Our Trip Home

Sunday we went to Church with G&G M. Afterward since we were leaving to come home the next day, Aaron wanted to go on a mini tour of Plano to show the kids where he grew up, his old friends' houses, his schools, etc. We were out driving around when in the middle of a busy road the car stalled out. We coasted to the side of the road where we could stop and put it into park and try to restart it. It restarted without a problem, but it was very concerning since we were leaving the next day to make a 24 hour drive home. Since the car is still under warranty so better to be safe than sorry we decided to leave later Monday to come home and took it in Monday morning to get it checked out. They couldn't find anything wrong so we crossed our fingers and left Monday afternoon to come home hoping nothing would go wrong.

Sunday evening we went for one last swim in the pool. I am happy to say all three boys know how to swim. Matthew does a pretty mean doggy paddle, but can get from point A to point B without any assistance. Josh can swim any which way he wants--underwater, above water, etc. At the beginning of the week he was using a life jacket to float around. Out of the blue he came up to Aaron and told him he didn't want to use a life jacket anymore. Aaron worked with him and within a few hours he could swim by himself across the length of the pool. After than Aaron tried working with Matthew. It took a while to pry the floaties off his arms, but he finally learned how to doggie paddle and is really close to learning how to freestyle swim. Daniel then decided he wanted to try too. He learned really fast to swim the length of the pool, however he can swim it on one breath. He can't quite figure out you are supposed to take a breath while you swim. However, by the time we left Texas all of them were able to swim in the pool without any floatation device whatsoever. YAY!! Sarah tried to take her floaties off, but she just sunk like a rock. Maybe next time it will be her turn to learn. One of their favorite things to do was jump off the ledge and swim to the other end of the pool.

Sarah not wanting to be left out had to jump off just like her brothers.

We left Monday afternoon and tried to drive as far as we could before we stopped at a hotel for the night. Of course we had to hit Taco Bueno for lunch to let Aaron get his last Taco Bueno fix before we left Texas. We drove and just off the freeway in Amarillo there is an interesting place called Cadillac Ranch. An eccentric millionaire took a bunch of Cadillacs and buried them in the ground at a 45 degree angle and let anyone and everyone spray paint them with whatever they want. Of course how can you pass up a legal way to do some graffiti? We stopped by a Walmart and picked up T-shirts, latex gloves and spray paint for the kids. While we were there we all had a potty break. Aaron was in taking Matthew while I was taking the rest of the kids out to the car. While in the bathroom Matthew saw the light switch in the men's room and of course couldn't pass it up. He turned it off before Aaron could stop him and the whole bathroom turned pitch black. Unfortunately there were a few men taking care of their business. Aaron hurried and turned the light back on and left with Matthew before anyone could wipe and chase after them. Gotta love Matthew and his obsessions! Anyway we gathered up the paint, t-shirts and gloves and went over and had some fun. It took a little bit for the kids to figure out how to use the paint, but they finally got the hang of it.I had to take a picture of all the paint splatters all over Sarah's face, arms and legs. (We woke her up to get her out of the car to paint so her hair is pretty scary.)We had to leave our mark of course!

We stopped by at a hotel in New Mexico that night. We then got up early the next morning had breakfast and headed out for a long drive the rest of the way home. We entered the Utah state border around Monticello so we stopped by to see the almost new temple. After that it was a straight shot home. I am happy to say we all made it home in one piece and our car did not faulter at all--thank goodness. We had a great visit with everyone. The kids loved sleeping over at G&G M's house and swimming in Aunt Jill and Jeff's pool. We also loved seeing Sydney and how big she is getting. It was all around a good vacation and visit! Thanks for hosting all of us!! Here's the Bubba Baby Noah and his sweet cousin Sydney. They are a month apart and yes, Noah LOVES to eat!!!

Whack a Mole, Big Hips and Party Time

Thursday we took the kids to the Children's Museum in downtown Dallas. We only had a few hours that afternoon to explore, but we were really busy the whole time we were there. Jill and Sydney came with us and we all had a lot of fun. The group of us were playing with the bubble exhibit and could not help Sarah get the ping pong ball she really wanted to play with at the wind exhibit. She took matters in to her own hands and got out of the stroller, wheeled the stroller over to the floating ball, crawled up on the stroller to get on top of the exhibit so she could grab the ball. She's pretty independent!!

