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So we all made it to Colorado in one piece and although the hotel isn’t so glamorous and the kids are all sick with colds, we’re having lots of fun. Our first day here we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and I got to show the kids all the things I used to do there when I was their age. One of our favorite displays was the Gem and Minerals display so that’s where we stopped first. They’ve changed it a bit, but all the main parts were still there, just exactly as I had remembered them. Then we visited the mummies, the boys’ favorite part, and then we visited the disection stage where we all got to see pig lungs at work and where we all vowed we’d never smoke. . . ever! Then we went to see the dinosaurs and that’s where Mark’s blood sugar went crashing and so did Caleb’s happy personality. So we grabbed us some lunch, hit the planetarium, visited a few more displays and hit the road back to the hotel.

After a few minutes back at the hotel we headed over to Jewell Elementary School (where we all attended at least a year or more of school) for a family picnic. Denver whipped out his ultra cool museum toy–a dino dig–and entertained several of his family members by letting them take a turn digging out a dinosaur. The weather looked a bit threatening as we arrived and Caleb was a wreck. So Megan saved the day by sitting with him until he was convinced there was not going to be a lightning storm anytime soon. And of course there was lots of time to catch up with each other and be silly and take lots of family photos. Here’s a few previews. If you want to see the final, polished photos you’ll have to ask Kathy, cause she’s the real professional photographer and all.

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After the picnic we headed over to what used to be our local DQ which we frequented quite often and ordered us almost $80 worth of ice cream and left with almost as much melted down our fronts. Next stop. . . Elitch’s!

My sister, Chris told us about letterboxing a long time ago. Then I had three more kids and my brain went mushy and I forgot all about letterboxing. In April, a family in our ward was going letterboxing which refreshed my memory. Then, in planning my family’s reunion I started looking for fun things to do along the way and thought letterboxing might be fun. Well, we’re not doing any letterboxing as part of our family reunion (too crazy) but yesterday Mark and the boys did some themselves, up at BYU’s infamous Mount Y.

For those of you that don’t know, letterboxing is like geocaching sans the GPS. Both are like treasure hunting. You get directions off the website and then you go hunting for a box with a rubber stamp and an ink pad hidden inside. Then you stamp your book and stamp their book and that’s about it. But it’s really fun and the boys really enjoyed it. There are letterboxes hidden all over the country and I’m pretty sure if you search your city, you’ll find some right in your neighborhood. Some are easy and some are harder to find but you can sort of choose your own level by reading the clues and other peoples’ comments. Anyway, here are a few pictures of the boys’ first letterbox adventure and uh, thanks Chris for the great idea. We can’t wait to go again.

Here’s the boys before their departure. It was really hot that day (like 99 degrees) and even though it was still morning hours, they were sizzlin’. They found a couple of lizards on their way up the mountain which the boys thought was pretty exciting–an actual lizard in it’s natural habitat!

Here they are at the top of the “Y”. If I had gone up with them (I watched the babies instead) I think I would look a lot like Hunter–limp and dead-like at the top. After they recovered from their hike, they started looking for the special rock that would tell them where the box was hidden. Obviously, they found it.

Here’s the actual hiding place of the box and the box itself.

And here’s the stamp and a note from the people who hid the box. They made the stamp out of an eraser which Noah thought was particularly cool. Anyone can hide a box just about anywhere and I think we’re thinking we might hide our own.

The boys didn’t just stamp our notepad but they also stamped themselves. And of course, after all the work, they all had to take a moment to enjoy the view.

Well, we made it up to Reid Ranch (without a flat tire, I might add) and have been having lots of fun since. Of course, the boys think it would be much more fun if they could just sit in a corner with their cousins and play Nintendo the entire day. But Mark and I have insisted they do more than veg in front of the computer screen. So today, we decided to take the boys up the mountain to ride the horses. The boys protested, insisting they would rather play Nintendo. But Mark and I insisted they come have fun and after a bit of protesting they agreed to cooperate. Once they got started, we couldn’t get them to stop. They rode the ponies and horses several times each, then they did a little archery, went boating and are currently up at the pool swimming.

Jericho didn’t have nearly as much fun riding the horse as Justus did. Jericho is above and Justus is the baby below. Caleb refused to ride so we have no pictures of him on a horse.

Caleb did agree to some archery though and LOVED it!

Jericho may have hated the horseback-riding but he liked riding on the boat, looking for beavers and muskrats. Justus on the other hand, hated the boat ride today (he liked it much better yesterday) and refused to pose for a life-jacket shot.

