Wonderful Weekend With the Prince Family

 We volunteered to tend the Prince kids so Michelle and Brian could get away for the weekend for their anniversary.  They headed to California to stay at a beach resort. They had a wonderful, relaxing weekend. We had such a fun time with the kids.  How we love them.  They all quarantined for a couple of weeks before (as best they could) so that we would be safe from the virus.  

Michelle and Brian on the beach

We brought them this aqua doodle playmat.  No mess.  Color with the water pens and colors appear.  They disappear after awhile.  It was something they all enjoyed.  Here, they were working together to get the whole mat filled in before the colors disappeared.

Ta Da!

Gabriella is a gift giver.  She is always thinking about what she can make for her loved ones.  Almost as soon as her parents left on Friday afternoon, she started making air dry clay.  We brainstormed and came up with the idea of making a nativity set for her parents with the clay.  Here, Jaron is forming the stable and Gabbi is making Joseph, Mary, the baby Jesus, a manger and a palm tree.  She worked on it all weekend as the characters kept cracking as they dried and she had to reform them.

Gabbi is cleaning up the clay mess and we entertained the crowd by casting youtube videos of songs.  Here they are dancing to my choice: Happy Together.  We each took turns choosing a song.  It was such a fun activity that we did it both Friday and Saturday afternoons when they got a bit restless.

Jaron and Gabbi standing by their nativity.

The drying nativity before it is painted.  Didn't they do a nice job?

Friday night is pizza night.  These kids (and their grandparents) love pizza!!!  Saturday night we got Café Rio.

It was still hot in Vegas, so after dinner is the best time to play outside.  Brian installed a light on their basketball court. They played HORSE and Grandpa and Kenny against Jaron.

Kenny singing to the pancake song.

Ken took them all on a bike ride and to play at the park.  We made cookies.  We read a lot of books!  We really had a grand time.

On Saturday night, we got them bathed and ready for bed early, then told them they could watch the first quarter of the BYU game with us.  They were having so much fun and enjoying it so much (as were we) we extended it to the first half.  What a great game!!!

Jaron wanted to take a picture of us watching the game.  Notice little William has a Book of Mormon.  He "read" the entire Book of Mormon during the first half of the game, occasionally yelling, "Go Cougars!"  I didn't even know that was in there.  I'm going to have to reread that book!

This is my favorite picture from the weekend. Celebrating a Cougar score. Kenny and Jaron were both so into the game and are true Cougar fans.  They were wearing the wrong color, true, but they are blue through and through.  We put them to bed at halftime.  The first thing Kenny asked the next morning, while wiping sleep from his eyes, "Did they win?"

Jaron and William cuddle on the couch

The next day we had home church.  The Prince family has a great plan for home church and they all know what to do.  It was Kenny's turn to give the talk.  He did such a great job.  Grandpa gave a great Come, Follow Me lesson.

And here is the painted, completed nativity.  Didn't they do a beautiful job?  They carefully wrapped each piece and wrapped it in a box.  They presented it to their parents when they got home.  

Michelle and Brian got home about 4:00 on Sunday afternoon.  We had a roast beef dinner and then Ken and I reluctantly went home.  Who knows when it will be safe to be with them again?  We were both exhausted, but it was wonderful to share their life for a few days.