It has been a long time since Claire has seen her Lopez cousins, but thanks to reviewing their names and faces in her picture book, it was like she saw them everyday. We walked into their house and Claire was already in heaven. Kids to play with and toys everywhere! First thing she did was run into the living room and sit on Brooklyn's chair. Brooklyn is only 6 weeks younger than Claire and it was so entertaining to watch them interact with one another. Claire did get a little jealous when Brooklyn hopped on my lap and blocked me from Claire momentarily, but all in all, they were great friends. It was as if it was only yesterday that they saw each other last; too cute!
With five kids, my sister's main job is a taxi driver. We spent our first afternoon picking one child up from one place, taking them to another, dropping off yet another child somewhere else...it was never ending. The next morning we had our first day at the pool. This was Claire's first pool day for the year and boy was she adventurous. I'm going to have to buy her a life jacket because she would jump in the pool time after time when I wasn't even ready to catch her. A little nerve-wracking to say the least. She LOVED splashing around, sitting on the steps with "Bookin" and jumping to Mommy after saying "one, two, tee, jump".
One of our last taxi stops for that day was to Lindsay's swim practice. At 11 years old, Lindsay is Claire's oldest cousin and I must say, an amazing swimmer! I was anxious to watch her as she's done so well at various swim meets and I wanted to see her in action. She did not disappoint. Way to go Lindsay! We all enjoyed a yummy graham cracker snack and then Claire took Brooklyn for a ride in the stroller. I love the picture below! Brooklyn's face is hilarious and it looks like she is honestly thinking Claire was going to push her into the pool.
The next day the kids had multiple end of season swim parties for their various sports teams. Claire and I joined Kayla at her softball team pool party for the afternoon. Before we jumped in the pool, we enjoyed watching the host's pet turtle walk around their patio. Claire was surprisingly a little scared and didn't even want to walk near it. Not a typical reaction for Claire Bear. After some yummy food, we put Claire in an inflatable duck to soak in the sun. She loved it until we put Brooklyn in too. Lately, we've started to have a slight issue with sharing. :) "My turn" became a main part of her vocabulary while we were there.
At one point that afternoon, Claire kept trying to drag me over to the diving board as if she wanted to go off of it. So I followed her lead, put a life jacket on her and we went for it. I wasn't about to tell her it'd be too scary for her. If she was going to go out on a limb and be really adventurous, I wasn't going to stop her. She jumped off the diving board with a little help from Kayla and of course a period of crying ensued shortly after. I actually think that it wasn't the jump that scared her but the life jacket that was extremely uncomfortable, because she didn't stop crying until I took it off of her. She'd never had one on before and I'm sure it probably jammed into her chin when she landed into the water. Despite her reaction, I hope to get her up on the ledge again in the very near future.
Every time I visit family, taking portraits always appears on the calendar. :) Thankfully, I am always happy to oblige. Sometimes when I am in the moment I want to yank their teeth out, but when I get a great shot, my frustration disappears and I am excited for the results. One evening, we told the kids to put on some cute shirts, brushed their hair, kept their sweat pants on (a real stress saver) and jumped in the car. At first, we only took a couple of the kids but after we got some great shots, we drove home as fast as we could and grabbed the rest of them. I'm glad we did because I think we got some winners.
Monday brought us yet another afternoon at the pool. We were only their for an hour so we had to take advantage of every second. The two little ones spent the majority of their time jumping to Liisa and I while the others annoyed us by getting too close to our "baby area" and splashing us. :) I guess we couldn't expect anything else from four kids aged 5 to 11.
Claire and I spent a total of 5 days in Arizona and we couldn't have had more fun. The little kids loved playing with my iPad and spending much needed quality time together. Brooklyn even tried to comfort Claire one afternoon by joining her in time out. Such a supportive cousin! The night before we left, Claire was enjoying running around the house being chased by her older cousin, Connor. Of course, it always ends with someone getting hurt and this time was no different. Claire ran straight into a wood bed frame and took a bad hit to her right eye. Poor thing was red and swollen in a matter of seconds.
A few hours before we had to leave, Claire was getting in a much needed nap while I entertained Kayla and Haylee with some paper towel butterfly making. I mentioned to Haylee the first day we got there that we could make these and she never let me forget. :) They really enjoyed dying the paper towels and I was happy to give them something to do for a few minutes even if I was dripping in sweat after being outside for five minutes.
Of course, we had to leave eventually.The two of us had so much fun but I was glad to head home and force Claire to catch up on some sleep.I had a blast catching up with my sister while we were there and Claire thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her cousins.
Claire is still talking about our trip and we both can't wait to see them again!
1 comment:
It's so great that you took the time and the money to spend time with Liisa and Johansen cousins. I should have gone with you. I loved that Brooklyn shared time-out with Claire. That's what cousins are for. Can't wait for Claire's time with more cousins in a week.
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