Weekend Recap: Family of 5?

Over the weekend we grew by 4 feet! We were plus 2 kids...temporarily at least.

My first job out of college was as a nanny. I never dreamed I would get so lucky as to work for such an amazing family. In the year or so that I worked for them, they became like family to me. Now, 2 years later, I still get to see them! Hubby and I love to take the 2 kiddos for the weekend and would often spend time with them before our little guy was born. This weekend was a little different with 2 kiddos and a baby, but it was lots of fun!

Since our town home has only 2 bedrooms and Christian has now taken up residence in the second bedroom, the kiddos get the loft! That means blowing up air mattresses for them to sleep on. Jaden had lots of fun helping Jim with this on Friday afternoon.

They really wore themselves out with all the "pumping."

Zoe LOVED Christian and Christian LOVED her! Every chance she got, she wanted to hold the little guy and he would just smile and chat away to her! It was so cute! 

FRIDAY NIGHT

Once we were all settled in on Friday night and had had some dinner...it was off to the fair! I'm not sure who had more fun...Jim or the kids! I love that man! He is such a big kid himself :) 

Jim also got his workout this weekend with giving lots and lots and LOTS of piggy back rides on his shoulders! 

Here are Jim and Jaden watching the bunny races at the fair. This is my favorite fair event! 

After watching the bunny races for a bit, it was time for some cotton candy of course! Making for perfect timing for Christian to eat! And then for Jim and Jaden to hit up the Ferris Wheel. Zoe, on the other hand, preferred to keep her feet planted firmly on the ground. 

Jim and Jaden were in this blue cart...you can't quite see them in this pic. Catching them on a moving ride was harder than I thought it would be!

Next up...the SLIDE! 

See what I mean? That hubby of mine was having lots of fun :) 

Zoe wasn't too interested in many rides....she was all about the games! Zoe and Jaden each won a small stuffed animal at the balloon popping game. And they wanted to share with Christian :) Very sweet, but he wasn't the hugest fan...

Seriously, for a 4 year old, this kid had no fear! He LOVED the tilt-a-whirl! I would even go so far as to say it was his favorite ride! 

This was his "I had so much fun on this ride!!!" face. 

The bumper cars were a big hit as well! 

Zoe enjoyed "riding" her blow up dolphin toy she won at another game.

So...as I mentioned, Zoe wasn't the biggest fan of rides. Then we walked past this "fun house" type thing and I thought "she surely could handle this!" so I talked her into it....Only for her to want ME to go with her. So of all the rides I got to go on, I had to go on the one that required me to walk across a shaky bridge up super high! I was freaking out! ha ha 

And then we only had enough tickets left for one more ride and Jaden picked this car ride...only for Zoe to suddenly decide she could do this ride too! ha ha So off to the ticket booth we went again for more tickets. Jim was excited that he would get to go on the tilt-a-whirl again I think :) 

**Note to self: When taking our own kids some day, ONE game is sufficient and plan to go during the wristband unlimited rides time. Tickets are money suckers! 

But we all had lots of fun :) 

And finally, we ended the night with the Merry Go Round. Can't go wrong with that one :) 

Saturday

Jim got to have some alone time with the kids while I helped with baptisms at our church in the morning. This man is a super dad! He got the kids breakfast and dressed and all of their stuff for the day and then took them to the park and played and met me at church on time. Seriously love him! 

Then it was off to MOA to go to the Sea Life Aquarium.  We parked high up in the park ramp and were able to see the airport...which meant we got to watch planes land! So fun! Jaden really loved this!

Jim, Jaden, and Zoe over the Ray Lagoon. 

Checking out the starfish and some crabs. 

Jellyfish all lit up different colors. They were really pretty! 

Octopus. 

The walk through tank was really cool! Fish and sharks would swim right over your head! 

This has to be my favorite pic of the entire weekend! 

Back in April we had been chosen as KTIS Family Reunion Finalists. Unfortunately, our family was not chosen for the reunion, BUT we did receive a ton of tickets to various places as runner up. MOA Sea Life Aquarium was one of the places we got tickets to. Honestly, I thought the aquarium was neat and the kids enjoyed it but it is pretty over priced in my opinion. Only took us about 30 minutes to go through the whole thing. 

Jaden really loved talking with Christian too :). It was so fun to see how Christian would just look at one of the kids and IMMEDIATELY start smiling and chatting to them. Sooo cute! 

After a full morning, Zoe and Christian crashed in the back seat of the car. 

Not long after, Jaden joined their snooze fest. 

Sunday

With more tickets that we won from being KTIS Family Reunion Finalists, we headed to the outdoor water park at Wild Mountain in Taylors Falls on Sunday after church. 

Again, Zoe wasn't a major fan of the big water slides, but she really enjoyed the kiddy park...as did Christian and I :)

It was also Christian's first visit to a waterpark and first time in the water! He liked it we think! Although, he wasn't always a fan of his hat...But as long as we kept it positioned right, he was a happy camper until nap time. 

Luckily, we found some nice shade under a big umbrella and the little guy got to take a nice little nap while Zoe and I soaked up some sun and Jim and Jaden enjoyed the water slides. 

He even liked kicking his feet in the water while sitting in daddy's lap! 

Jim and Jaden also tried out the go karts! They had a ton of fun with this! Way better than bumper cars even. Zoe preferred to watch from the sidelines...Can't say I was any too disappointed. She was wanting me to drive her. I know, I know. It wouldn't have been scary probably for either of us and I tried to convince her. 

While I couldn't convince her to go on the big go karts, she did decide she wanted to drive her own kiddy go kart! I guess maybe she just thinks I'm a scary driver?? ha ha 

Jaden got the hang of it real quick and was a little speed demon! Zoe was a little more cautious but she did great!

And finally, the alpine slides! You ride down this little track on a sled of sorts. Jim said the slide wasn't bad but he was freaking out taking the ski lift to the top! ha ha 

When all was said and done, the kids were EXHAUSTED! And with exhaustion comes crabby kids. Needless to say, the car was pretty quiet on the way home as they pretty much slept the whole way!

We always try to do too much and end up getting the kids pretty wore out and tired and cranky. They are fairly good listeners, though.

It was a fun weekend and so good to see them, but I'm glad babies most often come one at a time :) I would be in some major need of prioritizing and managing my time. I felt like it was hard to get any good time in with any of the kids, especially Christian! But maybe that's just because Zoe and Jaden found him so intriguing and new. Maybe that wouldn't be the case with 3 kids of our own. Who knows. But Jim and I make a great team and he is an amazing daddy so I know when we reach 3 kids of our own (maybe...) we will figure it out :)

Can't wait to have Zoe and Jaden come visit again this fall so we can do more fun kid stuff!