Boys Trip/Girls Trip!

Robert and his brothers, Michael and Alex, went on a boys trip to Oregon and Washington. They hiked around waterfalls, visited Mount St. Helen's, kayaked in the ocean to look for Orkas, went to the famous Voodoo Donut shop (which they said tasted like a Fry's donut with cereal and Pixie Sticks poured on top of it) and went sight seeing to the Space Needle, a laser show and some museums.
They liked the airplane museum a lot. If I had to guess I would say that they probably quoted "Top Gun" or sang a line ot two from "Danger Zone" while they were there. I sure would have!
Alex will be getting back on a plane next week to leave for his mission to Denver, Colorado. (Not this kind of plane though) We will miss him big time! I'm so glad all of the brothers got to go on a fun trip together before he leaves!
Robert looks especially handsome in this airplane with his new shaved head!
The boys had a great time together, and Michael didn't even get mad at Robert when he accidentally broke his IPhone by getting butter all over it at the seafood restaurant where tehy dump all the food on the tables and don't use plates. Such nice brothers!
So while they were gone, me and Robert's mom and sister, Tara, took all of the kids to Flagstaff overnight. I was so glad we did because we had a blast! After we met my dearest friend Shelly, for lunch, we went to the Lowell Observatory. We got to look through the giant telescope (Noelle was very bothered that she couldn't see anything cause it was daytime) And Stanton was the only one who got to use the remote to turn the roof of the giant dome. IT was so noisy and cool. He told me later that he was listening very carefully for her to tell him when to stop because he didn't want to break it.
Noelle was a big fan of the moon rocks, and they both loved the gift shop!
Then we went exploring some older streets and found an old fashioned candy store and a place to dip our own candles. Stanton made an owl, and Noelle made a teddy bear.
Winston and Rhea were big fans of eating the knobs from the air conditioner.
They're such cute little cousins!. They would play next to each other and every once in a while they'd nicely grab toys back and forth from the other one. One time they were crawling and bonked into each other and fell over and screamed. It was sad but funny and cute. I love baby friends!
All of the kiddos loved swimming in the jacuzzi we had in our room! They didn't want to get out!
The next day we went to the Museum of Northern Arizona. They gave the kids little backpacks with magnifying glasses and tweezers and stuff so they could really explore the exhibits. It had a lot of Native American paintings and artifacts and dinosaur bones and sloth dung, a definite highlight!
They also had a rabbit stick, which I made the mistake of telling the kids what it really was, a stick used to club rabbits over the head to kill them. This was inexcusable to them. I should have told them that the bunnies use the sticks to play air hockey or some thing more appropriate.
Other than the rabbit sticks, Stanton and Noelle loved it all!
The babies did too!
The dinosaur bones were fun to look at, and I had a very proud moment when I was telling Noelle that dinosaur bones are preserved inside of stone and they become fossils, to which Noelle replied, "Are stone and rock synonyms?" (Just for the record, I did not teach my kids about synonyms so that I could brag about how impressive they sound, contrary to what Robert thinks. They just kept asking me if this word meant the same as that word, etc. So "Synonyms" was the easy explanation. Okay, and maybe a tiny bit to brag. . I also just think its really cute to hear big words come out of little mouths.)
Grandma got all of the kids Arizona books from the gift shop. She found one for Noelle called, "Do Princesses wear boots?" It was a perfect find, since boots are all she wears. Stanton got "Dinosaurs are Different." Rhea got "Josefina the Javelina" and Winston got "Don't Call Me Pig, A Javelina Story."
Then we went to "Bearizona." It's a wildlife park that you drive through and all sorts of wildlife roam around your car. When you enter, it feels a little bit like Jurassic Park. We saw 13 bears. Grandma gave the kids a gummy bear for each real bear they could find. We also saw bison, wolves, big horn sheep and burros. Then there was a part where you could get out and walk around to see the baby animals. It was a really cool place!
Then, on the way home we couldn't pass by the outlet malls without stopping. Plus, Noelle was getting a little carsick and she said the only thing that could make her feel better was getting a little toy. So after a quick little shopping trip, we headed home.

Winston loved every minute of our trip! We all did!
The kids were SO good, and we all had so much fun! I'm really happy that Michelle and Tara came with! I wish Adrienne could've come too. It's really fun having sisters and an amazing mother-in-law who is more like a mother!