Play time

So whilst we were in Vegas, we stayed with Brian's brother and sister-in-law who were the BEST hosts you can possibly imagine. They went all out to insure our comfort.... along with Brian's parents, two brothers, niece, sister, and all the various family members that came over to visit/eat. I was impressed. It was a daunting task to say the very least, but Jenn just whipped up food morning and night and made it look easy. They have a son who is about a year older than Xiana and they are so much alike. They alternated between having the time of their lives and being evil little monsters. They are both feisty, passionate, and possessive resulting in many real and proverbial tug-of-wars. They are also both kind, loving, and energetic resulting in many fun and wildly imaginative games. Here they are right after church while they are still playing very nicely together.
The boys went hunting at roughly 3:30 am every day leaving Jenn and I to our own devices. Being somewhat experienced in the world of kids cooped at home= disaster, she planned some fun activities. One morning we took the kids to a place called pump it up where they got to run around, jump, scream and yell like hooligans. It was perfect. My good friend Morgan met us there with her boys and ALL of the kids insisted that I participate in the jumping fun. And they were right, I would have surely missed out had I not jumped inside these apparatuses with the chillens.
They had a big slide and a little slide. Thank goodness because Xiana needed assistance on the big slide and would have demanded repeats had it not been for the little slide.
This bounce house had hoops and balls which were prize possessions. There were a lot of boys and they had to often be reminded about taking turns and leaving the balls in this particular house. It's funny how different boys are than girls when it comes to some things, but how similar they are when it comes to others.
Big slide.... so fun!
Xiana has so missed her good friends Spencer and Henry and apparently, the feelings are mutual!
The next night we went to CiCi's for a birthday party for Brian's grandmother and roughly 30 of their relatives (I swear I am not exaggerating!) It was a lot of fun, but also quite daunting (I'm not gonna lie). It's neat that he has so much family. I have my immediate family, but my extended family is roughly 1/10 the size of his so it was a new experience. I got to meet aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc. It was really nice and everyone was exceptionally kind. One aunt asked me, "now whose girlfriend are you again?" and I teasingly replied, "I thought they were all married." (There are six boys in Brian's family so you can see where the mix up is.) Anyway, there was an arcade there and it never ceases to amaze me how much Xiana absorbs. Granted, there was a great deal of hunting talk as this trip was designed for a hunt, but still! She walked into the arcade and saw the hunting game and said, "I wanna shoot the animals." Brian would have been so proud:)
She then proceeded to take the gun down and start foraging for food (at least that's what I keep telling myself:)