The Neilsons: Erin

On our way to Albuquerque I called my friend Tanya. Her and her family were heading out to Denver on Thursday morning so we were only going to be able to see each other the Wednesday evening when we pulled into town. We didn't get out of Las Vegas until 9:45 am so we would not get into ABQ until late that evening which would cut into our visit even more. Well as we kept calling each other and expressing how bummed we were that we wouldn't be able to see each other I soon learned that I was in for a big surprise. Tanya and her hubby discussed this and decided to not leave for Denver until Friday morning so we would be able to spend Thursday together. I felt so bad that they changed their plans but I was so excited to get to spend time together and to get the kids together to play.

We made plans to meet in the morning at a new kids place called Monkey Mania. We invited our aunt Cindy and Robin and our cousins, Kevin, Ari, Angelo and Gia to join us. We had so much fun. What a great place for kids. It was not too big but had enough variety to make everyone happy. There were several entertainment rooms including a movie room, a toddler room, an arts and crafts room, a game room, a monkey gym, a bouncer room and my favorite was a stage with an attached dressing room full of fun clothes for both boys and girls to play dress up with and come strut their stuff on the stage. We spent two hours here having nothing but fun.

Tanya helping the girls get crafty!

Ari's work of art.

Aunt Cindy helping the the girls getting ready for the show...

Rockstars or what???

Cole getting ready to peg someone with the ball gun.

Pretty Gia.

The boys giving it their best at the games.

The whole crew at Monkey Mania.

After Monkey Mania, we were all hungry so we decided to head over to another kid-friendly joint called "Itz". This is also a very cool place for kids to hang out. It is a huge arcade filled with a spinning ride, a roller coaster, bumber cars and a mini-bowling alley. It also has a kid friendly buffet and separate themed eating rooms (cartoon room, movie theater room, etc...). This is where I realized how lucky I was to have Charlie as a hubby. We decided that we would also take our niece and nephew in addition to our three kiddos to Itz, so we had five kiddos to feed, keep track of and keep happy. He kept his cool the whole time and we all got a pretty good laugh out of the fact that we were easily overwhelmed with all of the kids...but it was a blast. He was a champ when he was left at the table alone and Tanya's little guy somehow got parmesan cheese in his eye.

We also were in for another special treat, our good friend from college, Erin was in town from Florida so she brought her nephew to Itz to meet us for lunch. It is always so good to see her. I wish we could have had more time to just sit down and talk but between us juggling 8 kids we did the best we could and were just happy to see each other.

Me and Charlie also were amazed at Tanya's patience. In our conversations about parenting she insisted to us that she was not the patient one in the family, her hubby was. Well all we have to say is she seemed amazingly patient to us. She was such a sport and chauffered five of the kiddos around in her car and kept up like no other.

After about three hours at Itz we decided the fun-meter had been pegged and it was time to head home. We dropped Charlie off at his parents so he could meet up with his old friend, Marc and me and Tanya decided we just hadn't had enough yet so off we were with all of the kids in tow to Tropical-Sno for some snowcones. I had my favorite, Tiger's Blood, Tanya had her favorite, Pink Grapefruit with a pucker pack (super sour powder you pour over your snowcone), the kids had Rainbows and we all enjoyed the sweet cool treat in the hot afternoon sun.

After that we went back to Charlie's parents where we all kind of collapsed from exhaustion. Before everyone left I got a great picture of the kids. It is funny how close they are in age and how we both had a girl, then a boy and then another boy!