The Cousins Came!

Babs made the bold move to drive from Cali to here w/ all three boys by herself. We thought she was crazy coming in July, but were so happy they did! She was ultra prepared and the boys were wonderful on the drive here. They made it in 6 1/2 hours, safe and sound.  Our kids kept looking out the window and asking, when are they getting here? ALL DAY LONG!  It was cute. We caught up a bit, swam, and had soft tacos and watermelon for dinner.  
Ben also got home that night from a business trip, so we were all happy to have him home!

Thursday we relaxed in the morning and headed to Pei Wei to meet Ben for lunch.  It was a bit chaotic with waiting and and the lunch rush, but our kids were great. We then explored the Museum of Natural History...aka the Dino Museum together. It was fun and the boys said they liked everything about it.  There were models of dinos, fossils, a Western movie set, movie, flash flood with T Rex and a hands on room where they got to play fish, color, and do rubbings of dinosaurs. That evening we had a little BBQ and watched Dawn of the Dinosaurs together, while us girls flipped through magazines.

There was lots of time for hanging out.

 Love Kaden's sky blue eyes!

We all are in love with sweet baby Ryker...such a happy boy!

 We also introduced the boys to our version of CandyLand with real candy.

Ben took Friday off and we swam in the morning with the waterfall and floating basketball the cousins brought. After lunch we headed to the new Ice Age Continental Drift movie.  There were lots of cute parts, but the kids especially loved the We Are Family, We Are Ham & Cheese song at the end. That night Uncle Jared flew in and we went out to Red Robin together. Boys club & kids went for a night swim before bed and the guys had some man time while we got the kids to bed.

Saturday they went to see an old mission friend while we cleaned and got ready for a fun afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa Jarvis. We ordered a Ned's Krazy party sub and I made pasta and fruit salads to go along.  It was fun catching up with them and Barbara had a chance to ask Grandpa about her namesake, Ben & Babs' grandma, whom I never met. She died when their mom was 14. He told us she sometimes stuttered, and liked to tell stories to the kids while they went on long drives. It will be great to meet her someday. The kids swam some more with our guys and us girls snuck away for a few hours. There was a HUGE monsoon storm that we got to run through, and luckily the guys had brought the kids in just before. That night the guys tried to see Batman, but ended up at Spiderman. Meanwhile we got the kids to bed, I helped a drug addict, and we had a night of candy...eye candy, and other favs.

BEFORE

AFTER

Sunday I taught Babs how to make cinnamon rolls and we celebrated Jared's birthday a little late.  Babs gave Ruby her first haircut, and so I guess she's officially a big girl.  Where did my baby girl go?!?  Afterward we headed to the Mesa Temple and toured the Visitor Center.

It was such a wonderful visit full of fun memories.  

We are, we are family, we are, we are ham & cheese!