Sunday, July 5, 2015

Grandma Stevens visit, Kansas Trip, Joseph ER visit, Disneyland and I'm Pregnant!!

Caleb is enjoying the massage chair we got for Travis for Father's Day!

Malachi loves helping me in the kitchen, he is using my mixing bowl as a hat

At the Hardy family reunion, Austin and Betsy with Hazel and Bailey in the swimming pool

Malachi taking a bath in the kitchen sink with cousin lincoln

On the tram, headed for Disneyland

More Hardy Party people on theTram

Malachi fell asleep on Daddy waiting in the lines

On the ferris wheel

On the ferris wheel

Caleb riding the Carousel 

Malachi loved riding his fish on the Carousel

Grandpa and Caleb on the bumber cars

Samuel on the bumber cars


Grandpa, Grandma, Samuel and Caleb on the Caterpillar ride

Austin and Betsy in the Cars ride.  Unfortunatley Austin's hand is covering Betsy's face

I rode the car ride too!  It was my favorite ride

Daddy, Caleb, and Samuel riding the lady bug ride
Joseph loved being in the Ocean, even though it was cold, he couldn't get enough of it!


Cousin Shayden got buried

Malachi never even made it down to the beach, he loved the sand, he was swimming in it, and got so dirty!

Joseph had to get buried too


Malachi loves getting bathed in the kitchen sick, everytime we went near it, he would point to it, and say "bath"



Caleb found a flower to sit on

Getting to meet a fairy

Caleb loved getting to meet tinker bell


Caleb loved playing in the pumpkin he found


Austin, Betsy, me, Samuel, and Joseph going down splash mountain.  I love Joseph's superman pose!
Caleb spent his birthday money from Grandma Stevens to get this Mickey Mouse toy, he loved it!

Caleb and Malachi insisted I go on the Tea cups with them.  It made me feel sick, but I survived.

The kids loved finding the momma duck with her baby ducklings

They also liked finding these duck eggs






Finding the pirates treasure

In the USO at the airport just before flying home!