All of us had fun playing and blowing bubbles.

Playing dress up firemen: Noah and Sydney didn't think the museum was that interesting and slept most of the time we were there. Dressing up in the mock astronaut suit:

Of course with three active boys you can't pass up a nose you can get inside while it pretends to sneeze spraying a mist all over you.

Noah and Sydney had to have a love and bottle/nursing break:

An archeology dig or a big sandbox to get dirty in, however you want to look at it. A big world puzzle everyone put together at the beginning of the museum. Later that weekend Noah was starting to cry. Josh said Noah must be hungry. Jeff asked Josh why didn't he feed him. Josh looked at his CHEST and said, "Because I don't have big hips like Mom." Um, thanks a lot Josh!

Saturday Jeff offered his services as a doctor for mole, lump or bump removal for free. We took him up on the offer and played Whack-A-Mole--Aaron and I got a few taken off down at Jeff's office. I had forgotten how much lidocaine stings--ouch! Thanks Jeff!

Also that weekend G&G M got a bunch of water balloons and we filled them up and had a HUGE water balloon fight with all the kids and Grandpa. All of us got soaked to the bone, but had lots of fun.

Saturday Jill and I had a girl's hour out and went and got pedicures. It was a blissful hour away from all kids and the noises, whines, fighting, and screams that they make. However, after that hour was up we both got a text from Aaron telling us both our babies were very hungry and screaming and that we needed to come home ASAP. Oh sigh, that hour of pampering went by entirely too fast. At least I have some pretty toes now.

Saturday night we had an early birthday party for Sarah since we would be driving home all day on her real birthday. We swam for a while and then got out, had dinner and some cake. Then she opened her presents. She got a princess dress up dress with a matching purse, a stroller and baby, her first barbie, a ball that lights up and some money towards some shoes.

I think she really liked her cake since she smeared it all over her face and clothes.

Go Teenagers! Toilet Names and Keeping Busy

One thing I failed to mention about Sunday's blessing day happened at Jill's house. Jeff's family was around and Matthew did his best to get to know them. He loves to ask lots of questions and most of them are very repetitive. Jeff's family was very patient and answered all them willingly. Matthew's favorites are, "What's your first name, What's your last name, who's a better driver, Did a lady talk?" etc. Matthew asked Jeff's brother in law his last name. When he answered, "Briggs" Matthew didn't even stop to think before he said, "Oh, that's the same name as my Grandma's toilet." Which it so happens to be. Briggs is the name brand that is stamped on the back of the toilet. I don't know if he quite appreciated that. However, the rest of us sure did.

Monday night we noticed Daniel's ear started looking a little funny. It was swollen and bruised. We asked him what happened, but he didn't know. The picture doesn't even give his ear justice! It looked horrible!Jeff looked at it, it helps having a doctor close by to take a look--Thanks Jeff. Anyway he said it looked like it was infected, but to keep an eye on it. The next morning it was quite swollen and black and blue so Jeff said to bring him by his office and gave him an antibiotic shot in Daniel's hip--which Daniel did not appreciate. However, his ear is looking a lot better.

