non-stop family fun...

Last Monday was a day of non-stop family fun...

The boys got to spend a good part of the day together--Daren took Ben, Will and Jake boating with his firefighter friend and "brother-from-another-mother," Chris Milne, and his three boys. They went to Utah Lake, and although the sky was overcast, they managed to have plenty of fun and get plenty of sun. Photo 1 is of Will, Jake and Ozzy (who obviously isn't too sure of the crazy boys he's sitting next to!). The older boys, in photo 2, were a bit more crazy than the first group! Daren already enlarged this picture of Zach, Ben, and Jake #2 (or is he #1 because he's older?!), framed it, and it is hanging in Ben's soon-to-be room downstairs! It sounds like they had a blast. Me? I went shopping the whole time they were gone and actually had a great time (I don't really love shopping, but that day it was fun).

The boys and I pulled into the driveway at the same time that afternoon, ready to head out on our next adventure...the Cox family get-together at a park in Farmington.

Will's first order of business when we got to the park was to find himself a "whip," which he seems to find wherever we go. Jake was pretty tuckered out by the end of the day, and he found a comfy place to rest on Grandpa Train's lap--he loved the tickles on his back!

Will was constantly trying to locate all of the Cheetos in the area, and when he found them he isolated himself at the end of a line of tables so he could not only be by himself and eat in peace, but I'm sure it was also so he could see anyone coming close who would perhaps try to take some away from him.

I guess I should explain that the Cox side of the family is Daren's mom's side. Daren's mom is Susan, and she has two sisters, Patty and Janyce, and their parents are Ed and Jane Cox. Grandpa Cox recently passed away a couple of months ago in April, and he was a great guy. Daren wrote about him in our family newsletter just after he passed away and so I thought I'd let his words tell a little bit about Gpa Cox: "My favorite story from Grandpa's life (and he had many stories) was from WWII. He was trained as a dive bomber pilot in the Marine Corps and he was deployed to the Pacific theatre to stage for the ground invasion of Japan late in the war. He said by that time (1945) there had been so many battles with the Japanese and so many atrocities committed that the American soldiers who were headed for Japan were virtually sure they would all be killed by the Japanese, who would take no prisoners on their own soil. Grandpa said his ship was in port in the South Pacific waiting for their assignment to be among the first waves to attack Japan and the mood was very somber among the men. He remembered being at work on the docks when an announcement came over the speaker that the Japanese had surrendered and the war was over. He said every single man in sight was overcome with gratitude and emotion and that it was the happiest day of his life. I heard him tell the story many times and he never could tell it without his voice cracking." Gpa was married to Gma for over 60 years, and although I'm not sure of the exact number of years, it's still very impressive. They raised three amazing girls in Bountiful, Utah, and Grandma still lives in the same house. After WWII Grandpa went on to work for the BLM for many years, and I have to say, he had some of the most beautiful handwriting I have ever seen. Gma took care of Gpa right up until the end, and she has been a great example of love and devotion. It is so fun to get together with the Cox family because they are so close and have so much fun together. In the photos above, Daren is showing Grandma some of the pictures from our Route 66 trip, and the other is Patty visiting with her mom.

While the adults were visiting, the kids were playing all over the park. They found some trail maps in a box, and they pretended they were maps to buried treasure--it kept them entertained for quite a while. As you can see, there are lots of boys in this family, and they sure have a fun time when they get together. Even Sydney will join in with the boys for a good time. In the picture of Sydney and Jake, you can see how burned his face got from boating earlier that day. It blistered up pretty good, but he's ok now.

These are the smallest boys in the group right now--our nephew Isaac "Ike" and Daren's cousins little boy, Connor--you can tell he has a great smile, even through his binki!!

The rest of the week was filled with playing with friends, swimming lessons, swimming at the "big gym," and getting ready for Gpa and Gma Airplane's visit starting on Saturday morning. And we did get to see Janae, aka their favorite babysitter, on TV Thursday morning--she was the first attendant to Miss Riverton and their float was in the Days of '47 Parade. When she was waving and blowing kisses at the TV the boys kept saying, "Look! She's waving at me!!"

It's always a treat for us to go to the airport to pick up Gpa and Gma Airplane--the boys love to see the airplanes and long for the day when they will get to ride one again (it may be a while!!). We were quite late picking them up because Jake spilled a small cup of orange juice in my car just before we left, and that's not something you can leave to dry up! After we finally made it to the airport to pick them up, I thought it would be fun to go to the Farmer's Market in Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City...hmmm, what was I thinking?! The boys loved playing in the park, but not so much the wandering around, looking at all the booths. Will kinda freaked Gma out by climbing to the top of this ladder, but he's good at climbing things, and has been for a long time! Ben, Jake and Gpa got into playing a little bocce, and had fun. I loved looking around at all the booths and wish we had more time and patience, but that will have to wait for another day.

While I was taking this picture, Will was behind me, laying on the grass next to a light post when a man walked by him and handed him a gas station refill cup (my mom saw him do this). It wasn't until a minute later we realized that it had a dead baby bird in it--how weird is that to give that to a little boy????

Our day was a complete whirlwind after that. We made it home to rest for a short time before splitting up. I took the twins to their cousin's, Sydney's, 4th birthday party while Gpa and Gma took Ben bowling and out to eat. We all met up after that to go see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It was a great movie, for the second time, and it got the boys going once again on their play-acting of Indy.

My mom found this fedora (hat) and side bag, and I don't think I've ever seen Ben wear a hat so much! I have to say, though, that he did take note that the hat is black and not brown, so we are still on the hunt for a brown fedora! He has hardly taken it off, but as you can imagine, there have been battles over it!

Part of their day on Sunday was spent in the front room with the building blocks (these are blocks my mom gave us, and they are ones we used to play with when we were young'uns.). In keeping with the Indy theme, these are the 13 "crystal skulls" from the movie. When our boys get into something, they dive in and don't let it go too easily!!

From this point on I don't have any more pictures right now from their visit because Daren and Will left Sunday afternoon to go four wheeling in Sun Valley, Idaho with a couple of Daren's brothers. I sent my camera with them so they could take many pictures, and my parent's have pictures on their camera from our outing at their hotel, so I'll get them all sometime this week and post them later. Later!