July 15, 2011: Dennie Family Get Together and 11th Anniversary!

Fun with the cousins!

Highlights from today: (Click here for pictures)

• We celebrated our 4017th day that we have been married today (or 11 years) with breakfast from McDonalds, swimming at Magic Springs and supper from McClard's.  What could be better?  And yes, we now count days we have been married-why not?  Cause really every day is a celebration.
• Here is the breakdown of the day:  The boys were the first ones to wake up around 6:30 and I let them read books from their beds but all I could think about was Anderson reaching over his top bunk to grab another book from Graham and falling out that I couldn’t go back to sleep.  So I told them they could play in their room and overheard them discussing that today was trip day and they were so excited.
• It didn’t take too long for everyone to get ready and we were out the door before 9:30.  This gave us plenty of time for our McDonalds breakfast stop and we even made it to Magic Springs in time to watch the rain pour down.  It rained for about 30 minutes before the park opened but it did stop which was nice.  However, the rain did make everything very sticky-actually, I don’t think I have ever sweat so much before.  Seriously.
• We made it into the park with Lilly, Cash, Josh, Zach and Jenna along with the rest of the fam and headed to the log ride.  Campbell and I were the only ones that couldn’t ride it-she’s too short and I’m too round!  After the log ride it was time for the kiddie roller coaster over and over and over and probably over again.  Graham and Robby rode the old timey cars while the others rode the larger kiddie roller coaster. 
• After that we split nachos, a taco and a burrito before heading to the water park.  The clouds were intermittent so it could have been worse.  They all enjoyed the kiddie area and the 3 slides there.  Reagan and Anderson were even able to do a large slide.  Though when we got there, it was just Virginia and me.  I couldn’t go down with them because you had to lay on your stomach and Virginia wasn’t going to do it.  As we were standing there telling them they would have to go along or not go-some nice man came and offered to take them.  He looked honest enough (and I could see them) so up they went.  They came down and seemed like they kind of enjoyed it-oh, Graham had walked over with us and no, he wasn’t tall enough and it did NOT go over very well.
• We rode the lazy river and it was just as entertaining figuring out how everyone would get on.  First a lady helped Robby get on his tube with Graham and before he knew it, he had floated away leaving us to fend for ourselves.  The same lady was walking past and over heard me tell the other 3 that we could not do it-since I couldn’t figure out how to get Reagan and Anderson on the tube while making sure Campbell didn’t float away.  So she volunteered to help us.  She got us on and off we went.  We must look like we need alot of help. 
• Next up was the wave pool-Reagan and Anderson couldn’t wear their floatees in there (a lifeguard told me they weren’t safe-um, ok).  Anyway, Reagan just wanted to go deeper, Anderson wanted to sit in the shallow and this was all fine.  Except for Graham who could wear his floatee (different type) and didn’t want me touching him.  He was as happy as he could be being sloshed up and down with the waves but since his little head was under the water half of the time, I had to keep grabbing him and he would raise up, look at me and say “let go of me”
• By 3:30ish we left the park and headed to the house-first we had a few stops-bank, McClards, grocery store and gas station (someone needed a quick bathroom stop and it wasn’t me and 2 kids were sleeping and 2 kids were watching a movie, oh Robby??).  This gave time for everyone to cool off, Campbell and Graham had a nap, all the kids had a snack and I even changed out of my swimsuit.  It was so much easier to change while driving along the road than going in a hot yucky changing room at the park.
• The house is very nice and we snagged the master bedroom.  The kids have plenty of room for their sleeping bags and Campbell is sleeping soundly in her walk in closet.  We unloaded, played, the kids checked out the swimming pool, had our McClard's supper and all of the cousins played-but mostly they heard things like “don’t climb on the couch” “don’t run” “don’t touch that” “you can’t go outside”-my thought was to stay on our kids pretty hard today so maybe tomorrow they will remember some rules (like that will happen)
• Around 9 we put all of our kids in the tub.  It is a big Jacuzzi tub and Robby turned on the jets a bit early and water sprayed everywhere.  This caused all of them to stand up and start trying to climb out.  Anderson was the most hysterical and was shouting “get me out of here”  Robby quickly turned it off to calm them down and then turned it on again just for laughs.  If we had gone around telling our highs of the day like usual tonight, that would have been one of mine.  Seriously, I laughed until it hurt!
• Bedtime was next and they were out very quick.  And I will be too!