Cousin Fun from Summer 2014

The kids just finished six weeks of an awesome day camp, and I had big plans for projects I was going to catch up on, like this blog and getting 6,000 photos off my phone. That didn’t happen, and now we are getting ready to fly to Utah tomorrow to see most of the Jensen family. Kids are super excited to relive some of the highlights from last summer (that I am just now posting about), like checking out the new children’s museum at Thanksgiving point. Lots of climbing and scary tunnels and rope bridges, but the cousins helped each other out. The girls all have matching pink dresses and Sidon and Max had matching orange polo shirts so we could keep track of them all.

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Julie made Mommy go down
Julie made Mommy go down

Leading him to a dark scary tunnel
Leading him to a dark scary tunnel

Max helping his cousins rock climb (they don't really need any help)
Max helping his cousins rock climb (they don’t really need any help)

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The ladies lunching and the boys hanging.

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Sophie shared her sno cone with Julie, then Max shared his with Breanne, and Maya shared with Max and Julie. And everyone was happy (and fortunately healthy). Julie talked about it for months.

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And everyone had blue tongues for the group shots.

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Sidon, Max and Papa checked out the puppet theater, trains, and a maze (Max loooves mazes).

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Julie liked pulling and letting go of pullies & weights with Sophie. And diving into the sandpit. Twice.

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She was fine...
She was fine…
On Sidon’s birthday we went to the local aquarium.

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Lots of cool animals, but Julie was most interested in playing some body part game with Sophie.

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She found a good reading spot, then got trapped in a shark’s mouth,

A good reading spot
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The cousins rescued her and made it across another rope bridge.

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The highlight of the trip for certain nieces may have been the discovery of some old dance costumes in the basement and the ensuing dance parties.

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We had a fun picnic with the extended family on my dad’s side including an old family tradition, a chicken dinner, where you eat like a chicken. Max played his part well. And we got a Jensen family photo without the kids (much easier).
Chicken dinner at the Jensen reunion - an old family tradition
Chicken dinner at the Jensen reunion – an old family tradition

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Back to the Children’s museum for a presentation of the original ‘The Pirate and Little Red Riding Hood’ and more rope bridges.

They put on a play for us - 'The Pirate and Little Red Riding Hood'
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Max and Julie got to celebrate pioneer day ( a commemoration of the first Mormon pioneers reaching Utah in the 1840s) with a prade and picnic featuring old fashioned games.

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Play and posing at the splash park and silly songs by Sophie.

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And the neighbor’s backyard train and pool.

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Lots of hugs and important lessons learned.

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We are looking forward to more adventures with our family this week. Max still has to be careful not to get kicked in the face (so maybe not climbing through the rain forest at the children’s museum), but can swim and run around and eat everything except really hard foods like nuts & raw veggies. And we’ll try to keep the dance parties under control…

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