What the kiddos were up to while we were in Hawaii...

While Spencer and I were vacationing in Hawaii...

...the boys were vacationing a little themselves.

We arranged to leave all three of the boys behind here in Utah with family while we were away in Hawaii for 6 days. Cohen spent the whole time at my sister Tricia's house; she already has 8 kids of her own, so really, what's the trouble in adding one more to the mix?! Noah and Ian spent the first 3 days at Spencer's parents house, then my sister Celeste came and took them to stay with her and her family for the last 3 days.

I dreaded packing my own suitcase for vacation, but it was such a cinch after packing for all 3 of the boys. Not only did I have to remember to pack pj's, clothes, swimming suits, and toiletries for the boys, but I couldn't forget to pack the right number of diapers and wipes for the kids, baby formula for Cohen, and I had to write up a list of "care instructions" so that everyone who would be watching them knew which doctor to take them to in case any of them became sick, when to put them down for nap and bedtime, what number they could reach us at at our hotel just in case our cell #s weren't working, how much baby Tylenol to give Cohen if his teeth began to bother him, where to find the insurance for our car in case who ever was driving it while we gone needed it for some reason, and where to find a copy of our "living will" that said who our children and assets were to go to should anything grave happen to Spencer and myself while we were on vacation.

The boys seemed to enjoy themselves while we were apart. I NEVER heard anyone of them, or those who were watching them, say they seemed terribly "homesick". Should I be worried they didn't miss us more??? I can't blame them though for not missing us; from what I've been told, they were too BUSY having fun while we were gone.

I received a few pictures of the boys over the phone or through email while we were gone to show me what they were up to. Here's a look...

During their stay with Grandma and Grandpa Campbell,
Noah & Ian,
had a chance to go swimming with Uncle John & Aunt Megan over at their place.

Cohen did a little swimming too.
Trish took all 8 of her kids and Cohen to Seven Peaks 3 of the days we were away.

Of course, it's nice that Tricia has two older daughters,
Alauna & Torri,
who were willing to help out and watch Cohen a lot of the time they were in the water.

Funny story about Trish's trip to Seven Peaks with Cohen. She had asked me over the phone where we kept his floaty- it's always in the garage if not in our car... anyhow, I guess she picked it up one day and took all the kids to Seven Peaks. While they were at the kiddie pool there, she asked one of her girls to go grab and open up Cohen's floaty so she could put him in it. I think it was Torri who ran and got it, took it out of it's packaging and before Tricia knew it, she looked over to see that Torri had just opened up a BLOW UP BACKYARD KIDDIE POOL in the kiddie pool at Seven Peaks. She said all the lifeguards on duty and parents that were around looked STUNNED and TERRIFIED- stunned that Tori set a blow up pool up inside the kiddie pool, and terrified because they thought Trish and her family were for real!!! Apparently, when Tricia picked the "floaty" up at my house, it was next to the boys blow up backyard kiddie pool, and both the floaty and the backyard pool were stored in similar carrying cases, so she grabbed the wrong one!

When Cohen wasn't in the water, he was busy EATING!
Look at this kid!
He's 6 months younger than his cousin Izzy, who's next to him on the left, but he's already bigger than him.
Cohen's just a tank!

There was probably NEVER a dull moment for Cohen at Tricia's house.
Here he is chatting up a storm with his cousin Bella.
I hear the two carried on some conversations together for quite some time.
Ever since he's been back home,
Cohen has been a real chatter bug.
As of recently, he's learned to say Noah's name and will tell Noah "No, no, no" all the time!
He's pretty bossy!

When you have 8 kids in your household like my sister,
5 of whom are children under the age of 6,
you're sure to have A LOT of really cool toys to play with!
Cohen fell in LOVE with this little plane.

and he spent MANY hours jumping in this horse jumping thingy.
Turns out, Tricia noticed Cohen liked it so much,
she was kind enough to give it to him.
Lucky kid...
he must had really charmed her during his stay at her place.

He DOES look pretty charming with that toothy grin of his.

It looks like the two older boys,
Noah & Ian,
had themselves a pretty good time during their stay with my sister Celeste and her fam.
Here's a shot of Christian, Noah & Kirsten.
I bet you anything, Noah had his eye on something yummy that Celeste whipped up and left on the counter top.

Celeste is an AWESOME cook/baker.
She makes the BEST yummies.
My boys probably NEVER ate better food in their lives than while they stayed with her.
Here it looks like Ian had his eye on Alec's birthday pie.

Celeste told me that just after arriving at her house,
Noah starting asking her if she kept any candy or yummies in her house.
Sounds like he was scoping out her place to snatch what he could when she or any of the other kids weren't looking.
He's pretty good at sneaking candy from our shelves.

Looks like they got plenty of exercise @ the playground in between eating meals and snacks.

And lets not forget how important dental hygiene is!
Ian's cousin Alec is helping him brush his snappers here in this pic.

Looks like Noah learned something from being around his older cousins
and that is how to dress and undress himself.
I can't begin to tell you how nice it's been since we've been back
to have at least one of our three boys be capable of dressing himself.
It makes me feel that much less like an assembly line worker in the mornings
when it's time to give them all baths and get them dressed.

Thanks again Tricia, Celeste, Les & Linda
for watching over our boys for us while we were gone.
There's absolutely NO WAY we could have gone to Hawaii with out your help!