Spring Break--Part 1

When people find out that I have quintuplets plus two older kids, I often get comments like "I don't know how you do it...if I was in your shoes I would go CRAZY!" They say it in a way that assumes that I haven't gone crazy, which makes me want to laugh, because I think being a little crazy is one of the survival skills of having quintuplets, or even having a lot of kids. For example, Riley and Kaiya (and me) had the week of of school for spring break. Jayson is trying to save up vacation days for a family reunion this summer, so he couldn't take any time off of work. A normal, sane person would have found some fun things to do with the kids around town and called it good. Not me---my "little bit of crazy" kicked in and I thought why let seven kids and a home-bound hubby stop me from going on vacation for spring break? I carried five babies to 34 weeks gestation, I survived an entire year with five two-year-olds who had to skip their nap to attend 1 pm church, I potty-trained five kiddos all at once (ok, mostly potty-trained), I CAN DO HARD THINGS! So why not take five three-year-olds and two older kids on a 16-hour road trip by myself? In fact, why stop there, why not throw in an extra kid just to make it a REAL challenge?? Yep, it's true...having seven kids really DOES make you crazy.

We left bright and early on Friday morning (the kids missed one day of school so we could be in Arizona for the weekend). In addition to my seven kids, I also took Roger, one of Riley's friends, who wanted to hitch a ride to Arizona to visit his cousins. I made sure he knew ahead of time that he would have to work to earn his way, but I don't think he was quite prepared for how demanding the job would be!

We're off! Sleepy, but excited for the trip!

The drive there actually went pretty smoothly. Riley and Roger changed out movies and passed out snacks while I drove. We made three stops for potty and gas. This was the first road trip we have taken with the quints since they were potty trained, and I worried that it would take forever to take everyone to the bathroom at each rest stop. To help, I brought three little pottys in the car, along with some sanitizing wipes (to clean the pottys) so all the girls could go potty at the same time. It definitely helped, but it still took a minimum of 30 minutes each time we stopped.

By our last stop, the kids were going crazy being cooped up in the car, so I let them get out to eat and play in the playplace for a few minutes. We were soooo happy to get to Mimi's house!

The next day, Saturday, we must have REALLY been crazy because we decided to take seven over-tired children to Kohl's. (We had a 30% off coupon and it's hard to pass up a good deal!) The demographics of Mesa, Arizona are a lot different from the demographics in Austin, Texas. In Austin, having a big family is kind of a novelty. In Mesa, there are a lot more big families, and at this time of year there are a lot of "snowbirds" (retired couples who live in Arizona during the winter). In Austin, when we go places, we tend to stand out and people look at us with awe...in Mesa, we are just another large family and I am pretty sure (given the looks we got) that we were a big annoyance to many of the snowbirds shopping in Kohl's that day. On the upside, I did find some great deals!

Saturday night we met up with aunts, uncles and cousins that all live in the area for a picnic at the park. We went to a park in Gilbert called Freestone Park. It was awesome! It is a beautiful park (and beautiful is not a word I use often when referring to Arizona!). There was a large pond with ducks, waterfalls, playground, a train and some kiddie carnival rides. The kids loved it! It was so much fun to watch their faces on the mini-Ferris wheel--pure joy!

Watching the ducks

Ryder & Rustin

Kassidy, Kaydence & Kyndall

Riding the train

Sunday we all went to church. The quints are in the "Sunbeams" class at church. When we showed up to my mom's ward, we doubled the size of their Sunbeam class (we did call ahead to warn them).

Ready for church: Kaydence, Rustin, Kassidy, Ryder and Kyndall

To be continued...

Spring Break--Part 1

Four Days in Paradise!

For Christmas this past year, my parents gave me a ticket to HAWAII! My dad was in charge of a big sales conference in Kona for the company he works for, so they thought it would be a great opportunity for me to get away for a few days and also give my mom some company while my dad focused on his meetings. You know the old idiom, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree"? Well, that pretty well describes my mom and I---we are a lot alike. We both like shopping, photography, chick flicks, exercise, American Idol and eating out. We have similar tastes in decorating, clothes and even food (we are both chocoholics). Over the past four years she has been amazing in helping me with all the ups and downs of having quints. My mom is my best friend (next to Jayson), so spending four days in Hawaii with her was a BLAST!

