Chillaxin' @ Cherry Hill...

After having a brief visit with my Visiting Teachers at the crack of dawn, a doctors check up for the baby, swimming lessons for both the boys and making a quick trip to the store... we were finally ready to head up north to Kaysville to join family at Cherry Hill Water Park. My sisters, Tricia and Celeste, were already there with their kids; we were getting together because it was my nephew Daniel's 5TH birthday and because my other nephew Idrese was in town visiting from San Diego. It was HOT here in Utah on Thursday, INSANELY HOT; this pregnant mama thought she was going to pass out in the parking lot just trying to get the boys ready for swimming and the stroller packed! Thankfully, the water at Cherry Hill was nice and cold (there's nothing I hate more than going to a pool to cool off and the water feels like bath water, YUCK); it was a nice reprieve from the heat!

We spent a few hours at the water park with our family. The boys are ALWAYS excited to see their cousins and play with them.

The boys have A LOT of cousins!
Here's just some of them; not all of them could make it.
Some were back home in San Diego and others were working or at girls camp.

Here's the birthday boy Daniel!!!
He turned 5 on the 23RD!

Tricia brought HUGE cupcakes for all the kiddos.
Below is Luke & Ian.
Ian wasn't very interested in his cupcake though...
he had other matters on his mind.
He had a WET, water logged, poopy swim diaper on him.
From a mother's perspective, there's NOTHING more disgusting than changing a
WET, POOPY SWIM DIAPER in HOT, MISERABLE weather.
No worries though people,
he didn't make the mess IN the pool,
it happened AFTER he GOT OUT of the pool.

Did I mention just after I finished cleaning up Ian's stinky mess,
Noah did the SAME THING!
SERIOUSLY!
It's a surprise I didn't go into LABOR that day!
What on earth was I thinking taking all 3 boys to the pool with out Spencer's help?!

Most the kids found it a challenge to finish off their big ol' cupcakes;
not this girl!
Bella worked on her cupcake for a good hour of so before finally finishing it.
Guess she didn't want to see a good thing go to waste!

Can you believe all the toy stores I went to were already out of swim gear?!
The sales reps told me it was because swimming season was nearly over.
Um, HELLO?! It's only July!
What about AUGUST?! The HOTTEST month of the year!
All the Sales people reminded me that school starts in just a few short weeks during August.
Whatev...LAME!
Since Trish likes to take her kids to the pool every day like us,
we thought Daniel could use some swim gear...
we didn't have much to choose from at the stores,
but we DID find this...
a SPIDER MAN swim gear set. Complete with mask/goggles, flippers, and spider swim gloves.
Thank our lucky stars,
HE LOVED IT and even looked SUPER COOL wearing it!

Cherry Hill isn't as big as Seven Peaks Water Park,
the water park we normally frequent,
but...
it did have this SUPER COOL pirate kid cove for the wee ones to play in.
Who am I kidding, even I played in it...
nothing was going to keep me out of the water on that HOT HOT day!
Daniel, Luke & Cohen.

Cohen had some SERIOUS anxiety at first when we put him the water.
It broke my heart to see him hating it;
how on earth could any kid of mine not like water?!
Thankfully, after only a mere 30 minutes or so of crying,
he warmed up to it and actually started to enjoy himself.


There's no questioning whether this kid loves the water or not though!
Noah's ALWAYS been a fish!
Another LOVE of Noah's are his cousins.
This one in particular.
Idrese.
Noah doesn't get to see him very often because Idrese lives in San Diego.
I debated at the time I took this picture below
whether or not I should intervene and tell Noah to leave Idrese alone,
but decided not to.
Idrese is such a good kid and so nice to let Noah "water board him".
...it's not very often you find many 10 year olds who are this patient with 3 year olds.

I was SPENT after such a LONG day! Before heading home, we swung by Sonic to pick up slushes (what would summer be with out Sonic Slushes) and after just a few minutes driving in the car, ALL 3 of the boys were OUT!

Pioneer Day (the 24Th of July- a celebration for Utah residents) was the following day. I thought of going to Seven Peaks to go swimming some of the day before catching the Real Salt Lake Soccer game we had tickets too later that evening, but nothing of the sort happened.
We have had a very BUSY week with swimming lessons every day, doctor appointments, shopping and afternoons spent at the water park every day but Wednesday, and the next two weeks are only going to get busier with double swimming lessons every morning (the boys are still taking private one-on-one lessons; Noah will also begin taking swim lessons every morning with a group of kids his own age), Noah's soccer lessons, doctor appointments, my nephew coming to stay with us for a few days and my parents plan to arrive in Utah and stay with us, shortly before the baby is born on the 13Th.

I was in desperate need for some down time yesterday, as were all my boys, so we chillaxed at home, in the cool of air conditioning; after which later in the day we went out to eat at The Macaroni Grill with the kiddos and then came home to watch "A Bugs Life", movie theater style; it's our new favorite way to watch movies... Spencer purchased a movie projector a month or two ago as an investment for future times when he'll need it teaching and his older brother loaned us his awesome speakers till we can afford our own set, so now we can watch movies projected outside or in our bedroom or downstairs on the living room wall. The boys LOVE it particularly because they like to get ALL of the pillows and blankets from around the house and build forts with them, from which they can watch the movie.