We always love going to cool off at the Highland park - Johnathan & Tanner enjoying the water fountains. Below Johnathan is being silly as he is covering himself with a mat that is used to lay on.
Camille & I enjoying the shade while the kids were playing on June 2nd. Byron had flown out for Japan earlier that morning, so it was fun to go outdoors to get the kids out of the house.
On June 3rd, Allyson was feeling a lot of contractions, so the whole crew came down to wait it out. We had fun going on a walk together around our neighborhood. I told Allyson & Dallin to just leave their children at my house as it would be better than to have to wake everybody up during the night so they could come over. We had a lot of fun with 3 extra kids. Bradley didn't quite know what to do with all the excitement. He had fun sleeping with Myles the first night. After the crazy giggles and silliness for about 2 hours, they finally fell asleep. This joint sleeping only lasted one night as they did better separated. Camille had fun sleeping with Rose & Eliza in her bedroom.
We went to the Highland water area for some more water fun. Above Myles, Bradley, Rose, Eliza, Parker & Carter enjoying pizza.
Myles
Myles & Rose
Rose just being silly - she sat on this rock playing with whoever came around for about one hour. It was nice to not have to chase after her like the other kids - including my own.
Bradley just hanging out.
Myles & Bradley had many hours of play time outside enjoying anything they could find to keep them company. Myles LOVED the water guns and had such a fun time shooting others. Here they are filling up water guns in the buckets.
Sweet Baby Briant Douglas was born Monday around noon b- June 4th. We went up to see them that evening with all the children. I probably shouldn't have drive them all with my own children as we all scrunched into my van. All of the Ashby's had car seats so my kids doubled up to make it work. We went up to Murray to the IHC Hospital to see them. It was kind of crazy bringing all of the children into the hospital. I had mine stay out in the hall for a little while so the Ashby children could enjoy their new brother alone. They all had fun holding him. What a sweet little thing!
Carter & Bradley holding him.
I love this picture of cute Rose being such a mommy with Briant while Myles and her squeeze into the same chair.
After leaving the hospital, we went to get an ice-cream cone. We got them from McDonald's and then went to an empty parking lot nearby to enjoy them. Poor Myles had his ice-cream fall off of his cone right after we got out of the car. Luckily there were kids to share theirs with him.
Camille couldn't get enough time with these two girls. She had fun doing their hair and nails each day. The kids stayed with us for 3 days. It was a lot of work to keep up with 9 children, but so worth it. I have been out of the very young child phase for a little while - it was fun to have Eliza around with her cute personality. She is quite a talker and got us all laughing many times. Rose is so cute also. She deals with a lot with Myles always wanting to tease her. I laughed so hard one time when Rose was chasing Myles around our table as she was taunting him. I probably shouldn't have been laughing, but it was funny to see the sides reversed where Myles was being teased. We loved having them come over and love having cousins live close by.
One very scary thing happened on our way home from the hospital that I need to blog about. It was a huge realization that Heavenly Father looks out for us daily. Here is what I wrote down that day in my journal, "Today is one of those days I know the Lord and his angels saved us from a terrible accident. Cute little baby Briant was born today. I have Myles, Rose and Eliza for the next couple of days. We had just gone to the hospital off 5400 S. and saw him. On our way home going up the Point of the Mountain, we had to dodge a dolly (to carry things) that had broken in the middle of the lanes. It wasn't too bad to dodge as it was on the line. Well a couple of minutes passed and we started down the hill into Utah County. I was in the middle lane, rounded a turn and found a large dishwasher or some object that was massive in the middle of my lane as I was flying down the road at around 70 mph. I quickly realized that if I hit this object head on there would be major damage or we could have even flipped. I did not see this as an option at all so looked to my left lane. A car was right next to me. I quickly slammed on my brakes to wait for the car to pass as I quickly glanced into the rear view mirror to find a semi almost smashing into us. The semi slammed on his brakes also and looked like they got 6" or less from hitting us as I could finally move to the left out of the lane. The semi followed me and came over also to keep from hitting the object. I truly do not know how the semi was able to slow down so quickly and not hit us. I know we had guardian angels watching out for us and other than that cannot explain how we escaped without even a scratch to our van. It truly was a miracle and one I will not soon forget. I think most of the kids were oblivious to anything other than the fact that I slammed on my brakes. As we were saying family prayers tonight, I was telling the kids before we started how we need to thank Heavenly Father for saving our lives tonight. I explained that if the semi had run into us it most likely would have plowed right over and killed us. Myles and Rose's eyes got huge and seemed terrified as this was all news to them. I feel so grateful for the fact we were saved. Byron would have his world turned upside down to come home from Japan to a funeral and the Ashby's loosing all 3 older children. I am still emotional when I think about it. It was WAY TOO CLOSE to something devastating. I just am grateful we had family prayers and read scriptures this morning." So glad I wrote this down in my gratitude journal.
