Memorable Memorial Day with the Paynes

We were fortunate to spend Memorial day with cousins at the zoo. All the Payne cousins. It was awesome watching Grandpa's eyes flick back and forth over the rims of his sunglasses, sweeping the perimeter every ten seconds to make sure we hadn't lost anyone. Then he and Nana came up with a better containment plan: Grandpa leads (and no one passes), Nana stays at the back (and no one is left behind). It worked beautifully. You might call him paranoid, but you just try taking fourteen kids under the age of eleven to the zoo. Four three-year-olds can put anyone on high alert. And then there's all their parents. ;)
Abi, Claire and Calvin enjoyed telling us about how polar bears really act - they know, they live in Alaska. Turns out polar bears are just giant racoons who love trash heaps. Emma showed off her monkey skills and proved again that she really can climb anything.

When we stopped for a snack break Katie taught us some true Eskimo games. One was to kick someone's hand and then land only on the foot you kicked with. Jake helped Rus try this one out. Oh how this picture makes me laugh. Every time.

Then Rus tried it by himself. Yep. That's my hot ninja husband right there. I don't think he actually kicked her hand, but he didn't throw his back out or pull any muscles, either. Win-win.

Right before lunch we took the little zoo train around the zoo's backside. They sell it as a "behind the scenes" look, but really it's just a lot of dumpsters and walls. The kids liked it, though. Before we got on the train we had the kids all line up, oldest to youngest. The only ones missing were Spencer and Marianne. I didn't notice Rus and Jake in the background until I put the picture on the blog...again they make me laugh.

After the train we headed out of the zoo. The kids were all over the place and Rus and I were walking together. I guess we freaked out a couple - they thought we had eight kids all to ourselves. All I can say is I look great for having eight kids. :)
Grandpa was able to escape the madness and pick up pizza for lunch. Pizza for the kids, stuffed sopaipilla and chicharrones for Katie (who is Mexican food-deprived). Kids played, everyone ate, some even ate it on the spinners and slides. It was fun punctuated by tears and shrieks.
Jacob was so happy to have a boy cousin his age, here he is with Calvin:

Bekah and Claire. Long lost bosom buddies.

Someone had the great idea to get another picture of all the kids. So we tried on the giant web, not too bad:
And again on the monkey bars, slightly less successful:
I took a video of the noble effort, entitled, "What It Takes To Get A Picture Of Fourteen Children."