Seeing the Davis side of things...

Even though I had a baby in May, we did manage to pull off a few family trips during summer vacation.  

At the end of July we drove down to Southern California to visit my Aunt Colleen, Uncle Richard and a variety of cousins.  My sister, Jennifer, was there and some of my other siblings from Utah made the drive as well.  

I enjoyed introducing my kids to members of my (large in number) side of the family.  We Davises don't get together frequently enough.  Sigh...

For my own record, here are a bunch of pictures and some lame captions.  

It is getting late and my contacts are bothering me...

The grown-ups spent their time sitting and talking while consuming lots of food.  Life is pretty good when you are a grown-up.

The kids spent their time in the pool--always the pool.  Uncle Richard put a ladder up and then my kids jumped off the roof.  

They jumped off the roof!  It terrified me.  I am not sure what made Lorien happier, the thrill of jumping or the thrill of freaking me out.  

We made the kids group up for as many pictures as they would tolerate.

Jennifer was the "Baby Whisperer"

Lorien was the "Baby Costumer" 

Clare was a rock star.  She chilled in the sun and played ping pong--you know, real rock star stuff.

Will also sold a solar system to my Uncle Richard and made a trip down to CSS's San Diego offices.  So, a productive weekend for family and work...that is how we roll.

We are The Zoo...

We had our first big outing with all five kids this week...

I had taken all of them to Costco, the library and to get gas a couple of times but nothing like this.

We went to the Zoo.  We went with a big group of friends and my sister-in-law, Emily.  (Who is nannying for Dave and Angela this summer).  We ended up getting separated from our group of friends because I needed to stop and feed the baby (five or six times).  But we still had a great time.  

Be the lemur... 

I love, love, love this picture of my nephew, Evan.  He really knows how to work a jumping picture!

The kids were not as impressed with the animals as I thought they would be.  Wyatt had been to the zoo earlier in the school year on a field trip and told the other kids all about it.  At one point we were sitting in front of the giraffe exhibit with a variety of gigantic-savanna animals walking around.  All of the kids put their backs to the giraffes and started throwing rocks and dirt down into a little gully behind the benches that faced the exhibit.  

So much for exposing my kids to bigger and better things.  They'd rather throw rocks...and we can do that at home...for free...

Hey guys--forget about those animals.  There is a gully and some rocks over here.

It was a worth-while adventure.  No one got lost, no one was eaten by wild animals and I didn't bring home any extra kids.  

I give the zoo two thumbs up.

Social Smiles...

Colter has really started to grin it up over here.  He keeps me up at night with all his adorableness.  He has one dimple on his right cheek and it only appears between the hours of 2 and 4 am.

Stinker.

The big kids will do anything to coax a smile out of the baby.

This picture was taken during one of our pre-dawn smile parties.  

Time to play catch up on the summer...

We drove over to the peninsula one afternoon to visit Sadie while she was in the hospital.  The kids really loved visiting with Sadie and seeing her hospital space.  I don't think they really realized how boring it can get in the hospital and how much they would miss home if they had to stay there.  They were more focused on Sadie's stethoscope and the view from her window.

We also went over to one of our old favorite parks in Palo Alto.  The kids had a lot of fun but I kind of forgot what a spectacle we were--five kids and myself.  Lorien got cornered by a couple of girls her age while we were trying to leave the park.  I asked her later if she knew the girls some how.  She answered: "No, they just wanted to know if all these kids were by brothers and sisters and where we lived."  We are a sight some times.

I just look at all these bodies and think "Yep, those are my people.".  It isn't until we are in a crowded place and I am working hard to keep track of 1-2-3-4-5 kids that I feel like our family is a little too big.

After the hospital and park we stopped by Will's office to visit with him--and by "visit" I mean "sit-quietly-watching-a-movie-or-drawing-on-the-white-board-if-you-make-too-much-noise-Daddy-will-pitch-you-out-the-window-because-people-are-working".

It is a lot of fun...

Because...

Some day she will like boys.

And I will need something for leverage in convincing her to keep curfew.

An intelligence test...

I have a little quiz for you today.  See if you can spot the differences between these two pictures.  Take your time, it is kind of tricky:

Pretty hard, right?  Look again:

The average observer will quickly notice, I am standing in front of a different chair in the second shot--good job!  

The Super Sleuths out here will notice less of my fireplace mantle is visible in the second shot--well done!

However, only those qualified for induction into Mensa will notice I am--in fact--pregnant in the first picture and not pregnant in the second.  

How'd ya do?

I know you all figured out the pregnant--not pregnant thing because only the supremely intelligent read my blog.  Congratulations!

Seriously, I first saw this idea on my friend, Liz's, blog a year ago when she had her third baby.  I thought the idea was so clever I couldn't wait to copy it.  I've since seen other pictures on pinterest and the like--it is a good idea and you can copy it too.