When the Relatives Came...

Two weeks ago, I got an unexpected call from my sister, Shelley. She said the following week was their October break and their plans had fallen through. Soooo, she wondered if they could come visit US instead! I didn't know whether to laugh or take her seriously, haha! We were second in line after Disneyland! The happiest place on earth! Does that make Farmington the second happiest? :) Of course we were thrilled to have them! I just never, in a million years, thought we'd ever get visitors, living in New Mexico. 

(Casey deserves some sort of award for driving 6 hours and not getting to any type of ocean.)

Then, two nights later, I got an even more unexpected text from my mom, wondering if the rest of the family might be able to come too. That would mean both parents, Jefferson, Craig, Marcie, and Shelley's family! At the last minute, Jefferson and my Dad couldn't make it, but we had a great time with the rest.

They all drove in late Thursday night. (It must be noted, this was the longest my mother has ever driven by herself. She is 50. Go Mom! :)

On Friday, bad weather threatened, so we went to the uber cool, children's museum. It's not so fancy, but it's free. But Mom made a donation!! :) And the boys ran that place for at least two hours. 

There is a section with all padded toys for those 5 and under. Lane made it by a month. Craig and Casey slightly broke the age limit, but shhhh, no one tell. I think we were pretty lucky to leave with no broken bones. 

Then it was time to tour the ol' dental office and meet the staff. They have a pretty cute dentist that works there. He seems to get into a lot of my pictures. :)

That night, I got a babysitter for the boys so us "adults" (+Craig) could go out to dinner in peace. 

On the way home we passed a DQ and Dolly (our car) instinctively knew Casey was on board and threw a U turn to order up some Blizzards. 

I had to take a picture of my mom and Casey all trying to throw money out the window to pay for it. Trav finally just rolled up the back window. :)

Community baths! I should have turned on the jets! 

That night we laughed pretty hard playing Loaded Questions. Casey wins another award for picking the best question... "What word makes you cringe." I'll save you a lot of cringing and leave out what we wrote. Then we had to deal with Craig continuously trying to get us to explain what "fondle" meant. :/ Sorry, one cringe for ya!

On Saturday we drove up to Durango to board the Charlie Brown and Peanuts Pumpkin Express! This is the popular train that usually goes between Durango and Silverton, but today it only went about 1/2 hr. to a family pumpkin patch.

Beautiful scenery! Colorado is gorgeous.

The kids had fun playing games, going on a hayride, picking out pumpkins and meeting Charlie Brown and "Snoofy!" (We just made sure to show them a Charlie Brown DVD before we went so they actually knew who he was. :)

Back in Durango, we walked through the shops downtown then popped a squat outside on a grassy area and let the boys run free.

Shelley pulled up Pandora on her phone, the boys enjoyed getting thrown into the giant pumpkin, and we all relaxed for a bit.

Then we walked into the Palace Grill, that had been recommended to us, and shifted uncomfortably in our seats while checking out the dinner menu with items starting around $25! And going much, much higher. (Guaranteed Craig would have ordered the $60 steak.) So, word of the wise, ask for the {Lighter Fare} menu and enjoy a much cheaper, but delicious meal!

That night I got my hair did by Marcie Moo and we snacked on brownies that I'm sure everyone was dying to eat at 10:30pm. Marcie, Craig, and my Mom headed out around noon on Sunday and Shelley's fam joined us for sacrament meeting before hitting the road. Right when we got home from church, Collin whined, "Mooooom, can we invited some friends over. I'm BORED." He was dead serious. Come back, cousins! We miss you already!