa T.  I can't believe how long her hair has gotten!

She was so excited for her dance recital she even let me do her hair without crying about it.  It was great.  Here she is right before her performance:

Here she is walking out on to the stage with her class.  She is the fourth one from the right.  You can hear all her brothers cheering for her and me and Aaron. 

Afterward she got some pretty flowers from her Daddy.  Have I mentioned that I LOVE having a girl?!

 We are still trying to work with Matthew to see how to help him.  Unfortunately this comes through a lot of trial and error.  Last week I had asked the kids to clean up and Matthew didn't want to so he went over and kicked a hole in the wall.  SIGH!!  He can be so difficult sometimes, but so sweet other times.  For example this morning he swept the kitchen floor for me before I got out of bed so he could surprise me.  However, it is not all roses as you can see by the huge hole I now have in my wall:

Thursday afternoon Matthew got a Herbst appliance from the orthodontist.  The poor kid inherited my overbite so they are trying to fix it with this gizmo:

 Every night I have to tighten it one turn to bring his jaw forward by a millimeter.  We have to turn it for the next 20 nights.  He can eat with it, but it seems to be uncomfortable for him.  After he got it on by the time we got home he started asking when we could get it taken off.  Unfortunately it is in there for the long haul (2+ years).  He is slowly learning how to eat with it, but he is not enjoying it at all.  It is going to be a LONG 2+ years!!  Coming out of the orthodontist's office I noticed our tires on the Suburban.  We knew we would have to replace them soon, but were hoping to wait until the end of summer to do so.  Unfortunately I noticed you could see the metal sticking out of the front tire because it was so bare.  DOH!!!  I came home and told Aaron to make the tire appointment for the next day and I would take it in.  Aaron made the appointment at 10 and I took it in.  Unfortunately they didn't have the right tires in that we had ordered.  To compensate they gave us an upgrade at the same price.  So we got super nice tires for a very much cheaper price.  Oh it's the little blessings in life that are awesome.  We are truly trying to save our money due to the upcoming furlough and this just helped a bunch.  We were really counting our blessings!!

Here is Sarah at her Rookies class.  There was only one pink bat so she made sure she got the pink one.  I don't think there was much competition for it since she is only one of two girls in the class of 17.  What a funny girly girl!

 Saturday was Aaron and my 13th wedding anniversary.  Wow a lot has happened in 13 years!!  Here is a picture from our wedding day and all I can say is who are these young kids?!  Wow 5 kids really age you that's for sure!!  However, I wouldn't choose any other way.  As crazy as our lives are we like it!

To celebrate we had a family day.  Hill Air Force Base had a 'Families with Special Needs' day up at Camp Kostopulous in Emigration Canyon.  We got there around 9:45 am and split into groups to enjoy the activities.  Our first activity was fishing.  Again there was only one pink fishing pole that Sarah made sure she got.

 Noah insisted on fishing just like his siblings.  Side note is we couldn't find Noah's regular shoes by the time we were supposed to leave our house.  We could only find his church shoes so that's what the poor kid had to wear all day.  He didn't seem to mind.....

 Aaron and I didn't fish because it was a full time job trying to help our kids keep their fishing lines baited and untangled!  It was pretty crazy keeping up with all the kids so one of the counselors stepped in to help Matthew when he needed some help.

 Josh and Daniel like fishing.

 Josh was the only lucky one of our bunch who caught a fish.  It was a pretty small fry, but he was excited none the less.  Here they are catch and release so after he caught it and looked at it, the fish got thrown back in the water.

 Next was the ropes course.  Sarah decided to try the rock wall and got about 10 feet high until she was done climbing.

 Matthew didn't want to climb, but he is a fraidy cat about a lot of things.  I told him he could choose one activity--the rock wall or the higher up ropes course.  He chose the rock wall and climbed pretty well with LOTS of encouragement.  It was not his favorite activity, but he tried it which was good.

 Daniel tried the rock wall as well.

 Josh the family dare devil wanted to do the actual ropes course.  He climbed up the poles and hooked himself in and walked across the narrow ropes.  He did really well.

 When he was done with the ropes course he took turn on the rock wall.

 Next activity was lunch.  After lunch it was our turn to go swimming.  Noah didn't want to get in the water so he just sat by Aaron on the bench and sang him Primary songs.  Aaron loved listening to Noah sing.

 The rest of us got out in the water to play.

 After swimming it was off to the Equestrian center.  Josh is extremely allergic to horses.  Before we even got there we made sure he had some allergy medication on board.  However, it didn't work too well.  We let him ride first and he had fun, but by the time he was done riding he was sneezing up a storm.  He was all congested as well making his sneezes 'double barrel' if you know what I mean.  As soon as he got off the horse he made a beeline to grab some Kleenex to wipe his double barrel action off his nose.  I asked him how he liked it and he said, "I just tried to enjoy the moment."  Here he is enjoying the moment:

 Matthew LOVED the horses.  They were probably his most favorite activity!

 Daniel LOVED riding the horses as well.

 Sarah loved it, too.

 Noah saw all his siblings ride a horse so he made sure he got a turn as well.  He was concentrating so hard on holding on to the horse that he barely looked at me so I could take his picture.  HE LOVED IT!  It was funny to watch him because he was so little.

I even got a turn.  I got on and rode around with Daniel.  It was really fun.

After Family Day at Camp Kostopolous was over we took the kids down to G&G T's house for a sleepover.  After we dropped the kids off Aaron and I headed out to go on an actual date to celebrate our anniversary.  We went to a bookstore to browse.  Then we grabbed some yummy dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory which was a favorite of mine while we were dating.  We then used our Pass of All Passes to do some track racing.  Here we are in the same car:

 Can I just say Aaron is a scary driver?!  He ran into the guy in front of us making him wreck and block the track for all the other riders.  It was a little embarrassing, but fun nonetheless.  And Aaron wonders why I do all the regular driving in the Suburban....;)

Next we did some laser tag.  It was a competition to see who could get the most points.  We tied, but Aaron got a higher accuracy score so he thinks he won--I think a tie is a tie no matter what, RIGHT?! Who is with me here? ;)

 We then did some mini golf which Aaron completely killed me at.

Next we did some rock climbing.  Here's me at the top:

 We got back to G&G T's house after our super fun date around midnight.  Unfortunately Josh's clock in his bedroom was wrong.  Josh's clock said 7 am, but it was really 5:30 am.  He got up thinking it was 7am and woke everyone else up.  However, it was only 5:30 DOH!!  However, once all the kids are awake there is no sleeping for anyone.  Whoa, were we all tired.  About 8 am we packed all of our stuff up and came back home because we had to go to church at 11am.  Let me just say we were all 'Chuckles'.  Our whole family was as ornery as you can be.  After church the kids had a quick nap and then we headed over to Uncle Bryan and Aunt Michonne's house for an impromptu Father's Day dinner.  The kids had lots of fun playing with their cousins.  There are some awesome Dads in our family is all I can say!!  However, by the time it was to come home everyone was exhausted and ready for bed (especially Aaron and me!!!)

The next morning was the first summer day with no school.  The three oldest had Kids in the Park.  It was a field trip day where they headed over to the movie theater to see Despicable Me.  They had lots of fun and now I can say summer is in full swing.

However, Aaron and I are still trying to recover after all the craziness of last week....