We got to Phoenix late, but the kids started right in with some arts and crafts, card tricks, and dressing up like Spiderman. I love how cousins can be forever friends like that, no matter how long it’s been since they’ve seen each other.
Henry and his best pal, Charlie.
Cynthia reading to baby Eden and the dog.
The next morning they got up early and headed outside for a game of flag football.
Tristan and Oliver. When did my boys get so old?
Rachel. This girl is too nice to play aggressively – she lets all the little kids pull her flags.
Elizabeth and Henry. Henry was feeling grumpy because he felt like he wasn’t getting the ball enough.
Luckily, this happened next: touchdown run and victory spike.
Love these two together.
Besides football, there were lots of other fun activities to do with cousins:
Block building:
Avenger playing:
Spot-it games:
And, of course, Lego building.
Grandma Nini also made things fun by bringing birthday gifts for everyone. Fancy new outfits for the girls (from aunt Audra’s store):
And treasures for the boys, too:
A cousin slumber party. I love how Ollie is sleeping with his new football. A lot of nights we fed the kids an early dinner, put the little ones to bed, and then left the older cousins in charge while the adults went out for dinner or a movie. They loved it and we loved it, so it was a good system for everyone.
All dressed up and ready for church. Cindy was having a hard time looking at the camera, so I kept telling her to look up, and then I would get this:
Tired boy after church:
The Phoenix Zoo, one of the fun traditions we do each year:
If you have never been to a zoo with Henry, this is what it sounds like (This video clip is dark, but don’t worry – you’ll hear him):
Multiply that by about 100. Extreme excitement for every single thing. It’s one of my favorite things about that kid.
A picnic lunch:
Elizabeth looks a little distressed here. I think she was worried she was about to drop, and didn’t realize her feet were only a couple inches off the ground.
All the kids (Daniel’s other sister wasn’t there yet with her 3):
On the train:
When we left the zoo we decided to do some hiking nearby. There is a big sandstone rock formation right by the zoo; it looked really high and hard to climb, but there was a little trail going around the back that led up to the top.
Cindy loved being a hiker. She told me she was just like Merida climbing up the mountain in the movie Brave, and when we got to the top she made everyone be quite so she could sing the Merida song (something about flying and touching the sky). She was very pleased with herself.
The hole-in-the-rock at the top; you could look through and see the zoo and the rest of Phoenix.
Oliver enjoying the view.
Oliver and Tristan with Daniel and Uncle Anthony up on the very top of the rock formation. The rest of us didn’t go up that high.
Henry was pretty devastated about this. He really was so sad. He kept saying he had thought he was going to be a real mountain climber and climb to the very top of the mountain, and he didn’t think the place with the hole in the rock (where the trail ended) counted as the top of the mountain. Here he is, being miserable:
To distract him, we lifted him up to a little area above his head, and told him he could do some rock climbing there, and it would be hard and tricky, like he was a real mountain climber. He kept asking, “Is this risky?” He loves things to be a little risky.
The next day we did some more hiking, this time at some mountains near Gretchen’s house. We did this same hike last year at Christmas, and the kids loved it. Here are the boys looking for interesting rocks in the dirt:
Lizza, Adalynn, and Rachel. Lizza was feeling sad because she had just accidentally run into a cactus and gotten spikes stuck in her stomach.
On the way up:
At the top:
Henry and Charlie, heading back down:
Lunch at the Queen Creek Olive Mill after our hike, another fun tradition:
More playing in the yard:
Laser tag! For Uncle Adam’s birthday, Gretchen had found a company that brought all the laser guns and equipment out to the house and then set up games for us, so we could play in the backyard. Here everyone is listening to the explanation of how the guns worked:
Oliver had come prepared in his best camo gear (I almost just typed camo outfit, but realized a manly 11-year old probably wouldn’t call it that):
Charlie and Henry. I guess that is Henry’s tough-guy face?
We played a few games with the kids, and then after it got dark we played some more with just the adults plus some of the older kids.
Cindy with her cousin Adele. They hadn’t seen each other since they were really young, so this was the first time they were really friends together. I loved watching them play.
Cracking and shelling pecans with Grandma Nini. Gretchen’s home is in the middle of a pecan grove, so there are pecans all over the ground. The kids gathered hundreds of them, and then got to work trying to get the nuts out. It was harder than they thought.
But it involved using a hammer, so of course Henry was ecstatic:
Daniel has always had a special talent for being a recreation leader with groups of kids, and coming up with all sorts of fun activities on the spot to keep them occupied. I’m pretty sure he gets this from his mom, because she is the exact same way. She had all the cousins doing little exercises and tasks together, and they loved it.
And here they are on Thanksgiving morning with Aunt Audra, who had brought a fun Thanksgiving craft for them to do.
Thanksgiving Feast:
And then a massive talent show, put on by all the cousins:
There were piano songs and art displays:
Card tricks and Lego demonstrations:
And lots and lots of dancing. By those with actual dancing skills, and those with none (my children). It’s probably a good thing the video is so dark, to save them from too much embarrassment:
Everyone got a hand-made medal at the end. Not sure why Cindy was wearing a football helmet.
The next day we did a lot of picture taking:
Daniel’s mom with all 14 grandkids:
Grandma Nini and the girls. We were telling them to laugh so that we’d get some fun smiles, and Cindy starting doing the most dramatic and goofy fake laughs, which led to really weird faces from her, instead of the smiles we’d been hoping for.
The Mott Six:
Cindy posing:
Then that night, Rachel and Elizabeth got to go with me to see their cousin Adalynn perform in the Nutcracker ballet. She had been practicing and going to rehearsals a lot during the week we were there, and It was fun to see her up on stage.
On our last day there was more flag-football and playing around at the park. Luckily there were no broken collarbones this time around:
And some reading and dressing up on our last night:
Hooray for family reunions, and hooray for Thanksgiving in Arizona. Can’t wait to do it again this year.
