Lagoon

Why I thought it would be a good idea to go to Lagoon only 5 days after coming to America from Australia with four children is beyond me!  But I did and we went and we somehow lived through it, though parts of it were pure torture!

I do this every time I think about amusement parks.  I think, oh my goodness, my kids will love that it will be so fun!  But I forget about one thing my kids won't love, lines!!!  Long lines!  Whatever they want to do they have to wait patiently to do it.  Now Will would have had a hard time waiting his turn under the most favorable of circumstances (meaning he hadn't just been moved half way around the world and displaced to a place where he didn't have a bed or a routine) but under the current circumstances, he was wretched!!!  Kicking, screaming, pushing, you name it, he did it!  I even told a Lagoon employee, after she had to pry him off of the ride he snuck in the exit to get on to, not to have children!  That is a serious low for me...I always encourage people to have kids no matter how terrible mine are!  So to that Lagoon employee, have children, those really horrible moments are worth every bit of pain and anguish because the sweet moments make up for them a million times!

Anyways, despite the terrible two year old, I think the rest of the kids had fun and it was a pretty successful day.  :)

 Thank goodness we had lots of family there to help out.  My mom, my sister, Angela, and her kids, my brother Neal, Shannon, Cody and their kids, Kelli and Matt and their kids.  So we were pretty lucky there.  I wouldn't have survived with out them!

 One of Will's favorite rides.  One that he kicked and screamed waiting in line to get on, and then again when he had to get off.

 Kelli and McKinley

 Shannon and Sawyer

 Ava and Will

 Izzy and Auri

 Sawyer and Will

 Izzy, Will and Auri

 Finally, I found a ride that had no line ever.  So Will could just ride it, hop off, and get back on it, over and over and over and over and over again.  And he did.

 Sometimes others joined him, Lily.

 And Sawyer.

 Izzy

 Ava and McKinley

 Baby Noelle and Sofie.

 What cuties!

 Best...

 Baby...

 Alive!!!  I love her!

 Oh, Ava!  Her hair was amazing by this point!!

 Ava loves babies!

 Here we go again!

 And again!

 We moved on to the bumper cars which are always so entertaining for me!!!  I don't know why but I crack up watching my kids try and drive around in them!  This is totally Will's sort of thing!

 Then I just hung out with Will and Sofie and Noelle here at this fountain while all the other older kids got in rides that they wanted to.  Will got totally soaked and absolutely loved it.  And bonus, no lines!!!

It was a long exhausting day and in hind sight, I can see what a bad, illogical thing it was to do...but it happened!  And hopefully, the kids made some good memories!

Back in America

Back in America!!! So I was super excited to be back and start checking things off my bucket list of things I wanted to do while I was stuck in the Salt Lake Area while Cory looked for a place to live up North.  I was also super excited that we were catching the tail end of summer since we were going to miss the Australian one!

However I forgot about one thing...sleep!  We were so tired and the kids were still on Aussie time.  The first few days were torture!!!!!  And then Will was a nightmare until....I don't know this week maybe?  That's a little bit of an exaggeration, but only a little!

The first day the Ava and Will slept til about noon after being awake from 2 am to 6 am!!!  And Lily slept all the way through the night until 1:30 pm!  Pretty impressive!!

I still hadn't registered that we needed to just take it easy and sleep and I took all the kids to a new splash pad over by our old house in South Jordan.  I look back now and think, what the???  But it was probably good for us to get out and do something, right?

Me and Sofie...I am sporting my Australian pride swim suit cover!  ;)  Apparently, Sofie's suit is an Aussie thing as well since people have thought it was weird!

 We met Angela there, but they had to go shortly after we got there.  I tried to get a pic of Sofie and Noelle, but Sofie wouldn't look!

 Adorable baby Noelle!

 The kids loved the splash pad!  We were the ghost white ones, coming from winter.

 Ghost white!

 I kept thinking how great something like this would be in Kalgoorlie...

 OMGoodness!  Seriously, look how white my girls are compared to that girl in the back ground who is super tan from a summer of swimming?  I was August 14th after all!

 Look at that beautiful view though?  That is exactly the view I had been missing in Western Australia!!

A few days later, Cory's sisters and their families both came into town to celebrate our return!  It was so great to be reunited with all the cousins!  They hardly skipped a beat.  There was a little bit of reunited awkwardness, but then it was just back to the same old.  We are sure happy and grateful to have such wonderful cousins!  We love them!

I really wasn't great at taking pictures of all the reunions, so here is what I did take.

Sofie was super popular with all her cousins!

 Izzy Toone and Sofie

 Auri Toone and Sofie, this little girl loved her the most!

 Lawson Toone and Sofie!

 Izzy and Auri at once!!

 More Auri cuteness!  Love that little blonde bombshell!

 McKinley Bagley and Sofie!

Ohhh, top of my bucket list was Cafe Rio!!!  Yum!!!  It did not disappoint!  In fact, I haven't had it again since, I think I'm due!  I would love some right now!

 This amazing baby is a champ!  37 hour plane ride, sure I'll be a perfect angel.  Homeless and in a completely different time zone, no prob, mom, I won't be cranky or have issues. A lot of new little people want to hold me constantly, sure why not? I won't make a peep!   I am Sofie and I am the best baby!!  Seriously, though, she is!

We had a lot of fun hanging out with the Toone's and the Bagley's.  More to come of our time with them!  It was hard to be homesick when so many people were around who love us and were happy to have us back! Thank you everyone, friends and family, who welcomed us home and made us feel so loved!