Before I get into all the trip details, I must mention that I have the BEST husband and the most amazing friends on the planet, without whom this trip would not have been possible! As soon as my friends found out I was going on this trip, they immediately cleared their schedules and started "staking claim" on each of my kiddos. Ryder and Rustin ended up spending the entire time at their "church family's" houses. GG, with the help of Cassaundra and Barbara,
took care of the girls, and Natalie watched Riley and Kaiya after school everyday. GG made sure that my family was well fed and well cared for in my absence. In fact I started to wonder if my family would want me to come back! Jayson's responsibilities were actually lighter with me gone, than with me here! I feel truly blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life!

It took nearly all day to get to Kona with layovers and the long flight times. I was "forced" to read books and watch movies undisturbed for several hours...it was rough :-) (It is amazing how having seven kids can really make you appreciate being ALONE on long plane flights and layovers!)

The night I arrived in Kona (on the Big Island of Hawaii, for those of you unfamiliar with Hawaiian geography), my mom and I had dessert by the ocean side.

We stayed at the Waikoloa Hilton Resort (where my dad's meetings were). It was incredible! Right on the ocean, beautiful pools and scenery. It was also HUGE---there were boats or trams available to take you to your room if you didn't want to walk. One morning it was raining, so we weren't able to walk outside, so we just walked from one end of the resort to the other under the covered walkways. The GPS said it was about .6 miles from one end to the other.

Another view of the resort...

And another...

The resort had a large lagoon where dolphins swam.

Rachelle standing under the waterfall at the resort

My mom (aka Mimi) under the waterfall

The side of the island that we were on was the "dry" side. There was a lot of volcanic landscape.

With all the lava rock everywhere, people would take white rocks and make "graffiti" on the rocks. I couldn't resist....I had to make my own lava rock graffiti!

A cool beach swing

On our second night, my mom and I went to the LDS Kona Temple. It was beautiful!

On one day, we drove all the way around the island. When I was in elementary school, my family actually lived in Hawaii for a few years, though we lived on the island of Oahu. Oahu is very crowded and it was such a contrast to see how uncongested the big island is.

On the "wet" side of the island, we drove through miles and miles of these tall, tall trees.

Akaka Falls--WOW!


Rainbow Falls

It's Hawaii....I had to throw in at least one flower picture! I can't actually take credit for this one, though---my mom took it :-)

On our way around the island, we took a tour of the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut factory. This is a picture of the how the famous chocolate covered macadamia nuts are made. I was fascinated by how much of the process was done by people instead of machines---in this picture, four workers fill the boxes of chocolates by hand.

The most amazing part of the whole trip was seeing the active volcanoes. Here, my mom and I are standing by a steam vent from the Mauna Loa volcano. The last big eruption from this volcano was back in 1984 (which was when I was living in Hawaii, so I have vivid memories of it) and it could erupt again at anytime.

The Kilauea crater is a smaller volcano kind of on the foothills of Mouna Loa. By day steam billows from the crater.

By night, you can see the orange glow of the lava beneath the steam of the Kilauea crater.

On the other side of the Kilauea volcano, there are active vents with lava flowing. We were fortunate to be there on a night when there was a lot happening! When we first got to the viewing site, this is what we saw. In the spot we were looking at (above) there was actually a house two days earlier. Lava reached the house and within hours there was nothing left.

We walked a little further up and actually stood about eight feet away from the river of lava above. It was absolutely fascinating to watch the lava flow, start to crust on top and get dark and then bubble up again.

This picture shows the blockades that were set up (and how close we were to the lava)---when the lava first started coming nearer, the park rangers started moving everyone back, but after a while they gave up.

Bigger view of several different flows

More lava...truly a once in a lifetime experience!

Back at the resort, we had dinner sitting on the water's edge watching whales breach and enjoying the beautiful sunset.

Rachelle & Mimi

A whale offshore

The sunset! If you look closely, you can see two whales spouting in this picture.

On our last night, my dad was finally done with his meetings and we all got to have dinner together before catching the red eye flight back home!

When I arrived back home, I was greeted by hugs, kisses and this cute sign made by all the kids!

Four Days in Paradise!

One More Wedding...

I know I have already done several posts about our August road trip, but it was so action packed that I still have more pictures to share. This is the last one, I promise! Looking back at all the pictures, I really can't believe how much we did in two weeks---it was pretty crazy! This has been our summer for roadtrips. And weddings. And theme parks.

Kyndall, Ryder, Rustin, Kassidy and Kaydence with Grandma Wilkinson at the library where she works.

