Rounding Up the Gang

The minute we heard that Jen was flying out west, Pawn and I decided to coordinate again to make her trip as worth it as possible. Meeting up in Arizona was the easiest solution, so we all booked our tickets.

Seeing the three littlest ones together is priceless! I don't know why we never figured this out before, but Brax is exactly six weeks older than Aiyana and exactly six weeks younger than Ethan, give or take a couple days. (Which I know doesn't make it "exact" but that's pretty dang close!)

Aiyana and Brax were like little twinners in size, weighing in at only ounces apart. They really seemed to enjoy each other's company. Jen and I could walk away and leave them in the same room together for quite a while and they just played with toys right next to each other. I did notice that if they became involved in a squabble and played tug-of-war with a toy, Aiyana always won! She was just a little more persistant than sweet Brax. Poor boy. He has the saddest cry face.

Ethan played nearby but was more inclined to do his own thing. Pawn and I have decided he is just too smart for his own good, almost seeming like the intellect of the group. It's like he can't wait to grow past this limited body and do everything his mind is thinking! When Ethan met Brax, we all had a good laugh. Pawn and Jen were holding their respective babies, trying to "make nice". Brax seemed indifferent, but Ethan gave an analytical look from head to toe, eying Brax with a look like, "Who is this hill-billy?" (That line actually came from Jen! No judging my rudeness!)

Shelbi cracked me up the entire trip. She is the girliest little 3 1/2 year-old I've ever met, which seems typical for her age, but she is above and beyond in her details of girlie-ness! She asked me to paint her nails which, in my past experience of painting little girls' nails, they're just happy to have some color splashed on their fingers. Not Shelbi. She carefully watched every stroke of the brush, pointing out, "That's too much. . . You missed a part on the thumb, right here. . . " The funny thing is, she was completely right, and was not going to let me get away with lazy painting! This characteristic of Shelilyn proved itself time and again throughout the whole trip, whether it be how her sandwich was cut, her plate for lunch, help with her shoes, or even walking me step-by-step on how to change her poopy pull-up. (That was actually really helpful!) She made me laugh so much. Shelbi is one smart cookie.

All the little youngsters

Kylana and Shelbi played really well together. (Shelbi just loves to play with girls of any age, and she was so helpful to entertain Lana when moms needed help) Often times, I had to listen closely and observe from afar if I wanted to hear Lana talk. Apparently, if she catches you looking at her while Jen is trying to get her to speak, Lana's face turns robotic and she stares at the floor, refusing to make eye-contact or even a sound. It's like someone flipped a switch from "on" to "off". As Jen put it, it's like she's thinking, "If I don't acknowledge them, maybe they'll go away. . . "

We missed Rusty, but it sure was nice having Jen and her kids around.

This is Pawn and Thomas' backyard with their signature cactus in the background.

Love this picture. Great smiles.

This girl, like Shelbi, LOVES to play outside.

Aiyana was pretty amazing for me. She still napped twice a day (and we were able to coordinate with the other babies most days, which is quite the feat) and was so smiley and happy to be with everyone. She truly is happier being around lots of kids than being one-on-one with me! My little social butterfly.

There is that helpless cry-face that makes you want to scoop him up and rescue him! Brax' cry is like a whimpering puppy, fairly gentle. He doesn't hold a candle to the lungs of Aiyana and Ethan!

Without Uncle Dan dominating the older kids' attention with Halo, I was able to win Christian over again. Lately, he's been playing indifferent with me, like he's too grown up for my childish teasing and smothering hugs. But seeing as how I don't play Xbox, he succumbed to his playful nature with me again and I loved it.

I'm sad I didn't take any pictures of Rachel and Maile! We had some rousing rounds of tetherball that left Jen and I literally sore for days. I haven't played tetherball since fifth grade and even then, I never played to compete against anyone -- at least not like the twins! The first time I played Maile, I reminded myself to go easy on her, considering our height difference. Uh. . . wake-up call. Maile beat me in less than a minute, and that was with me accidentally cheating every couple hits or so. With Rachel, she kept purposely unraveling the tetherball in the wrong direction so that the game would continue longer. They had pity on us! So, like any good aunt, I played hard the next few games and eventually beat them both, but not without 100%  effort and leaving the game out of breath!

Ah, the outdoors for little Ethan. This is where he is happiest.

Ha. Caught you smiling!

I can't wait to watch him grow and communicate with us.

Pawn and Thomas spoiled us with fun. We hired baby-sitters a few times.

1) One night we ate out at Olive Garden.

2) The next night we went to Sky Lounge for stand-up comedy and were treated to a Seafood Tower that included lobster, oysters, ahi-ahi, and crab legs. The atmosphere was really fun -- kind of dim and fancy with the lighting and best of all, a live-band playing some old-school music from the 80's and early 90's. The jokes made us laugh both awkwardly and hysterically, depending on the comedian. Afterwards, we enjoyed dessert at a frozen yogurt place where I think we ate too much sugar or something because we were laughing so much in that overly-giddy kind of way where you know it's not that funny, but you can't help but keep laughing at the dumbest things.

3) We also did a little shopping at Charming Charlie's, one of the blingiest accessory stores you'll step foot into . . . and then not leave for hours if you're not careful.

We decided moms are never on vacation because kids are a lot of work, no matter where you are! I don't know how moms with twins or triplets do it because even with one mother per  baby, there was always a couple hours toward the early evening where it was pretty chaotic getting the same needs met. And then there were still five other kids to help in between! We made a good team though, even if it did feel like we were doing dinner and bedtime for three or four hours. 

I loved my sister-time!

P.S. We tried to only plan one main outing a day because this is what it entailed:

The only way we'd fit in one car was to wait for Rachel, Maile, and Christian to go to school. Then we'd cram Jen (or me) between Kylana and Shelbi's booster seats, the three baby car seats in the front row, and then Pawn and one of us in the front. Let me tell ya, it could get kinda loud if the babies coordinated fussiness. We have a video of Jen trying to entertain all of them with nursery rhymes . . . and then giving up with her hands held to her face in "Home Alone"-style and yelling, "ahhhhh!" So awesome.