A Smattering of Duehrings

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Damon was supposed to work on Friday so we were going to stay home this year. He ended up getting Friday off (although he has to work all day today) so we took off Thursday morning and drove to Hutchinson to my parents house.

I didn’t get many pictures because it is hard to take pictures when people fill every square foot of the house. You just can’t back out of the picture enough to take a picture. I think there were around 40 people there. Anyway, it was crowded and our tables pretty much went around the whole house.

After our wonderful Turkey dinner the guys and the girls kept taking turns going out. The guys watched the kids while the girls shopped and then the girls watched the kids while the guys shopped and did their “stuff”. My parents decorated the playhouse for Christmas with the kids.

Last night my dad took us all to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. It is always fun to go in and say that we have 10 adults and 5 million kids. I am sure they love us. So, we got our huge table and enjoyed dinner together and after dinner Damon, the kids, and I took off and drove home. We left Micah behind with his favorite friends in the whole wide world so he could spend a few more days with them. Cousins are the BEST!

Today it is snowing outside. It is beautiful. The kids are anxiously awaiting it to start piling up so they can play in it. I don’t think that is gonna happen since it has been so warm out lately.

I came home last weekend to a surprise. Damon bought me a deep freezer. Yay! You have no idea how bad we need this thing. We have no idea where we are going to PUT it, but that’s alright because we need it that bad.

The other night after we tucked the kids into bed Evan came running to the living room. He asked if we were missing any of Eli’s glasses because he found a pair. It was Eli’s first pair that he lost almost a year ago. I am so happy! He lost them right before we were going to get a new pair anyway, but it has still always bugged me and I have never quit looking for them. They were his first pair and I am sentimental. They even have all his little 2 yr old teeth marks all over them.

By the way, the glasses were in a side pocket of one of Evan’s many treasure bags.

One reason for taking just the older kids was so we could go on rides without having to take turns sitting out with little ones. We pretty much went on rides the entire time we were there with exception of several shows we went to.

On Saturday it was really nice out so we went on roller coasters ALL DAY LONG! By that night Rachel’s and my heads were spinning. There were still no lines that day so you can only imagine how many times we went on the roller coasters.

Maggie, Eden, Evan, and Abby are the natural roller coaster riders that will do about anything without coaxing. We had a few chickens in our midst that we had to work on. Micah had never been on a roller coaster in his life. My goal for the weekend was to get him brave enough to try one. I knew he would love it if I could only get him on one.

I used my college major once again and used psychology, reversed psychology, and finally bribery. Rachel came up with an idea to help. We made little passport books and if they checked off every ride in the book that we wrote down then they got to pick out a Webkinz at the end of the trip.

The first day I worked on the least scary roller coaster, Thunderation. I finally convinced him and Jordan to try it “just once”. They ended up going on it over and over.

He wanted to call his daddy as soon as he was done with his first roller coaster. I laughed as I listened to him tell about it. This is what he said in his little monotone voice. “Hi Daddy, I just rode the roller coaster. Mommy forced me to do it. I peed my pants 4 times.” He cracks me up.

Then the next day I started trying for Wild Fire (like Worlds of Fun’s Patriot) He was NOT going upside down. (This ride goes upside down like 5 times)Not A Chance! So, I told him if he would go on Powder Keg twice he wouldn’t have to check off Wildfire in the book. It worked. Powder Keg is scary enough, but at least it doesn’t go upside down - it just goes really, really fast. With tears in his eyes and his little teeth chattering he got on. When the ride was over he was hooked. He said it was the best ride in the world. So, we went on it some more.

Then it was back to Wildfire. I knew I could talk him into it now. He again told me NO WAY. I told him that was fine, but to at least walk up to the line with me and then decide. Somehow, by the time we got to the ride I had him talked into it. He was crying, but I could tell he was determined to do it. I told him to pretend he was flying a jet. HE LOVED IT so much we went on it a few more times. So, Micah ended up going on every single roller coaster they have. I am so proud of him. He conquered his fears. He can’t wait to go back so he can ride them with his daddy.

And here are the Webkinz the Micah and Evan picked out.

We headed home Saturday night and had one tired bunch of kids when we arrived home at midnight. We had so much fun and have gotten more than our money’s worth from those season passes we purchased.

Rachel and I planned a surprise trip for our oldest 6 kids this past week. We left Eli, Molly, and Joey home with the daddies and we headed to our favorite condo in Branson. The kids didn’t know we were going until we were in the van ready to leave.

First of all I have to say…If you haven’t been to Silver Dollar City at Christmas time you have to go. It is amazing! There are millions of lights and every night when they light up the 5 story Christmas tree they have all the lights synchronized to music. Then there is a Christmas parade that goes through the park twice a night. I have tons of pictures of it all, but pictures just don’t do it justice. It is beautiful.

The most amazing thing to me is how they have kept the real meaning of Christmas in all they do. Right before the Christmas tree lights up each night over the loud speaker it tells the story of Jesus Christ’ birth and the true meaning of Christmas. Then the tree is lit up during the song “Joy to the World”. I don’t think you will see anything like it anywhere else these days. It was an amazing experience.

We went to Silver Dollar City for 3 days straight. The first two days we were about the only ones there. At least it seemed that way since we were the only ones on the rides. Ya know, most kid’s have to go to school during the week.  It was cold but we were prepared and dressed up so warm we hardly noticed. I just figured if I dressed like I was going skiing then I wouldn’t be cold. It worked.

We took our baby stroller just for our luggage at SDC. We were 2 Silver Dollar City experienced moms on a mission. You should have seen our stroller. We had blankets, extra clothes, hats, scarfs, food, drinks, you name it on our stroller. We even had a 2 gallon thermos of hot chocolate sitting there so the kids could have hot chocolate whenever they wanted.

to be continued..

Eli and Molly have been best buds lately. Yesterday, they were playing house and Molly was the mommy and Eli was the daddy. Eli sat on the couch with his hands behind his head while Molly scurried around the house taking care of her dollies. Ha! When Eli would call “Hey, Mommy” I kept forgetting and answering and they would quickly remind me that I wasn’t the mommy. Molly was.

Finally I asked them if Eli was the daddy and Molly was the mommy then who am I. Molly quickly answered, “You are the bad guy.”