Elephant Rocks State Park

The guys got back in the middle of the night Monday night.  Tuesday we planned a last hoorah day of state parks.  Unfortunately, Dan took a few tumbles on a mountain and hurt his knee, ankle and toe.  I was bummed that he chose to stay home.  We got a late start and made it to Elephant Rocks State Park in time for a picnic before heading up to the rocks.

You'd think Rich, John and Ian would have no desire to climb anything, especially rocks, but they were gung-ho to climb to the top.

I loved the "elephant footprints" on top of the big rock.

Big and little monkeys

Jaelyn and Jackson are two peas in a pod 

Those rocks are heavy to hold up

Caden, Jaelyn, Cassidy, Delaney, Brody, Allie and Jackson

 

Peek-a-boo

We spent a few hours climbing on huge rocks that were mined in the late 1800s.  Miners carved their names and dates in the rocks.  I found 1893 in one place.

After the rocks, we headed to the water someplace we've been wanting to visit, Johnson's Shut-ins State Park.

Ceramic's Fever

Monday, we painted ceramics and then played at the pool.

I warned Jen's oldest daughter, Cassidy, about Ceramic Fever.  She believed me for a minute when she saw the sign on the door.  Gullible teenagers are fun!

We all picked a project and got busy painting.  I love my sassy frog I picked out.  She's sitting next to Dan's cool frog in my kitchen window.

We all finished ahead of Jennifer and Cassidy - perfectionists perhaps?

I entertained the kids (keeping them away from the row after row of pottery filled shelving) with games of Statue Freeze and Simon Says.

I am rather impressed with our finished work...from left to right - Jaelyn's squirrel, Allie's unicorns and deer, Jackson's dragon, Cassidy's Dumbo, my sassy frog and Caden's baby frog, Delaney's frog bank, Brody's turtle bank, Jen's big owl and Caden's baby owl.

Monday night, Jen and I stayed up until around Midnight to welcome the guys home and hear about their adventures...pictures to come another day!

Brave and the Hollow

We got busier as the week progressed or maybe I got tired'er.  I had such a good time with Jen and the kids, but having seven kids in one house wears you out.  Just keeping the kids full was a challenge.  Those teenage girls can pack away the food :). 

I made Delaney's week by buying her boxes, four I think, of Cheese Nips.  Apparently they are her favorite snack and no one buys them for her.  At a dollar a box, that happy face was worth every penny.

On Sunday, we decided to skip church.  We had an early lunch and then took the kids to see Brave at our tiny little movie theater.  The previews were misleading.  I thought it was scary during several scenes and the movie had Allie crying at the end.  She can be emotional anyway, but add in lack of sleep and the smallest thing can send her over the edge.  In this case, the little girl turned her Mom into a bear (on accident) to change her fate and at the end, Mom-bear had to fight a mean bear and the girl thought she'd missed her chance to turn Mom back into Mom.  After the movie, we changed quickly and took the kids to Happy Hollow.

We started at the rope swing.  So fun!

My Thanks to Cassidy for taking pictures so I could swing too!

We took our inner tubes again, but the kids quickly became engulfed in moving rocks.  There's a rock horseshoe in the center of the river that gets moved around constantly.  The kids moved the rocks and formed "chutes" for us to tube through.  They each manned their chute, giving instructions like "keep your hands in the tube and your bottom up and enjoy the ride" before they pushed each other through.

Happier Hollow

Yesterday was one of our best days so far, well, except for the City Museum.  We took our inner tubes to Happy Hollow and floated down the Big Piney River.

We didn't float far. Instead we walked way up the edge of the water and then floated down past our beach and repeated it all over and over again.  The kids loved the "rapids."  We floated pretty quickly in a few places.  We also had to watch our bottoms in a few places.  Those rocks are hard!

Cassidy

Allie

Caden

Brody

Kelly

Delaney

Jennifer

Jackson

I happened to look down the river and see someone swinging on a rope.  We floated down and let the kids climb up on the tree and swing out over the water.  An "experienced" dad was there to show us what to do.  Next time, I'm going to walk down with the camera so I can get pictures.  Happy Hollow just got happier!

The Pool

Jennifer says a picture is worth a thousand words so here are five thousand.  The kids love the pool. 

Thank you Jennifer for stopping at Target in St. Louis to get us inner tubes. 

To St. Louis We Will Go

July the Fourth seemed like the perfect day to take our friends to St. Louis to visit the most incredible City Museum.

I think they agreed with us that it's the most awesome place to visit.

Buddies, Delaney and Allie climbing the inside roof of the silo.



Buddies, Cassidy and Allie riding the ferris wheel. 



Caden, Jackson, Ian, Jennifer, Brody and Rich.



Dan and Jaelyn



Delaney and Jaelyn



All the kids racing on the hamster wheel.



Kelly and the kids in dino-land

We split up after the Museum.  Our friends went to see the arch and we went in search of a Chick-fil-a after spending another hour or so at the museum since once you've seen the arch, you've seen the arch.  The plan was to meet back up at the big field on base to watch the fireworks.

Jae practiced her gymnastics while we waited for it to get dark.



Allie enjoyed dancing to the band playing across the field.

While our friends made it to the field just in time to see the fireworks show, they made it to a different field.  Oops.  At least we all got to see the show.  It was only the second fireworks show our kids have seen.  I prefer normal bedtimes, even on holidays, but they sure did enjoy it.  And I enjoyed watching them enjoy it. 

All 12 of us went to bed very late that night.  We left the door unlocked for John, another college friend, who flew in around midnight.  The men were up bright and early Thursday morning to drive to Colorado to climb mountains.  They are going to have fun, but not as much fun as we are going to have.  While the cat's away, the mice will play :).

Let the Crazy Begin

Our friends, Rich, Jennifer and their kids, and Ian, came to visit on Monday night.  They had a fun trip until they got searched coming in the south gate.  A bit of advice, make sure you print your current insurance card when driving onto an Army base ;).

Tuesday, we headed for the pool to beat the insane heat and then we came home and made pizzas.  Delaney kneaded all the dough for me.  Jennifer's kids all like to help in the kitchen.  Dan grilled the dough, everyone topped their own pizza, then I popped them in the oven on broil to melt the cheese on top.  It was a good assembly line.

After dinner, we drove to Miller's Cave.  The kids had a great time climbing on the rocks...totally ignoring this sign.

Either it's a trick of the light or Dan has gotten gray all of the sudden :).

Ian (who is a college friend and close friend of Rich and Jen's) was great with the kids.  He taught Jaelyn how to "wrangle" antlions and took the kids into all the little crevices in the cave.

Ian also found Jaelyn a cave cricket.  It was huge and disgusting and had 2 inch long antenae...gross.

Can I mentioned how much we love these kids?

By Tuesday night, everyone was exhausted from too much fun and not enough sleep.  I don't think the boys moved once after they closed their eyes.

The Tooth Fairy

Jaelyn lost her 17th tooth yesterday.  I put it in the window and forgot all about it.  Jaelyn borrowed Allie's tooth fairy box and left her tooth out for the tooth fairy last night.  This morning, she found a five dollar bill in her box in exchange for her tooth.  The tooth fairy usually leaves her a dollar plus a quarter if she lets someone else pull her tooth.  I've aksed our house guests and no one "saw" the tooth fairy last night.  I have no idea what happened, but I BELIEVE!