Now where was I...

After the 4th of July we had a fun trip down to Utah for a Hall Family quasi-reunion.  I call it a quasi-reunion because all of the sibling group are still on speaking terms.  (Richard and I often ponder why it is that our parents siblings groups aren't so fortunate.)

I took a whopping THREE pictures of that event.  I rely entirely on Adri, who has the nice camera, to be photographer.  Adri- even though we are on speaking terms I keep forgetting to speak to you about putting said pictures up in  Picasa album...

Here are the girls listening to Baca tell a story.  (Read: Listenting to Baca entertain them while their vacation-frazzled mothers catch their breath.)

After a significant time investment on mine and Adri's parts, we finally settled on this condo in the Ogden canyon, which turned out to work really well for our group, and AWESOME property managers to boot!

It is so much fun watching my kids form lasting friendships with their cousins.  If you aren't on speaking terms with any of your siblings I encourage you to reconcile.  Cousins of any age are a treasure worth having, don't be the reason your child is deprived! 

Ahem.  Where was I?

So the trip was lovely aside from Simon getting a thrill from jumping into the swimming pool, and then doing so when there were no other people in the pool, and giving his mom quite a drowning scare. 

The day we returned from Utah we became the temporary parents of two darling little boys, Jack and Ryker.  Their parents left on a Wednesday to run a Ragnar relay in Seattle.  Feeling only slightly sorry for myself that I wasn't included on the team, I offered to watch the boys until their parents return on Sunday evening.

Simon and Ryker were born days apart, I loved getting affection from two little boys for a few days. 

Richard left Thursday to go out of town overnight, leaving me the single mother of SIX children ages seven and under.  It actually went remarkably well.  Richard came home Friday and by Saturday we were all going a little crazy.  We couldn't leave the house because I couldn't fit them all in the van legally.  But Sunday we braved church with the help of a babysitter, and by Sunday afternoon they all took naps and peace was restored. 

So what did I learn from this experience?  I've always wanted a large family, five or six kids.  I learned about something I call proactive parenting.  I anticipated every need to prevent meltdowns. I had things planned, I was ON TOP OF IT.  But is that a sustainable way of living? 

I've concluded I have three choices:

1. Stop with four.  No more babies.
2. Have more children and go insane.
3. Commit to being a proactive parent.  

Certainly gives me something to think about...