The Surprise

 We had a great surprise planned for the kids this past weekend!  We along with Jeremy's parents, brother, sister, and their families had reserved rooms for the night at Fun City!  We had both remembered how hard it was having 8 people in one room and actually sleeping so we were mildly worried about how it would go.  But, we had Jeremy's parents room connected to ours and thought that everyone was 2 years older and maybe it would go just splendidly.........

We arrived (late).  The kids had a snow day that day and I had planned on having the whole afternoon to myself to get everything prepared.  We were going to pick the boys up from school and then just leave and surprise them when we got there.  Well nothing went as planned.  To make a long story short, I had all kinds of issues, problems arise, and stupid stuff to deal with.  But, we got there, got the kids unloaded, dressed for the water park and in the pool.  I had to dig out my old swimming suit as my one from last year didn't fit :(  Really annoying.  Jeremy had the same problem.  We couldn't find Tristan's swimming suit at all and Asher's didn't fit from last year so we had to make a quick stop at ShopKo for them.  But, once the kids were in the pool, all bets were off.  And any keeping track of them.  At some point in the night I was told that Asher had to be saved by the life guard when he got caught in a current at the end of one of the bigger water slides.  Sigh.  First of all that is my worst fear.  And for anyone who says well don't take your kids if you can't keep track of them...I say, just walk in our shoes for a minute.  There is no possible way to keep an eye on all 6 kids at a water park.  Unless we  keep everyone confined to the baby pool where we HAVE to stay with the very little ones.

This is the only picture I got of Eden.  Nice, huh?  She was so timid in the water last year.  Not anymore.  Good golly she was all over the place!  Little stinker!

Asher coming down the slide!

Cullen was very timid but we knew that.  He is our bashful little guy.

The family had pizza (I ordered some southwest egg rolls and spinach artichoke dip from room service to eat instead) and swam until the closing.  Jeremy and I were trying our best to have a good time.  We both had a crap ton on our minds and hadn't slept in a while either.  We didn't really get to socialize with the other members of the family and that was the whole reason we were there was to hang out as a family.  I needed some good talking that night too.  But, the kids had a blast and I always love to see smiles on their faces.

Aren't they handsome??

I think so.

I brought Liam's favorite jammies to wear that night.  

Newpher mid throw.  He played catch with Asher and Owen for awhile.

We thought maybe putting two of the kids in Grandma and Grandpa's room would help with the people problem in our room, haha.  Well, we got everyone ready for bed.  Jeremy and I tried to lay down with Eden in between us.
*side note*
How in the heck did I ever, ever, ever sleep in a queen bed!?!?  And we used to sleep in ours with a kid or two!  Agh.  Literally, couldn't roll one way or the other.  I am so thankful for my king sized bed.  I could never go back.
*end side note*

 We all watched Fern Gully that Jeremy had somehow gotten to play from his laptop onto the television in the room.  People were quieting down....the BAM!  Eden had her second wind.  We tried and tried and tried to get her to go to sleep.  We turned off all the lights and tv.  She started jumping on the other bed with three boys in it...only woke up Tristan though!  We waited until 2am before we called it quits.  We both had mini meltdowns and lost our minds temporarily.  We hadn't slept for more than 2 hours at a time in days.....and were realizing that we couldn't do it.  We started packing our crap up to leave.  We had paid over $300 (hotel, gas, swimming suits, food,etc.) for the whole evening so far and it felt like a huge waste.  Neither one of us was enjoying ourselves and knew that the next day would be worse when our moods would overflow.
So, we left the four older boys with Debbie and Pat and took Eden and Cullen home.  We got home just before 4am.  Eden didn't sleep on the hour long ride back home.  The roads were crappy.  I couldn't believe she didn't sleep?!!?  She finally shut her eyes as we pulled into Carthage.  We laid her and Cullen down and unloaded the car.  We laid down in our bed and 2 short hours later she was wide awake again and so was Cullen.  We were literally like two zombies.  And poor Eden looked so dang tired too.  She had bags under eyes but wouldn't sleep. 

The boys and the rest of Jeremy's family spent the day Saturday having fun at Fun City.  They all went bowling.  Asher won!!! I know that made him very happy!  They got to do laser tag and the arcade and go carts.  I'm sure the whole family was worn out after such a busy day.  Jeremy and I spent Saturday desperately trying to figure out Eden.  She didn't sleep all day.  Jeremy had arranged for the all the kids to go to his Mom's house that night so we could try to catch up on our sleep.  Debbie said that Eden slept for 12 hours that night!!  I bet!  She had to be so darn tired.  Jeremy and I also got sleep a full nights sleep that night.  Which was amazing!!  We so needed it.  Still the most expensive swimming night EVER! lol!

Owen asked me to get a picture of him coming down one of the water slides.  So, I obliged.  We had to do it twice.  The first time I wasn't quick enough, lol. 

Well, we learned our lesson.  Usually if we are taking all the kids somewhere we get houses or condos, not hotel rooms.  I really wish I had remembered all this in the first place.  It is just part of having a large family.  We have to have more room to do things.  Oh well,  I know the kids still had a good time even if Jeremy and I didn't.