We went to the Henrichsen Family picnic tonight and this is what the boys’ feet looked like when we got home. Noah’s are in the middle. I’m not sure how they got so dirty but the boys sure had fun getting that way. Again, they were so excited to see their cousins, especially Zach and Seth Strickland. We had the picnic at Kiwanis Park, right by where we used to live. I used to take Hunter for walks up to Kiwanis and the little playground at the elementary school there. There was a treasure hunt right when we got there, followed by a slip-n-slide, lots of food, a performance by PALS and a talent show. I left about an hour before the party ended to go visit my best friend who lives just a few blocks away from us–Kori Stookey. I can hardly believe how big her kids are now and how quickly time flies. It was so good to be reunited with everyone. Mark and I were able to do Sealings with Mark’s family earlier that morning and I liked imagining how excited those families must be, being reunited and sealed together forever. And I’m sure glad I have the Gospel in my life and the knowledge I have that families can be together forever and that all of these aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins will be with us at one of the best family reunion’s ever, up there in Heaven.

We had a picnic tonight at Joe and Suzie’s house. The kids were so excited to see their cousins. And it was kind of nice, the way they just played together like they’ve never been apart. And I suppose that’s what is so great about families–we’ve always got a friend who knows us right from the very beginning.

We made it to Utah and have officially started our summer vacation. We had a really rough start yesterday tho and both Mark and I are feeling a little weary. . . a little bit afraid that the next few weeks are going to be more draining than relaxing.

I spent yesterday morning at the Doctor’s office with a weird rash that started spreading from my belly button around my waist to my spine on Friday afternoon. After several guesses from my family on what it could be, Kathy’s guess scared me enough I thought I’d better have it checked out before we left. So, I left Mark to take care of the six boys and finish the packing and cleaning while I hit the Huntington Walk-In clinic (yes, I know, I need a real doctor). Anyway, one glance at the hive-ish rash and he immediately confirmed Kathy’s guess–I have Shingles. Apparently stress can set young people like myself off and considering I have six kids more than I can handle, am in charge of a family reunion in a week, am trying to pack a family of eight for vacation and am constantly stressed about finances and an impending recession/depression, I shouldn’t be so surprised. So he loaded me up with all kinds of prescriptions and sent me on my way. By the time I got them all filled and returned home, it was an hour to departure and I hadn’t even had a shower.

We scrambled to get out the door only to hit your usual New York City traffic. We weaved in and out and through a million towns trying to get to JFK on time for our 4:40pm flight. We arrived around 3:30 and rapidly unloaded the suburban. Cliff, who was kind enough to drive us into the city and save us the two hundred some odd dollars in parking fees, left with the car and we headed for check in. Curb-side checkers now charge $3 a bag on top of tip and tax and I stubbornly refused to pay such a ridiculous fee. So we made each of the boys push a stroller or an industrial size suitcase into the airport and up to the kiosk. We had no problem checking in and immediately got in line to check our bags. As we approached the desk and handed the ticket agent our tickets she announced that we had arrived two minutes too late and it was no longer possible to check our bags. Two minutes? TWO MINUTES! She refused to help us and sent us on our way to Ticketing where maybe they could help us and maybe they could not.

They could have helped us. We still had 45 minutes before our plane was scheduled to depart. There was no line at security. They hadn’t even started boarding. Mark ran to the front of the line, desperate for someone to help us out. But nope. Nobody would talk to us. Nobody would help us. Mark stood there for an hour, waiting, begging, pleading but the man in charge refused to let us through. So we all stood there helplessly, watching our plane depart without us. Almost immediately after our plane departed, the Big Man finally decided to speak to Mark and put us on standby for a 7:11pm flight. So we fed the kids and I prayed and prayed and prayed in my heart that we’d make it and we returned to our gate to wait, anxiously.

And we did. They cleared us to board right about 7:00 and we joyously climbed aboard the plane. And then. . . we sat there for two hours, on the runway, going nowhere. JFK air traffic. Hunter, Noah and Denver were angels. I don’t know how they stayed so calm and patient. I was frazzled, fried, done-in, exhausted, angry, bitter, grumpy, tired, frustrated. But the big boys didn’t complain, not a bit. The twins and Caleb ran up and down the isle because we couldn’t hold them still and didn’t really want to. They made friends with two of the nicest flight attendants I’ve ever met–Tanisha and Kathleen–who fed them cookies and filled their sippy cups with apple juice whenever they wanted. And finally around 9:00pm we took off.

