Deja Vu All Over Again

Two kids. Yep, two. I know, I do have seven, but for the past two days we were down to just two! How weird it was!

I have a much greater understanding of people who are totally overwhelmed by our family! rofl! I can only imagine how our crazy herd of seven must seem, if you are used to only having a couple of kids around!

I totally did not appreciate how easy having only two kids was when I had only two kids. At the time, two kids was crazy, and difficult, and I couldn't figure out how I'd ever get anything done. I'm sure if I only had two kids now my life would be crazy, difficult, and I wouldn't be able to figure out how to ever get anything done! : ) Being used to 7 kids every day, well, going back to just two seemed calm and peaceful! Perspective is a great thing!

My parents took the oldest 5 kids on Friday night, and kept them until Sunday morning. My family has a reunion every year that entails spending the day at Bear Lake. With the new baby and Aaron having been sick (plus up until Friday night we were also planning on blessing Charli on Sunday), they knew we wouldn't be planning on going and they wanted the kids to be able to go. So they braved the craziness and took them! They picked them up Friday afternoon and took them up into the Uintas on Saturday morning, followed by the afternoon in Bear Lake. They had a great time and ended up keeping the kids overnight Saturday as well since they were so late in heading home. Two nights without all of the kids. Weird! Quiet. If we didn't have a little baby who was up every few hours, it probably would have been restful too! (or at least exciting or something! lol)

We wanted to do something special with Lincoln since he was all by himself (which must have been just odd for him). We decided we'd go with something that would be too expensive or too much hassle with ALL of the kids in tow and ended up at the Living Plant Aquarium. Lincoln had a great time and it was fun for us to watch him. He went nuts with all the "Shishies" (Fishies) and loved splashing in the ray petting tank. His arms weren't even close to long enough to reach any of the rays, but to be honest, I don't think he wanted to anyway-he just wanted to splash in the water! IMO, not worth the entry price for adults (sorry-jaded after having been to real aquariums, I'm sure this one will be great when they finish with big REAL aquarium they have planned), but fun for a splurge with him. Other than that, we took a walk with him, hit good old Arctic Circle for ice cream cones (twice!), and just hung out doting on him. That doesn't happen much as the 6th kid and he really enjoyed it, as did we.

Somewhere the camera holds pictures of our little outing, but who knows where that is right now.

We picked up the kids on Sunday morning after attending church with Aaron's family to hear his cousin speak on his mission that he returned from last week. Getting ready for church with two was interesting. Much less......intense than normal! What a change a few kids makes! ;)

It was a good break for all of us, and a good reminder as to the kind of mom I used to be years ago when my oldest were younger and I only had a couple of kids and there wasn't so much to do. I'd like to spend more time being that kind of mom again!

And props to the parents for surviving two days with 5 kids-especially since it involved outings and bodies of water! Yay Pomps and Beebs!