So that’s why Jon and Kate broke up

I’m kidding of course. Everyone knows that the reason Jon left Kate is because she is a crazy, demeaning, controlling, psycho-lady. But even if she was a saint they would have had a tough go at marriage, and sanity. This weekend Alixa signed us up to watch two Combs children, whose ages match up with Bo and Jenna. So for a long weekend we had two sets of twins and a baby. Any of the 5 children measured independently would be fine, but collectively it becomes quite challenging. And it is always a struggle to deal with other people’s children. You learn how to understand and interpret your own, so that even when their words don’t really make sense you know what they are saying. Not the case with someone else’s 2-year old. Much of the weekend was spent asking Reese to repeat herself or trying to get Kyle to translate. And every kid has their annoying quirks, even though you tend to get used to your own kids less-than-ideal behavior. Kyle and Reese are actually really good kids and able to do a lot of things on their own to greater degree than their Winn counterparts. But Reese is amazingly loud, almost like she has earplugs in or is in a very loud dance club and has to yell to be heard. And Kyle seems to have a very strong attachment to making fart noises. A lot of fart noises. But Reese is potty trained, and Kyle tried to make his bed after getting up and getting himself dressed, which was awesome. The weekend was actually pretty fun and the crew did some very entertaining things, but it did test the limits of everyone’s patience. It’s hard enough to be patient with your own kids, who you presumably love. It is even more difficult to do it with other people’s kids, who you probably love less.

 Just some cute pics of Emmy

 All the kids at the doctor getting flu shots/autism

So the name of the game was to fill the weekend with as many things as possible so that we weren’t stuck in the house. Kyle and Reese showed up early on Friday, and Lix promptly took all the kids to the park for a few hours. Then she left them with Jarom (who was working from home) and ran off to have a lunch with some of her buddies. The afternoon brought more troops, as Kenna and Callie showed up for a few hours. There was some time spent outside raking leaves, walking up and down the block, and playing in the back yard. The kids got quesadillas for dinner and Jarom went to Chipotle to get a special treat for Alixa for not killing any children.

Saturday began at 6:30, because as soon as the first kid is up, they are all up. A movie was probably put on, but who can remember at this point? It’s all a blur. Around 9:00 the car was loaded up and everyone headed off to Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch. It was a great place to spend a few hours with too many kids. They had some black bears, kangaroos, lemurs, and a great petting zoo full of friendly goats and sheep. We got to take a safari ride through horses, camels, pigs, emus, zebras, llamas, and a few other animals. The kids got to ride on a barrel train. We even got to meet an albino monacled cobra. After everyone got their fill of the wildlife we drove to bustling downtown Aubrey for a wonderful lunch at Mom’s diner, which is exactly what you are imagining. When we got back home Lix decided to walk all the big kids over to Warren Park to watch a soccer game and run around some more. It finally got dark and cold, so everyone came back, had some pizza for dinner, and went to bed. The second night did not go as smoothly as the first. Bo had fallen asleep on the way back from Sharkarosa and wasn’t tired, so he was making noise. Reese missed her dad and was screaming about wanting him, so she had to be separated from the rest of the herd. Eventually we got those two to bed, but then Reese woke up screaming around 2am and Lix had to go sleep by her to keep her calm.

 I guess they don't get enough of snakes at home?

 Jarom was growing a beard for Movember. It annoyed him (and Alixa) so it is now gone

  

Sunday morning meant a great pancake breakfast cooked by Lix for everyone. Everyone got ready for church, but there wasn’t ever really a chance that they were going to make it on time. Realistically Jarom and Alixa were only concerned about getting there for Primary/Nursery, so that someone else could watch the kids for a few hours. As soon as Jarom dropped the kids off at their classes and headed off to teach his own he saw Alixa’s face in the window beckoning him. He needed to take Emmy because Alixa’s zipper on her skirt had torn and she needed to run home to change. It was a pretty amusing situation. After Lix made the kids lunch Jarom sent her to her room to take a nap and tried to get the kids to watch a movie. But they couldn’t agree on what to watch. Bo wanted Mulan and Jenna wanted Bolt, and they both tried to get the Comb kids to join their side. We settled on Pocahontas, which didn’t please Bo, so he caused trouble which made Reese cause trouble which made it tough for Lix and Emmy to enjoy their naps. After another late afternoon trip to the park (at least the weather was nice all weekend) they sent Kyle and Reese home.

 The sponsors of the trip, Mimi and Opa

 The prettiest zebra at the park

 This deer had been hit by a car. The lump on the right side of his face is his jaw. He was creepy.

 Yumm, chocolate!

 Here are the kids after the safari park. It is also a metaphor for Jarom and Lix on Sunday.

It was definitely a memorable experience and it is always nice to be able to help out a friend, especially since so many nice people have helped out and watched our kids and had to put up with all of the little annoying things that they do. But it was also very nice to be able to sit down and take a deep breath when it was over. I guess there is a reason why people typically only have one child of each age. And why animals that have litters kick their offspring out so quickly. You can only handle listening to so many arguments between two-year olds before your head explodes.