While the girls were away, the boys did play

 While Celeste, Cara, Callie and Cassy played in Tucson, I had a "Grandma weekend" with Brandon, Aiden, Caleb and Drake.  Celeste meet me in the Denver Temple parking lot on Wednesday evening to do the "boy exchange".  Rod was in California so we had a slumber party in my room.  Caylee and I slept in the bed.  Aiden and Brandon slept in sleeping bags on the floor and Caleb in the portable crib in the office.  I took the McNeil boys swimming at the Golden Recreation Center on Thursday.  We practically had the pool area to ourselves.  Short little Caleb wanted to go everywhere his big brothers went but it kept leading him into deep water (3ft).  So I thought of a brilliant idea...I would put him in one of the child life vests provided by the Rec Center.  It made him more top heavy than usual.  He kept tipping over into the water and baby swearing at his grandma.  When I finally took it off, he was much happier but still raced into the deep water.  I had to stay right with him the whole time.  We topped if off with happy meals at Micky D's.

 Brandon introduced some rearranging of the sleeping arrangements on second night.  He wanted to be on the side of the bed Aiden had the night before.  So Aiden moved to the hallway.  He must be a party animal like his grandma.  He didn't want to miss out on the rest of the family happening (like homework for the girls) so he watched the goings on through the banister rails until sleep over took him.

 Cami, Caylee and I saw the movie "Hotel Transylvania".  I thought to myself, "the boys will love this".  Celeste had packed some money for entertainment.  So off to the movies we went.  With the left over money, I splurged and bought the kid snack packs, popcorn, soda and fun fruits.

 Caleb doesn't weigh enough to hold the seat in the down position.  He watched a lot of the time through the slot between the chairs.  After a while, he climbed into his seat, I wedged my leg into the space to hold it down for him.  The movie only captivated him for a while.  Since he loves electronics, my cell phone kept him happy for the majority of the time.  Celeste told me to watch for him sneaking off and looking at you through the corner of his eye to see if you will notice.  Sure enough, he tried it!  But, having been forewarned, I was watching hence his escape was foiled.

 Jordan and Drake meet us at the theater.  I had a snack pack for him as well.  He was excited to be there.  After the movie, Brandon asked Aiden if the movie was a love story or a monster movie.  Aiden was a little confused by that question.  It was obvious Brandon did not appreciate the budding romance depicted in the story.  I guess I am not such a good judge of movies for 7 year old boys.  It was too mushy for Brandon but he was a good sport.  Travis meet me Friday evening for the "boy exchange".  He asked me if I thought Caleb felt hot.  I didn't.  The next morning he texted me to let me know Caleb had thrown up in the night and was sick.  Whew!  Glad Caleb waited to be sick until he was home!  I felt bad for Travis though.

 

We met Jordan in the School parking lot to pick up Drake on Saturday so Jordan could go to work.  Jordan's sister, Cami, watched him on Thursday and Friday afternoon and evenings for Jordan and Callie. 

Saturday was such a beautiful day, we decided to go to Rock Creek Farms to harvest and purchase our Halloween Pumpkins.  We encountered bumper to bumper cars.  Shortly after arriving at the pumpkin patch, Drake announces he needs to pee.  I called Jordan to see what the protocol was.  Is it acceptable to let him pee into a bush while out there?  Jordan said it was.  The only problem was, there were not any bushes.  So I moved the car and stood Drake on the far side of it facing a field to pee.  He would have no part of that!  I could see some port-a-potties the next field over.  I left Cami and Caylee to their pumpkin hunting, loaded Drake back into the car and headed for the port-a-potties.  Turns out, due to the heavy traffic, you were not allowed to turn left there.  The worker told me I had to drive all of the way out and come back in again.  Are you kidding!!  "I have to go pee Grandma", "Hold on Drake, I am trying to get you there!"  We crawled along until I could get pointed back in the right direction toward the port-a-potties.  Drake made it, whew!  Cami and Caylee were waiting on the side of the patch with their pumpkins by the time we got back.  Our last stop was the children's area so Drake could do the jumpy castles, blow up slides, see the animals, run on top of the hay bale maze etc.  Jordan meet us in Stake Conference on Sunday where the two were reunited.  It was a fun weekend.  I love these boys!!!

 Cami carved her pumpkin from the Rock Creek Farms in to Jack's head from  

Nightmare Before Christmas.

 Caylee's pumpkin was "wickedly good"!

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Kathy's pumpkin "Three Jack-o-lanterns"

Rod told me, he always worries someone will cut themselves while carving the pumpkins, so his contribution was to cut the lids and clean the innerds of each one for us.  Cami was very excited .  That is the worst part for her.  We used little saws for the actual carving part.  All of our fingers are still intact.