The flight was rather uneventful. Caleb and the babies did really well and the big boys, again, were saints. We arrived in Salt Lake only 4 hours after we had planned for and were relieved just to be out of NY. All of our bags arrived (thank goodness–all of my meds were in there) and we headed for our rental car. Unfortunately, because we were so late, they had cancelled our reservation and that meant even more delay in getting to Kak’s house and our beds. They gave us a Ford Explorer, which looked nice and roomy, except for the fact that there’s absolutely no trunk space and we really needed trunk space. So, Mark went back and asked if we could get a suburban instead and lucky for us, the man inside was in a good mood and gave it to us, for the same rate as the smaller car would have been even. We piled everyone in and headed for Riverton. We pulled into Kak’s driveway around 2:00am (that’s 4:00am our time) and after a little excitement–it is Kathy’s house afterall and we all know Kak is the coolest–the kids settled down and went to bed. It was a rough night but we all managed to get some sleep and I think we’re all feeling a lot better.

Now we’re all ready to party and have fun. Of course, this will be the last time we travel by plane in a really long time and it’s definitely the last time we’ll ever travel with Delta.

This morning I awoke to a major rainstorm which would normally be no big deal if I knew it was coming and had planned for an entire day inside with six little boys. But I was so exhausted last night that I didn’t see the weather forecast and had no idea today was going to be rained out. Swimming lessons were cancelled which meant my entire day at the Lake was not going to happen and that meant I had nothing planned for my six little bundles of energy. Luckily we at least had the library to visit and that got us out of the house for a little while. On the way home I remembered a bottle of super bubble solution I had recently purchased and a book that came with it. I read the book a couple of weeks ago and I knew a hot, humid, sticky, rainy, thunder-bumper kind of day made for perfect bubble-blowing conditions. So, when we got home I pulled out the bubble solution and decided to try and entertain the kids with some soap. Things got off to a very rough start. This little invention didn’t work at all and I had three very disappointed little boys on my hands. Frantically I started flipping through the book looking for alternative ways to blow some bubbles and read that we could blow bubbles with just our hands. So I gave it a try and the boys’ interest was suddenly peaked. They made some pretty big bubbles that way and of course, once they got their hands in the stuff, they started making bubble landscapes and exploring their own ways of making bubbles. We tried a wire hanger but that didn’t work. Then I remembered an article from Family Fun magazine about how to blow a bubble inside a bubble. So I ran inside for some cardstock, scissors and some tape and pretty soon we were doing all kinds of cool bubble tricks. The boys entertained themselves until lunchtime and miraculously we survived our first summer day cooped up in our own backyard.

Anyway, I just thought I’d share some other bubble ideas just in case you fall asleep before the weather forecast and you find yourself in a similar predicament this summer. It’s a pretty inexpensive but an entertaining way to spend the afternoon. And tonight when we did “hi-low” (where the kids each tell what the best and worst part of their day was) all three of the big boys mentioned blowing bubbles and how much fun they had and it was totally a spur of the moment activity! Excellent, if I do say so myself.

Good Clean Fun

Bubble Blowing Machine

Bubble Prints

This project doesn’t use bubble solution but it does involves bubbles and it looks really fun.

This website has lots of crafts and ideas for bubbles.

And I just really like this poem about bubbles, mostly cause it’s exactly what we did today!

Mark turned “closer to 40 than 30″ on Friday. Thursday night the boys and I spent a good hour or so cleaning out the suburban so it would be nice and shiny for Daddy. The kids worked so hard scrubbing the mats and washing the windows and Armor-alling the vinyl and vacumming the carpet and seats. I’ve never seen them work so hard–must be cause they love their Daddy so much. Then Friday we celebrated with Arby’s for dinner and Marble cake. All six boys sang “happy birthday” with all their little hearts and I secretly think they’re the best birthday present he’s ever gotten. It was really great.

Yesterday Mark and I went to see Lion King on Broadway. I bought the tickets over two months ago and it’s been killing me to keep my big-mouth shut for so long. I was so excited to take Mark out, alone, to New York. My dear friend, Allison watched all six of our kids, as well as her four, for almost eight hours while Mark and I were gone. It was the nicest time we’ve had in a really long time. The show was AWESOME and the company was even better. Both of us decided we need to start saving our money so we can go back with the kids, soon. We returned to find ten very happy children and had pizza and watermelon while the kids ran around in the backyard.

Hope you had a Happy Birthday, Daddy! We sure love you and are so grateful for all you do to keep us alive and happy and together.

