Memorial Day Weekend 2012

Our Memorial Day weekend was long and PACKED full of fun!

My friend Shauna, and four of her five kids came to stay with us.  

They arrived on Wednesday night kicking off our holiday weekend a little early.

Bill took Thursday and Friday off from work as well so he could hang out with us and survive the chaos that comes with 6 kids in our small house.  

We woke up Thursday and ate breakfast.

We had to be quick in getting ready because Sam had his preschool graduation, which we all attended.  

After his graduation we headed off to Classic Skating for a day full of bouncing and skating fun.  

I hadn't been to Classic since Jr. High/High School and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of FUN activities they have available.  We opted to play in the bounce houses, climbing jungle, and skating.  We took scooters along with us too.  I like that the kids are allowed to use scooters considering skating takes a bit more practice and parental involvement to learn.
I personally wanted to just sit back and watch them play, and I did.

I rented my kids some of those skates that go over their shoes and they did great in them.  Poor Brenna had short socks on and left with some pretty gnarly sores on her ankles from the skates.  BIG Bummer.

All the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves, despite the few bumps, bruises, scrapes, and falls they endured.

We left classic completely, and utterly, EXHAUSTED!

We rushed home, where I made the whole bunch of us some spaghetti with my homemade sauce.  Needless to say we all slept very well that night with little struggle getting all the little munchkins to bed.

On Friday we woke bright and early, 

Well I did, and let Shauna sleep in.  

I made waffles for breakfast with strawberry topping and whip cream.  

Can you believe MY two kids bypassed the waffles and had cereal?  They are CRAZY!

We hung out at home for most of the morning as it was a bit cool and rainy outside.  We had plans to go take some pictures of Shauna's kids when and if the weather cleared up.

It did clear up after lunch, so we got the kids all ready took their pictures.

My neighbors have a pretty awesome backyard so we used it for their pictures.  It beat having to load up all the kids and drive somewhere to take pictures.  Their pictures turned out great and all the kids behaved themselves.  As a reward, we told them we would go swimming.

After pictures we went over to the West Valley Family Fitness Center for some wet fun!  I couldn't find my kids arm floats and the ones they sold there were WAY too big for our kids.  They were seriously so big I doubt they would have fit my arms. 

Really a grown man could have wore them!

Shauna took off to walmart to find some floats while I braved the water with the task of watching 6 kids!  It was crazy, but they all behaved and stayed close enough that I could keep my eye on them.

Shauna returned and joined us in the pool, though she returned empty handed. 

Can you believe Walmart didn't have any arm floats?

LAME!

We spent about 1-2 hours at the pool, with every intent on wearing the kids out yet again.  

Shauna and I had a big night planned.

She wanted some Boudoir photos taken for her husband.  

We didn't get the kids fed until 9:30pm (I made tacos) and then a friend of Shauna's came over for a short visit.

The kids didn't get to bed until nearly 11pm, which meant a late start on pictures for Shauna.  I started her hair a little after 11pm and seriously didn't get finished until almost 3.

SHE HAS SO MUCH HAIR!

You can check out some of the finished product over at my photography blog...

HERE

Only the "G" rated stuff.  

We wrapped up that photoshoot at nearly 6am.  We hit some major issues with the inside lighting in my living room.  It took a bit to figure out how to get the best quality photo with what we had to work with.  I am happy with the outcome though.  

It was a learning experience for sure!

Shauna and her kids were up bright and early yet again, but this time it was because they had to leave.

SO SAD!

We loved having them here and were totally bummed out to see them go.  Even though the weekend was complete chaos, it was OH SO WORTH EVERY MINUTE OF IT!