6 kids....2 adults...and a whole lot of fun!

Our Montana trip didn't end with my last post.  Oh no...I brought the 4 Nelson kids home with us to spend the week.

I've been wanting to have them come down for some time in the summer for awhile.  I hadn't done it since 2008 and that time it was just Mashaela and MaKenna.

I assumed it would just be the girls again but the boys really wanted to come too so we loaded all of them up and off I went.  It was a little nerve wracking having 6 kids by myself on a 9 hour drive but it went really well.  The kids were great and actually a huge help with Rilyn and Ryder.

Here are some of the fun things we did:

A visit to the zoo (of course)

Cy and Isaiah feeding the giraffes

Makenna feeding the giraffe

Looking at the Meerkats

The cousins

Isaiah petting a baby Wallaby

Elephants 

Ryder watching the gorillas

Rilyn kissing a monkey

All I have to say about the zoo is taking 6 kids by yourself is not recommended.  I lost Rilyn about 4 times and could barely move by the time we got home!  It was fun but probably the most exhausting thing I've ever done!

We did lots of hanging around the house...

Dress up and Mr. Potato Head

Story-time

Late night board games after the babies went to  bed

Snuggles on the couch while kids are napping

Wrestling 

More story-times

We let the chicks outside to play and poop all over the kids...ha ha best part for me....

POOP

Nature scavenger hunts/hike....

After dinner treats and lots of basketball....oh and in case you are wondering the girls team (The Cheetahs) totally kicked the boys' team (The Dragon Slayers) butts!!

I really miss the kids already and wish we could spend time together more often but I did cherish that time and the connections I was able to make with each of them.  Come back soon Nelsons!

Home Sweet Home

The first week of May the kids and I headed to Montana for some grandma and papa time.  It's nice having a teacher's schedule still so I have time off of my very part-time job to go to Montana.

It was a laid back kind of visit, which was perfect.

My mom and I took the kids to a summer festival one afternoon.  Rilyn was pretty happy to play the kiddie games and eat as much junk food as she could.

Ryder just enjoyed the sights and sounds from the carrier.

The kids spent a lot of time with their cousins, playing outside, and having fun at the splash park with their daycare buddies.

I got to nap with the kids a lot (always my most favorite part of vacation).

Ryder learned to pull himself up.

And we got to spend a day on Papa's boat.  My parents also just bought a camper so the kids had fun playing in that.  Both the kids really liked the boat.  Rilyn was a little unsure at first but by the end we were all pretty tired of "going faster" since that's all she wanted to do.

 We had lots of fun and already miss our nightly ice cream with papa and grandma and our naps!