There are a ton of pictures again today! Trevor thought that his cousins would really enjoy going with him to gymnastics. So after breakfast, we hit the road.

The girls tried to get Trevor to sit and do the stretches and listen to the rules, but he had other plans

The girls could do a lot of things Trevor can’t do yet

Trevor had plenty of dancing and upside down time

The girls built this great fort out of all the mats and pads they could find. It attracted a ton of attention from other kids!

Trevor was being all sweet with this little girl and she charged him with a foam block and hit him in the face.

Kayla is a much better playmate

Ashley was queen bee of the fort. She stayed over there and policed all the little kids that came to play on it, and she kept rebuilding it when they knocked it down.

I liked these pac-man pads, but Trevor wanted no part in sitting in it for a picture.

Let him down, instantly better

After nap time, it was swimming time again. Trevor had sunscreen hair again!

The return of Trevor-cam!! (with cousins)

Trevor got tired of swimming, he preferred to water plants

After dinner, watching a movie. I think Trevor likes his cousins.

Brendan had a very full day getting to know his new nurse. She did a lot of his PT goals and he wore his PMV for a large part of the day. He did skip naptime, maybe sleeping about 30 minutes total since he woke up in the morning. So he was out before I had a chance to take any Brendan pictures! We had a house full of exhausted people! (adults included!)

I almost forgot to take a picture of the finished tie-dye! Kayla’s shirt is on the left, Ashley’s on the right.

I don’t know what the boys are going to do without the hustle and bustle of having all this company. They will be looking for their cousins. Granddaddy comes to visit on Tuesday, but I don’t think that will be quite the same! 😉

We had a crazy stressful part of the day. Brendan’s new day nurse started today, so he had an adjustment to make. Trevor was the one that was just the little terror though. He was extremely emotional, he was Mr. Instant Meltdown over every little thing and every noise that Brendan made. Brendan wore his PMV for the whole morning but it upset Trevor so much that I had to take him to his room for a time out. It was hard to try to manage him and yet answer questions and help Brendan and his nurse settle in.
We had our meeting with the state about Brendan’s nursing hours, and we get 3 more months with no reduction in hours. Next quarter, they will reduce at least 8hrs if Brendan stays off the vent.

While we dealt with our tough day, Heather and the girls went downtown to check out the Children’s Museum. I think the final word was that it was designed for kids younger than them, but they still managed to enjoy themselves in a few areas.
Pelting your sister with koosh balls out of a big machine had to have been fun!

There were some neat little gadgets to play with. The boys might enjoy the place in a few years.

Brendan was supposed to have an IFSP meeting this afternoon but that got rescheduled at the last minute and he had a regular PT session instead. He did a great job and worked real hard. We were all proud of him.

The girls ordered their mom’s manicotti for dinner tonight, so Heather got it all prepped and then they headed for the pool again. We got a loaf of fresh french bread too. Trevor approved!

The girls stopped at a dollar store and bought Brendan his own new pair of tongs

They also got Trevor a “Cars” bowl

Brendan wasn’t excited about bread, but he did stab it eventually

The kids all played until it was time for the boys to go to bed

After Trevor went to bed, the girls helped mix up some chemicals

“Who’s ready to dye!!?” These girls are the cutest hams ever

They each tied and dyed their own shirt. We can’t wait until tomorrow afternoon when we can unbag and untie them and see how they came out!

Brendan was up late, he didn’t want to miss what was going on

Tomorrow is the last full day that the cousins are here. We have plans for even more fun. I can’t believe how quickly this week is passing! We have really loved having Heather and the girls here.

This is going to be the most pictures I have ever put in a single blog post. I just can’t narrow it down any more, there are too many cousins and too much cuteness.

During the summer, the Phoenix Zoo is only open from 7am – 2pm because of the heat. But we learned that members can go an hour early! We made a plan to get up and out the door and get there as soon as we could to try to enjoy the outdoors while the temperature was still in the 80’s.

Getting three kids up, fed, sun-screened, packed, and in the car is a challenge, but we managed to get to the zoo gates by 7:20am. Brendan had to stay home with his nurse this time. He wouldn’t have like the heat at all.

Kayla got to meet a Komodo dragon face to face

We almost had the whole zoo to ourselves. Yesterday was the first day of school for most of the local schools, plus the high temp was going to be 107 degrees. Going early today was a great idea.

Monkeying around!

Look familiar?

Trevor’s favorite part so far – watching a shovel truck trying to unearth a tree stump

This monkey is making a Trevor face

More monkeys

We went in to the squirrel monkey garden. The monkeys are running loose all around.

Trevor giggled every time a monkey jumped into a tree

We had prepped for the kids to play in the splash pads at the zoo. The bigger one is a pretty cool pad, but all of the water jets are on sensors that only run when it detects people. These three kids were not big enough to keep all the water running so it was a little less than full effect, like when it is packed with kids.
Trevor loved it anyway!!

The girls took turns chasing Trevor

This one duck made it up from the lake to beg for food

Once we got all dry, we headed to the petting zoo. Trevor bothered this little group of young goats and they would all blast off running. He would follow, giggling.

The girls were much more calm

Trevor loves peek-a-boo goats

You can’t visit this zoo without taking a picture in this shell

Turtle Ashley

Turtle Kayla

Giant spider!

Giant spider web!

Trevor giving the lion a kiss

The last thing we were able to do before it got too hot was to visit Stingray Bay. This was a perfect exhibit to see when there was nobody around. The stingrays all were in the mood to be pet.

For as much as Trevor loves water, he didn’t want to lie on the wall and stick his hands in the fish water

Kayla had a special friend, a large, light brown ray that she named “Kite”. It came around and would splash her and come out of the water and all but give her a kiss.

At 10:30, it was feeding time. You could buy little cups of fish and shrimp bits.

The rays were hungry!

Trevor was tired! He ran a few laps around the ray pool and then he just waited in his stroller.

Brendan had a good day and he was happy to see everyone this afternoon.
He was also happy to help anyone mash their potato tonight.

Ashley was very interested in helping Brendan get over his fear of touching things

Brendan surprised everyone by playing with this cone

The he hammered out the terms of an agreement with the dog

Trevor says, “Back away from my cone, dog”

We had a whole pack of tired kiddos tonight!