We were at the Lake again this week. The boys are tanner than ever and they are becoming really great swimmers. Denver’s instructors even suggested he move up a class–if only we weren’t already halfway through the session. I overheard Noah’s instructor talking one afternoon to her fellow lifeguard about Noah and she said, “I want him sooooo bad!” She’s completely smitten. And Hunter is just a regular old fish now and shows no fear when it comes to swimming. Caleb stepped on a bee this week at the sprinkler park so now he freaks out anytime we get close to the place but he (kind of) gets over it when we start running around in the water, especially when someone’s there to hold his hand. The twins were especially cute this week. Jericho loves to wear the boys’ goggles and Justus is a regular clown when it comes to playing in the water. Thursday he found a rock and spent a good twenty minutes throwing it into the Lake and then reaching to the bottom to pick it up and throw it again. I got out the diving ring for him and he loved it! He made it really hard for Jericho and Caleb to have a turn he was so quick to dive in and grab it. ( Click Here to see a video of the kids at the Lake.)

This week we managed to get the boys signed up at the school’s summer reading program and they’ve all read several books since. There’s a pirate theme this year which is totally up Noah’s alley. They decorated treasure chests the first day and for every book they read they get a gold coin to put in their chests. When Noah realized what he was going to get he didn’t complain as much when I said it was time to read a book. A few of the teachers are running the program themselves and they’ve done a really great job. There’s a craft every day as well as a story read. And of course, I like the fact that we can just walk up the street and we’re there. So we do that in the morning before we go to the Lake and by the time we’re done at the Lake, the day is practically over. It sure makes the days go by fast.

We also went to a concert down by the town gazebo this week to hear some Irish music. For a few minutes we thought it was going to get rained out but we hunkered under a tarp for a few minutes and the weather passed. Hurray! I love Irish music so much and we got to hear some bagpipes and watch the little boys and Daddy do some Irish jigging! It was a great evening, especially because it ended with a trip to Dairy Queen and a large Peanut Butter Oreo blizzard. ( Click Here to see a video of the concert and the twins Irish jigging. Also, watch for Justus, our little flower picker/smeller.)

Friday we hung out at Melanie’s house and visited her all new, very cool playground. Of course, without the A/C or water close by, none of us Henrichsens could hack the heat. So we hit Seven Eleven for a free slurpee (thanks to Kak) and returned to Melanie’s air conditioning. Now we’ve got just one week left before we leave for Utah and I must say, this summer is passing by almost too fast. We’re having a great time just being lazy and enjoying the summer sun and each other’s company. ( Click Here to see the twins trying to catch lightning bugs.)

Not much to report around here lately. Summer has settled in and we’ve begun swimming lessons at the Lake. We’re there four days a week “frolicking in the sand” and sun and water. I’ve been sunburned on top of my sunburn on top of my sunburn and the boys are officially sun-kissed and tan. We’ve brought enough sand home with us to construct a beach of our own and I think I’ve eaten enough sand in my sandwiches to fully pumice my intestines and leave them gleaming. Hunter is perfecting the crawl stroke. Noah’s swim instructor is completely smitten with him and he sure loves to show off for her and the rest of his class. Denver, thank goodness, loves his first go at swimming lessons and really loves playing a game called “Cheese, Ham and Bologna.” Caleb spends most of his time digging and digging and digging but occasionally he’ll abandon the shovels and buckets for the water where he loves to do cannon balls and swim around on his tummy.

When we’re not at the Lake the boys are playing Nintendo (of course) or jumping on the trampoline or practicing their baseball skills. The babies take great naps after the Lake and I’m so exhausted after chasing them all day and cleaning up all the sand that for the past couple of afternoons I’ve kicked back and watched the first two episodes of Anne of Green Gables. The boys usually come in and join me halfway through and it’s nice snuggling with them and doing nothing for a little while.

Our Fourth of July was pretty low-key. It was hot and humid and rainy all weekend. Saturday we invited a bunch of family and friends over and ate a feast of baked beans and frog-eye salad and four-bean salad and watermelon and hamburgers and hot dogs and potato salad and jello-jigglers until we were all so stuffed we could hardly walk. Then we retreated outside, where miraculously the weather cleared, and let the kids run around with sparklers and jump and swim and play. Then Cliff and Chris brought a ton of fireworks to share and we spent the rest of the evening shooting them off and enjoying each others’ company. Half of our guests left before we got out the homemade ice cream and strawberries which was unfortunate for them but fortunate for us, because that meant we got to eat more. It was pretty good stuff and I guess Noah thought so too because he downed his faster than you can say “homemade ice cream” and then asked for “some more but with sprinkles.” Of course what I heard him say was, “Can I have some more butt with sprinkles?” And I think from now on, forever, whenever we eat homemade ice cream that will be one of those family jokes that you just had to be there for. Thanks for the smiles, Noah, as usual.

Now we’re already back to Monday which means back to work for Mark and back to the Lake for us. And that means I’ve got to get back to packing up lunch and towels and swimsuits and goggles and buckets and shovels and suntan lotion and . . . .