Travis lucked out, Malachi slept on him the whole way home on the airplane!
My goodness, so many events.  First things first.  Yes, I am pregnant again, so come this December 19th we will have seven kids!!!  Crazy, I know, but we love all of our amazing children.  So Travis was in the field the beginning of May, but was able to come home in time for his Mom, Grandma Stevens to come visit us.  It was really nice to have her visit, she watched the kids that weekend, while Travis and I went house hunting in Kansas.  It was so nice to be able to go without all of the kids.  It was like one really long date!  We saw a lot of houses that we liked, and some that we really didn't like, and had a good time exploring the area and checking out where Travis will work.  We even met up with the outgoing chaplain in his unit for lunch, and was able to get some good info.  Kansas ended up having their first tornado of the season while we were there, although it didn't actually touch down right where we were, we still got some crazy weather.  I learned that Kansas is always humid, windy, and full of bugs.  After we got back home, we had only two days to get ready for our Disneyland vacation.   I had a huge long list of things to do before we left.  Then, Monday morning I get a call from Joseph's school, saying he got something stuck in his eye and to come get him.  So grateful that Grandma Stevens was still here, I was able to go pick up Joseph and leave the kids home with her.  So I picked up Joseph and took him to the ER.  I guess he was fiddling with a pen in class, and a little piece of it broke and flew up into his eye, and it was hurting like crazy.  Unfortunately the ER was busy.  We waiting 2 1/2 hours just to be seen by the Dr., at least they numbed his eye and gave him an ice pack for the swelling shortly after arriving.  Once we finally got back to the treatment room, it still took forever for them to do each thing.  They rinsed his eye out several times, dyed it and looked at it with a special light, and couldn't find what was bothering Joseph's eye.  Finally, Joseph was able to tell them that it hurt right at the very top of his eye, and the Dr. was able to pull out the tiny plastic piece from his eye, that was causing so much trouble.  We ended up being there for 6 hours!  Thankfully, shortly after removing the offending piece of plastic, Joseph's eye was feeling much better.  I had a miserable time at the hospital, because I was so hungry, I had failed to bring food with me, and hadn't eaten anything but a muffin for breakfast.  I was feeling so sick, due to not eating.  They wouldn't allow me to leave and go get food, because Joseph is a minor, and they wouldn't bring in a tray of food, because it's not allowed in the ER rooms. So as soon as we left, I drove to the nearest fast food restaurant, (it was about 4:30) and bought food.  I normally don't like to eat fast food, but man it tasted so good, after feeling so sick and weak from not getting enough to eat.  In fact, it really messed me up and I felt really sick for the next couple days, my body was really mad at me.  Anyway, suffice it to say, the only thing I got done on my to do list, was to get us packed and leave for our trip to Disneyland.  I got a great deal on airfare, so we all flew to Disneyland in an airplane!  It has been a long time since we all flew on an airplane, I think the last time was 4 years ago.  Samuel didn't remember ever flying on a plane, so it was like his first time, and Caleb and Malachi thought it was pretty cool too.  We made it safely to California, although Malachi did throw about 3 different things at my head, he has a good arm!  So other than a headache we were all good.  We got our rental car, and headed to the rental house to meet up with the rest of the Hardy Party!  The best part of the whole trip was getting to see all the family and getting to spend time with them.  My parents rented a house, that fit all of us (amazing) and it had a pool in the backyard.  The kids and thier cousins loved hanging out at the pool.  We went to Disneyland the next day, the kids loved all the rides.  I mostly went around with Caleb and Malachi, while Travis took the older kids on rides.  Joseph went with his cousins for a while, but then went off on his own, but thankfully my Mom spotted him in a roller coaster ride, so we were able to find him again.  I learned that most of the rides made me sick, but especially if there was spinning or rocking.  I kept mentos in my purse, and those managed to help me make it through the day.  At lunchtime, some of us were eating together in bugland, and I took Austin, Betsy, Bailey, and Caleb on a ride.  Once we sat down in the ride, a worker came over to our little group and said that we needed to have someone over 14 with us in order to ride.  I informed him I was 33 years old, and the mother of the kids, and he apologized and let us ride.  I guess sitting in between all the tween girls I looked like one of them from a distance.  Everybody thought it was quite funny though, and Travis likes to tease me about it.  It was getting pretty crowded by later in the afternoon, and I was pretty tired, so we left and went back to the rental house.  On Friday we went to the beach.  The kids loved it.  Malachi and Caleb never even made it to the water, they loved playing in the sand so much.  The older kids played in the water some, but Joseph is the one who couldn't get enough of being in the Ocean.  When we went back to the rental house, the kids jumped right into the pool,they can't get enough of playing in the water.  Malachi was so covered in sand, it took several baths to get it all out.  Unfortunately there must have been mold in the house we were in, becuase every night, Caleb would get all congested and have terrible coughing fits, but during the day he would be fine when we were out and about.  We went to Disneyland on Saturday too, unfortunately it was extremly crowded and busy.  It took forever to get on any ride, and the streets were very crowded as well, it was hard to move around.  We got into some of the bigger rides by using fast passes, with only about 20-30 minute waits, but most rides took over an hour to get in.  The kids still enjoyed the rides, but it was a lot harder to wait in such long lines.  Once again we left in the afternoon, because I was just too tired.  The reunion ended Sunday morning and everybody left.  We went to church and checked into our hotel near Disneyland for the remainder of our trip.  Travis had to drop of our rental car before church, so we walked from the church to the hotel, it was about a mile, so not too bad, but we were all wearing our church shoes, so it made our feet hurt.  We relaxed the rest of the day.  Monday we walked around downtown disney and did our shopping, we even got Malachi is "daddy bear" he was the only one who didn't have one.  He got the "incredible hulk" bear as his "daddy bear" he loves that thing.  Tuesday we were hoping wouldn't be as busy at Disneyland, but it turns out it was Graduation Day, so there were tons of goups there for that, so it was still incredibly crowded. For lunch we walked across the street to Denny's and got lunch.  After lunch we were splitting up, I was taking the ones with me who were too tired to wait in lines anymore, and Travis was taking the older ones back in to finish getting on rides.  After we crossed the street, I looked around, and couldn't see Samuel anywhere, so I turned back to the street, where the light had already turned green for the 4 lanes of traffic that were speeding across the road, when I heard honking and the slamming of breaks, and there is Samuel running across the busy road with hands stretched out on both sides of him to try and stop traffic.  I think I almost had a heart attack watching cars slam on breaks, and trying to avoid hitting him.  Thankfully he made it all the way across, and ran straight into my arms, shaking like a leaf.  After calming him down, we had a nice long talk about what he should have done instead, but I'm just grateful that he was okay.  Anyway after that excitement I walked with the kids to the hotel, and Travis and the older kids stayed at Disneyland until after 10pm.  Wednesday we checked out and flew home.  Austin accidently left her purse in the hotel lobby, but thankfully when I called them, they found it , and mailed it back to our house.  We made it home about 8pm on Wednesday and Travis had to quickly pack for going out in the field, and left early the next morning.  

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