Visiting the Mackrorys

We drove to Broomfield, Colorado to visit the Mackrory family May 4th-10th.  We had such a nice time with this big, active family of eight. 

It looks like Mr. Blogger did it again.  I spent a long time putting in all of these pictures, and it has mixed them up . . . again!  It is frustrating.  But we will just go with it.  It looks like they are mostly backwards, so we will start at the end and work to the first.

On the morning we left, Sammy dressed up as dragon, then put the knight costume over the top and called himself a Knight Dragon.

He wanted me to take his picture 

This little guy is a character

Sammy is a very expressive child.  On Sunday night, I tried to capture some of his expressions.  I would just say a word and he would respond, then I would click.  It was a fun game.
Wink.

Happy

Sad

Tired

I love my Grandma!!!

Audrey dressed as a princess and little Lissy dressed as cute, little Lissy.

A princess and her knight in shining armour

We had a fun Mother's Day google meet with all the kids.  I opened my presents:  a beautiful, summer, door wreath and a new, perfect, lightweight towel for swimming.  I love, love, love both!  Our family are such thoughtful gift-givers.

On Saturday, Michelle and Brian sent pictures of Kenny at his soccer game after he scored his first goal.  Michelle really captured the moment.  He was so excited !

Jared was the cook for all day on Mothers Day.

Tuxedo cake after lunch, and later, homemade apple pie ala mode for dessert.  (Like I said, the pictures are backward !)

Smoked brisket, corn, squash, and potatoes for dinner

Eggs Benedict for breakfast.  Jared makes such delicious eggs benedict.

Flowers for Mom

A favorite activity at the Mackrory house is Wii dance.

All of the kids are really good, but Brielle is the champion,  She is such a good dancer.

I even tried it, but luckily, no one took pictures.

Because of COVID, only one person is supposed to come to watch Audrey's basketball games. One person per player. We cheated a bit and both took her.  She was SO fun to watch.  She reminded us a lot of her mom as a basketball player- confident, aggressive, good.  She was at least two years younger than all of the other players, but really held her own on the court.

At one point, she took the ball coast to coast and scored a lay-up.

It may have become obvious at that point that she had two supporters there!

We watched Zootopia one night.  It is such a cute movie and so fun to watch with Jared and Kristen and the older kids.

Kristen makes wonderful PowerPoint presentations for their nightly

Come, Follow Me discussions and casts them on to the TV in their library.  She and Jared take turns teaching.  Cute story: One night Jared was teaching.  He turned to the white board and asked a question.  Little Lissy, age 2, called out the answer, "Be nice!"  Then exclaimed, "I did it!"  At age 2, she's already figured out that the answer is always "Be nice" or "Jesus."  

They have such a nice deck and deck furniture.  The weather was perfect for having a treat outside.

I played lots of games with the kids.  This one, Catan, was really fun.

We had a burrito bar one night.  

It will remain between you and me who picked the daffodil to give to his Grandma.  He had been told not to pick the flowers, but, he might have forgotten.

We made this delicious and easy chicken dish one night.  You can find the recipe here.

Lissy may have figured out selfies.

Lissy and Grandpa played Connect 4 over and over again.

Lissi loves to cuddle while she watches a Primary video with Grandpa.

Moths to a flame when Grandpa gets out his Ipad.

Sammy treasures this sword his dad carved for him.

Jacob and Nathan love this crazy Xbox game.

All done with this Rubik's cube.

One of the highlights of the week for me was getting to sit in and listen to Brielle's piano lesson.  Her very fine teacher comes to their home. He has a doctorate in music.  He was preparing her for their upcoming recital and was really in the details.  I loved every minute of it.  You can listen to a small part of her piece at the end of this post.

Nathan's assortment of Rubik's Cubes.  He is really good and is even considering entering national competitions.

The first night we were there, Lissi wasn't too interested in hugging us, but the next day, she climbed right up in my lap.  It just took her a little while to warm up.

Three of the kids have these hover boards and fly around the house on them.

Nathan is a champion Rubik's cube doer.  He has four different types and can do all of them really fast.  We had fun.  I would time him and he would do it fast, hoping to beat his last time.

It was so fun to listen to Brielle play the piano.  She has really progressed.

Lissi ran to us and gave us both a big hug.  Melted our hearts.

Yummy outshine bars

Audrey and I had fun, too

Just chillin'

I love this picture

Jacob is one smart kid, but I had beginners luck.

I took this video of Brielle playing her Bach piece before her teacher came.  She got even better after he worked with her.

I wish Blogger wouldn't mix up the pictures, but this gives an overview of our wonderful week with the Mackrory family.