After 9 days in Denver with Jayson's parents, we packed up, said goodbye, and began another loooong drive to Sandpoint, Idaho. My younger brother, Shane, was getting married in Spokane, Washington and my side of the family was having a mini-reunion prior to the wedding. We all stayed at a lakehouse that my parents rented. There are six siblings in my family, three of us married (at least at that point in the week), and eleven total grandkids, so there were a lot of people sharing one house, but it actually turned out great. It was nice to all be together and be able to hang out and talk after all the kids were in bed. Riley and Kaiya loved seeing their cousins, who they rarely get to see.

Riley---the house we stayed at had a little beach outlet and kayaks that the kids could use. They loved it!

Shane (my brother) and Kaiya

The view out the back window of the lakehouse. That area of the country is so beautiful---it almost didn't look real!

The quints with their cousin Logan (also three-years old) eating dinner

The first day of the reunion (which also happened to be my birthday---anyone want to guess how old I am??) we spent at Silverwood Theme Park. After doing Disneyland and another theme park earlier this summer, we figured this one would be a piece of cake--Especially with so many aunts, uncles and grandparent's around to help out. I spent most of the day with the little kids, while Jayson and the older kids went off to do the big coasters. After spending the day at Silverwood, I had a new appreciation for Disneyland----they could really give some lessons to these other theme parks :-) Disney really knows how to keep things moving---although the lines had many more people in them at Disney, we waited in line a lot longer at Silverwood. At Disney it was no problem having a 2-1 ratio of little kids to adults, but at Silverwood, there were several rides that required a 1-1 ratio, which is pretty tricky when you have 7 (my five plus my niece and nephew) kids 3 and under. But, all in all, we had a great time! And, super-hubby Jayson even took the quints home around 7:30 pm and let me stay with my parents and brothers a little longer to ride on some of the big coasters :-)

The whole group at Silverwood Theme Park

Ryder and Kyndall on the airplanes

Rustin and Kaydence on the helicopters

Kassidy on the airplane

BBQ lunch

Waiting in line for one of the rides--Ryder, Kyndall, Rustin, Kaydence, Kassidy and Sadie (another cousin)

Tiare (my sister) with Rustin and Kyndall on the parachute/Ferris wheel ride.

At every theme park we have gone to this summer, the kids have loved the big costumed characters---this one had Garfield. Even though they had no idea who Garfield was, they were still excited to give him a hug!

The stroller brigade!

This was the first time my whole family had been together in over four years, so of course we had to get family pictures taken. Since there was a professional photographer in charge, we didn't take a lot of our own pictures, but Jayson got this shot of Ryder that I really liked.

Ryder

The "original" Curtis Family: Back: Ryan, Colby, McKay, Shane, Front: Rachelle, Mom (Betty Ann), Dad (Steve), and Tiare

Day two of the reunion we rented a boat and took turns riding and doing water sports.

Max (cousin), Riley, Kaiya and Jayson

Riley and Max

Tiare and Kaiya

The little kids took a nap during most of the boating time, but they did manage to get a ride at the end.

Of course the highlight of the trip was the wedding. My youngest brother, Shane, married Sam Hiatt in the Spokane Washington LDS Temple. Sam is from Bonner's Ferry, ID, which is about 2 hours away from the temple, so after the ceremony, we drove up to her house for the reception. It was all very beautiful, and I especially loved the dresses that the girls wore.

Shane and Sam

My siblings with spouses and the bride and groom

Wilkinson Family: Jayson & Rachelle, Kyndall, Ryder, Kassidy, Rustin & Kaydence, Riley & Kaiya

We were trying to get a picture of my parents (aka Mimi and Papa) with all their grandkids---this is a close up of the quints during one of the shots---I thought it was so funny that they were all doing such different things.

Mimi and Papa with all their Grandkids (the stick-out-your-tongue shot)

The day after the wedding, we got up early and began the long, 2200, 32 hour drive back home. We did the drive over two days and stopped overnight at Jayson's parents house. I had myself all geared up for two days of torture, so I was pleasantly surprised when it wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be. All I can say is THANK GOODNESS FOR DVD PLAYERS!!! Really, I don't know how our parents ever survived road trips!

We arrived home late Sunday night, just in time for Riley and Kaiya to get a few hours of sleep before their first day of school!

Riley and Kaiya on their first day of school---less than 10 hours after arriving home!

One More Wedding...