For fun we took the kids to a Texas Rangers baseball game. It was sooooo hot. Grandma M decided to stay home and watch Sydney. Matthew decided he didn't want to go and we figured it would be easier if Sarah stayed back as well so we left them back at Grandma's house too. When we got to the game it was soooo hot!! A side effect of Josh's medication is that he doesn't sweat so wherever we go we have to bring a bottle of water to pour on him to cool him off. Josh being the independent child he is decided to take matters into his own hands. He filled up his baseball cap to the brim with water and then tried to put it on his head to cool himself down. It didn't quite work out that way. He ended up sloshing water all over the people in front of us and behind us. They did not like that and the people sitting in front of us actually got up and left. Ooops. On the way over to the game this is what our car thermometer read: 104 degrees!! It was that hot plus humidity on top of it so when we got to the outside game we sweated gallons!! We were excited to see the Rangers playing the New York Yankees. To help keep things cool since it was sooo HOT we decided to pick up a snow cone and a bonus is that it was Daniel friendly so he could eat it as well. The only thing is the closest snow cone shack was half way around the stadium. Aaron got up and took Josh to get some. They walked all the way back and all the way up the stairs (we were in the cheep seats up in the nose bleed section). When they got to our row they were moving down the row Josh tripped and dropped the snow cone spilling it all over. So much for enjoying a nice delicious snow cone. When the game began the fans were cheering saying, "Go Texas Rangers!" I guess Daniel misunderstood them because he decided to start yelling, "Go Teenagers, Go Teenagers!!" over and over. Noah was pretty good at the game unless the crowd started cheering which scared him pretty bad. He was in the front pack, but we did try to set him upright in a seat. That lasted until the crowd started cheering and he started screaming so I had to pick him up and comfort him--poor kid! Here's Uncle Jeff, Grandpa, Josh and Daniel sitting at the game:Here's our view from our nose bleed seats:We could see the Dallas Cowboys football stadium from the Rangers stadium. Aaron was pretty excited so he took a picture.When we got home from the game Grandpa M gave Noah some loves. Here's some Grandpa and Grandson bonding time:

The kids have had a few sleepovers at G&G M's house while Aaron, Sarah, Noah and I stay at Jill's house. They have had a lot of fun over there and Aaron and I have loved sleeping in a little in the mornings!!
Yesterday morning Aaron, Noah and I went downtown to see The Bodies Exhibition. We missed it while it was in Salt Lake, but saw it was in Dallas while we were here so we decided to go. It was interesting to see how amazing the inner workings of our bodies are. Extra bonus is I got a discount since I am a healthcare worker. Wahoo for me!! Afterward we went out for lunch. It was a nice date even if Noah was the third wheel. He is my buddy since he has decided bottles are not for him anymore. At least he is a sweet baby so it almost makes it ok.

Everyone needed haircuts before we came to Texas, but I didn't want to shave everyone's heads for our family pictures so I made everyone wait until after pictures. Aaron decided after pictures he couldn't handle his long hair anymore. He insisted that I give him a haircut right then. I didn't want to so Aaron tried to take care of things by himself using Jill's clippers since I am too cheap to pay for a real haircut. It didn't go very well. He cut his hair as much as he could then he asked if I could trim up the edges for him. I tried to, but some of the guards were missing. I tried to trim it up without using the guards and it turned disastrous. He HAD to wear a hat until we could buy some clippers with all the guards to fix it. When we finally got some clippers, I ended up buzzing all the boy's hair, too. Now I just need to remember to sunscreen all their heads when we are outside now they don't have any hair to cover up their heads. Here's Josh and Daniel sporting their new dos:

Butterfly House and a Floatie-otomy

Yesterday for lunch we went to one of the local restaurants that is a Mancil family favorite El Fenix. After enjoying a yummy lunch there we headed out to the afternoon activities. Before we left we picked up a museum pass in Utah. It is part of this museum passport program that lets you get into museums around the World for free. We tried it out yesterday at one of the local museums here in Dallas. I really wanted to go this museum because they had a butterfly house where they had a bunch of local butterflies you could see close up and even have them land on you. I thought the kids would love that. When we got there it wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but we still got to see the butterflies close up and gently catch a few of them. Here's all of their chrysalis' hanging waiting for them to "hatch"?After the butterfly house we went inside to look at the other displays. They had a bunch of the Ice Age animatronics replicas. The moving animals scared Daniel quite a bit so we didn't spend too much time in there. Noah decided he was hungry about this time so we found the sand pile with all the hidden items inside it. The kids pretended to be archaeologists and dug for bones, sea shells, etc. while I sat and fed Noah.

This morning Aaron let me sleep in and took the kids out to the pool to swim. Aaron was in the pool with them and decided to be funny. He tried to jump off the jumping ledge into one of the ring floaties. He jumped in it and hit it dead center. However, once he got inside it he couldn't get it off. After trying for a while to slip out of it he couldn't get it off. I ended up doing a floatie-otomoy with some scissors. We now owe Jill a new floatie--grrrr.I need some scissors STAT!! And yes I am still in my pajamas.