Cousin Friday

Wendy and I are trying to get the kids together once a week this summer. 4 weeks into summer and we finally did it, and it was a big adventure. We started with parking on the street at Gateway mall to hop on TRAX. While waiting for the train, we sun screened my kids, and tried to keep all 8 kids from crossing the safe yellow line. It was terrifying trying to keep the kids from running around on the dangerous platform. At this point I was thinking, "What were we thinking!"  We did get on, lifting my stroller up 3 steep steps and finding seating for our big group. We took it 2 stops to Temple Square.

The kids then ran 2 blocks to the Beehive house. It is Brigham Young's home built as a the Governors Mansion in 1855. With 8 kids between the 2 of us, the sister missionaries taking us on a tour were a bit curious. Esther needed to go to the bathroom 5 minutes in to the tour, so Wendy ran 1 block away to the nearest bathroom. I finished the tour with 7 hyper cousins wigglin' and touching everything! It is a really neat house, I would love to go back with just Spence and actually learn about it!

On our way back to the train station, we wandered through temple square.  The kids really do love it here, but were just too busy for all the holiday tourists and weddings. Maddux kept running ahead with me chasing after him. Grace was taking her time finding bugs and baby quail to look at. We really were a mess. Maddux loves trains, and was so happy to load and ride. As we got off at our stop, Wendy and I were hearding the kids to safety. In a split second Maddux was off running to board a new train heading another direction. This kid loved Trax. I really want to take him back to ride, unload and board to his hearts content.

Our last stop was the fountain at Gateway. We were lucky enough to get a shaded bench for Maggie to sit by. Maddux would not go near the squirting water, but the rest of the kids loved it! They were entertained for an hour. We ate sack lunches and visited. Savannah and Esther both had funny bathroom moments which were quite mortifying as a mother, but what would an outing be without embarrassment.

We look forward to our next impractical outing together!