Christensen Invasion

Last week, Ben's entire family came to visit (minus his 2 married sisters). There were 15 additional people at our humble abode. It was a little crazy, to say the least, but we had fun. Luckily when they drove out to see us, they towed a camper behind them so 5 or so of them slept out there. We were still pretty full to the rafters.

I could not believe the quantity of food. As the wife and hostess, it fell upon me to plan all the meals while they were here, although we didn't have to pay for all of it. (That surely would've broken our meager food budget!) I think they were all pretty happy to have a few real meals after eating sack lunches in the car all week. Ben and I also had to get used to moving a bit slower. With that many kids, it took us about 2 hours to get ready to go anywhere. We felt speedy for once. :)

After they arrived late on Wednesday night, we shoved off to Cedar Point early Thursday morning. One word: AWESOME. I'm a ride lover, and there was no shortage of thrill rides there. I think our favorite was Top Thrill Dragster. 120 mph in 4 seconds. Yes, 4 seconds. And 420 feet straight up? Yes, that's right. And what goes up must come down--at a 90 degree angle. Pretty wicked. The rides were so great that many times I was unable to scream...or simply ran out of scream on the descent. They were THAT big. E was a really good boy all day long. Ben and I were planning on riding rides for a short part of the day while he went with Grandma and Grandpa, but he fell asleep right after lunch and was perfectly content, so we were able to ride as much as we cared to. We felt pretty beat up by 8 pm and had to call it quits because we were so dang tired. We were able to take him on some kiddie rides and I was super impressed that they had 4 kid areas so you weren't stuck riding the same 6 rides over and over. It was a blast.

E's new t-shirt and stick from Grandma and Grandpa C

E and Auntie Em pointing to the ferris wheel (we didn't take him on that ride though...I was about to throw up I was so nervous at the thought.)

Thrilled on the boat ride. It had been a long day and he had been very good.

E sucking his thumb while playing with his pinky. (He instantly must get snuggly with mommy)

The next day, we all slept in late and had a few minutes to go mini-golfing at the hotel. E really liked the putter that was his size, and he got really good at putting the ball into the hole. Then we drove to Kirtland and had some church history fun. Ben and I liked it better in the off-season with a smaller tour group because they just gave better and more detailed tours and you could actually see stuff.

Miniature golfing at the hotel

The whole crowd (minus Brooke & Tim and their girls and Christine & David)

Tired lil' guy

The whole crowd in Kirtland

On Saturday we took the whole crowd to COSI. They all really liked it, I think. It was pretty busy on a Saturday, but I think we were all able to do everything we wanted to.

Fun facts for Jenny. She's always one to have a fun fact to share, so she was super excited when we discovered this whole list on the bathroom door at COSI.

How many Christensens can you fit in a phone booth?

Even though we wore everyone out while they were here visiting, we sure had a good time! We appreciated them making the drive and doing so many fun things with us.