Herb Family Visit- Part 2

Ok, now onto the rest of our time with our Herb cousins. 
We got home from Nauvoo Saturday night and ate dinner and then got kids showered and into bed. 

The next morning we all got ready for 9:30 am church. We all piled into my van and drove the 3 minutes to church. We were scrunched, but we made it work. 

After church we ate lunch and just chilled for a while, then we ate dinner and we all drove out to Tanyard Creek to walk around and explore. 

 

 

We all enjoyed these little hot springs along the way. 

 

Tanyard Creek is so beautiful and it was made even better by not a single snake sighting. 

Tucker did find a huge crawdad. Yuck!

We enjoyed a beautiful evening and then drove back home to get dessert and then get kids in bed. 

On Monday we went to the Rogers Aquatic Center. We had so much fun and it was so nice to have the husbands around to help us. 

The kids split off and had the best time riding all the slides and relaxing on the lazy river. All of the kids are finally big enough to play without me having to hover like a crazy person. It was so nice. 
We will definitely be back this summer!

 

  

We took lunch to the park and ate there. We stayed until about 3 pm.
Then we left to get snow cones at out favorite place, "Brain Freeze". 

We also drove the cousins by our almost finished temple. It's so pretty. 

That night the kids passed out hard. We ran them hard all day and they were exhausted. 

Tuesday we spent the day at CLIMB Bentonville. This may have been my favorite thing we did during the Herbs' visit. 

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halfway through our time at CLIMB, Uncle Phillip had to go to the airport so Aunt Stephanie ran him there before coming back to get us for lunch. We went home to eat and then we went back to CLIMB to play longer. 

Wednesday we went Lake Avalon and played in the sand and in the water. It was a beautiful day at the Lake.  Chris had to work on Wednesday  so it was just us moms and 7 kids. 

But it was nice and relaxed and we played and played. 

This sand castle was a group effort and we were all pretty proud of it. 

After getting kids home and showered, Stephanie and I got to leave for a girls' night. We left the kids home with Chris and we went to get Sushi and do some shopping. We had lots of fun and got to come home to kids in bed and a quiet house. 

Then Thursday Stephanie and I ventured out with all the kids to drive to "Beebe's Waterslide" in Missouri. This is something I've been wanting to share with our cousins for years. It's known as the "Redneck Waterslide" and there are no rules. You can go down the slide however you want, in groups, backwards, on your belly, standing- literally no rules. You have to sign a waiver before riding. Lol 

We had a blast. We went down so many times, we were exhausted. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we finished at the waterslide, we drove down the road to "Roaring Rivers" State park and ate a yummy picnic lunch by the river. 

Then we drove halfway home to stop at "Short Stop" for their massive ice cream cones. 
These are a tradition and my kids love them. 

After getting back home, chilling and making dinner, we eventually go down the street to search for fireflies. While we struggled to catch them, we did get to see tons light up. It was so fun for our Oregon family that have never seen fireflies. 

They were so excited when we finally caught some. 

 

 The cousins were supposed to fly home Friday morning, but their flight got cancelled. So we got a bonus day with them. 

We decided to celebrate by going to get donuts and then heading to our neighborhood pool again. 

That night we were able to catch the ice cream truck and get treats too. This was quite the treat for our Oregon family that lives in the country and never gets to see the ice cream truck. 

I love this picture of the kids. It's one of my favorites. We have so much fun with them on this trip and we feel so blessed to have such a close relationship with them and that the kids all get along so well. 

The Herb cousins flew home the next morning and we were sad to have them leave, but we will have more family coming soon, so we will hold back the tears for now.