Looks can be deceiving!

Don't let the pictures fool you. If you were to look at these pictures you would probably think... wow, that looks like they had a really great time today! Psych! Don't get me wrong, there were moments of fun but they were few and far between. We had a friend of ours take us to this huge park. She had to take us in shifts, two carloads, first because we have a large family and secondly because all of the cars here are sooo small! Mary Jane and I went in the first carload with all of the little ones. Then my mother-in-law and father-in-law came in the second load with the 4 oldest kids. Now let me say this first... there were hundreds of other people there with their families quietly walking hand in hand just enjoying the beautiful weather. People riding bikes, joggers, you know... basic park people. Everything was so peaceful. Then the Dunn's arrived. When we got there we noticed a big bridge that crossed a creek, so we crossed it. Of course all of the kids were leaning through the rails so that they could get a closer look at the water, and it was freaking me out because none of them could swim and the bridge was about 15' above the water. Then when we got to the other side we saw a huge flock(?) of ducks... and of course the kids had to chase them until they all went into the lake. Then they thought it was necessary to throw sticks and rocks at the ducks because they hadn't tormented them enough yet. Then Diogo thought it would be a good idea to fake like he was pushing all the little kids in the water, just to tease them. It would have been funny accept that the water was atleast 3' deep right at the edge (remember none of them can swim?). Then we noticed these big things that looked like giant rats/pigs (they probably weighed around 70-80 lbs each) so we went to investigate. I don't know what they were but I was told that they are native to Brazil. And there were big huge piles of poop all over the place from these animals, and of course Robert just had to pick some up and put it in his mouth! What's up with this kid putting everything in his mouth? (He said it tasted like chicken... just kidding.) We figured it was a good time to move away from the water at this point. Then they found a manwhole cover that wasn't properly placed over it's whole (of course they found it!) and decided to all go and jump up and down on it. Anyway, all of this happened and we had only been there 10 minutes! Then the second carload arrived and we decided to walk around the park on the pedestrian path. There were ice cream and popcorn venders every 20' and that's how many times we were asked if they could have some... every 20'. There were kids crying (ours of course) and having to be carried and asking for rides on our shoulders because they were tired of walking and then they would run off to throw stuff in the water... it was crazy. Am I an idiot or is it suppose to be this difficult to have fun? There were these big swans (paddle boats) so we went out for a 30 minute ride. That was probably the most relaxed we were the entire day. Then it was time to continue our walk around the park. Everyone was exhausted by this point and ready for lunch. We had made it the whole day without the kids getting totally trashed and dirty... we were alsmost at the finish line... then it happened... all the boys walked to the edge of the lake and jumped in this mud bog! Man, we were so close to making it to the end all clean! I guess there's always next time.?? Well now that it's over, I guess it could have been worse. Nobody was injured and we didn't lose anyone... so it was a good day after all. When you're right in the middle of all this stuff it is so stressful and chaotic but after it's all said and done... these kids are great and we wouldn't trade them for anything (even though we might seriously want to hurt them sometimes!). It's pretty much the same with life in general. We have these plans of how things are suppose to go... all perfect without geting dirty. But that's not the way life is. We're gonna get dirty, things are going to seem chaotic sometimes and sometimes we're just going to be totally disgusted with the way things are going. That's when we just need to take a step back and say, "oh well" and just laugh our way through it. Otherwise were going to be pretty miserable. The Bible talks about how God sits in the Heavens and laughs... and I know He's got to laugh at us sometimes for taking things so seriously. We love and miss you guys!

Love Ya,

Jim and Mary Jane