Long version: July 2-9

So Friday, July 2nd we drove down to St. George to spend the weekend with our great friends, Rachel and BJ and their two cute boys, McKay and Benson. McKay turned 2 in June and Benson was just born on April 26 (the day before Eli's birthday) so he's just a little guy :). They are in dental school in Kentucky but both of their families live in St. George, so they were there for a summer break. So Friday we got there around 7 and had a delicious dinner at Rachel's parent's house (the Robertsons) and then headed over to BJ's mom's house (where we stayed) and put the kiddos to bed and then went to see Eclipse! Hehe. We all thought it was really good (much better than the other 2) and it was fun to have a little date night. Rachel's parents watched the boys, which was really nice, and everything went well!

Then on Saturday we went to a little splash pad sort of place and enjoyed cooling off in the water. St. George = HOT. We had a BBQ that night and then unfortunately Eli had a bad accident. He got a really bad burn on his hand. BJ's mom has this big French Chef oven and apparently it gets extremely hot on the outside, which no one noticed before. We were all playing a game and Jeremy was over by Eli and he just was walking along holding onto things as he went and then put his hand on the oven and it burned his whole right hand. It was so awful! It blistered right away and so we put it in cold water and he fell asleep on my lap with it soaking. He stayed like that for a couple hours until the heat got out and then he was able to comfortably go to sleep around 10:30. There were a lot of tears that night, but he was such a trooper. He's been fine ever since and it's almost completely healed already. What a blessing!

So then on Sunday we went to church at 9:00. We actually had to wake Eli up at 8:45 to go. We were so glad he'd slept so long! So we went to church and then came home and we all took a nap. Lovely! Then we went back over to the Robertson's for dinner and then came back to the Cox's and stayed up late playing games with some of BJ's family. It was so fun! I have not laughed that hard in a long time. After the games, all the girls fell asleep on the couches and the guys stayed up late talking about who knows what. I'm pretty sure it was deep stuff like string theory or whatever (hence why we were sleeping, haha).

McKay and Eli playing on Sunday. Eli would just hold his hand out like that for the first few days after the burn. :(Friends!
(I didn't get any pictures of BJ, Benson, or Jeremy. Lame).

Then Monday we just took it easy and then left to come back home around 1:00. We had such a great time and it felt so good just to relax and have a good time. Things have been really busy lately, so that was just perfect. It was also so fun just to pick up where we left off with our friends. We used to hang out all the time when we were in Provo, and we sure do miss them! But we know we'll be friends forever and it's so great to catch up when we do see them.

So then we came home to a full house (as I mentioned in my last post) and were home for about a 1/2 hour before we headed out to go to the last part of a family reunion for my dad's side of the family. We had dinner at a park and then just visited and let the kids play. My dad has 5 siblings and they, along with his parents, all live within about 20 minutes of us. Fun!
Tuesday was another busy day. My sister and mom were here until the next morning, so in an effort to keep 8 kids happy, I borrowed the key to the pool at an apartment complex from my friend and we spent the morning/mid-day swimming! Then we came back to our house and put the babies down for a nap and let the older kids watch a movie (Grandma's reunion was super busy, so they were happy to have a little break). That evening we also had my grandparents over and we had a yummy BBQ with chicken, corn on the cob, fruit and coleslaw. Yum. Then it was time for bed and everyone left the next morning.

Amy with 7 of the 8 kids eating dinner.
Vanessa and Russell playing in the coffee table and my cute grandparents in the background.
Wednesday-Friday was spent unpacking, doing laundry, remaking beds, cleaning, and then packing again. It was nice to have a few days in between to recuperate a little bit. We went to bed earlier and enjoyed relaxing, playing outside and just being together.

Eli playing in the kiddie pool: a great investment. It wasn't even filled up yet but he was having a good time.
Next up: our trip to California! Stay tuned...