The things we do

When you have boys, I think there are just some things you do for them that is entirely different from those things that you do if you have girls. I mean, I do not see my sister camping out in front of REI over night with her girls to get the best prices on camping gear. I just do not see it happening. When you have three boys, it might just drive this to extremes.

Last night, Ben took Andrew and Kyle to camp out in front of REI for their Garage Sale so that we could get a couple of last minute items. It was not just Andrew and Kyle with Ben, however. Andrew invited his friend Vu. Ben invited Kyle’s friend, Drake Rowe, from our ward to join them as he needed an item. Then there were the Cruz brothers Hyrum and Raul from the ward as well. They still needed a couple of items for Philmont that we were hoping to find at the garage sale. So by the time we got everyone together, it was a full blown party.

It was agreed like last time that Lance and I would join them in the morning before they opened. I might have boys but I do not camp. I have done my time camping with my many years of Girls Camp as a youth and I just do not do it. Nope. Not going to happen if I can sleep at home in my own bed or there is a hotel near by.

This time, however, I decided I would be nice and fix a nice warm breakfast for the boys. This was a large group of boys and footing the bill for the breakfast at the nearby Kolache Factory (across the parking lot) was going to be quite the expense. Remember these are teenage boys – every single one of them. I decided that I could do one better than the Kolache Factory. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with the Kolache Factory. I actually like that they make a kolache that does not contain pork, but I do not want to feed 6 teenage boys at the Kolache Factory after they have been camping out on the cement in the Texas heat all night.

Lance and I stopped at Walmart after dropping off boys at REI and some of the camping equipment. We grabbed stuff for breakfast.

For some reason I had this crazy idea that I would make homemade breakfast biscuits for a crew of boys. I am not entirely sure what came over me. I must have lost my mind. I assure you that I did not slip and fall and hit it at any point. Temporary insanity, maybe?

Breakfast biscuits means that I would have to make biscuits and lots of them. Not only would I have to make biscuits but I would have to actually put effort into making biscuits and my boys know me as the lazy chef, remember. I DO NOT roll out biscuits to cut them out, I drop them out on the pan and bake them that way. Yep, I scoop them out and drop them on the pan and bake. This breakfast plan was half baked in my head when I thought it up. However, I had already asked 6 teenage boys what they wanted on their biscuits – sausage or bacon – so I was pretty much committed.

So I got up at 6:30am to make breakfast for 6 teenage boys, a husband that put up with them all night, Lance, and myself. Actually, I woke up at 6:00am but I laid in bed for 30 minutes trying to figure out where the plan for breakfast went wrong and telling myself it was okay I could do this, I could could cook bacon, sausage, eggs, and biscuits for that many teenage boys and survive to tell about it.

And this I did…I made enough biscuits to feed an army. I made enough egg, bacon or sausage, and cheese breakfast biscuits to feed the crew multiple biscuits and still have a handful to give out to other people in line. My biscuits were just egg and cheese, but that is okay. I survived. The group finished off a gallon of orange juice.

I was happy to see them all disappear…the “these are so good” and “thank you so much” were more than enough thanks for me. These are really good kids and I was glad that I could do this for them even if it took a lot of motivational self speaking to get me moving this morning.

Then we waited….

…and while we waited….

Brothers do what brothers do. They pick on each other. In this case, they beat on each other. Kyle hit Andrew and I am not entirely sure what for. This is priceless, actually. They know they can beat each other up if they want and I will not stop them short of them bleeding out on the carpet. They know they should not dish out anything they are not willing to receive.

Kyle was still dishing it out. I honestly do not know what this was for, but Kyle was seriously provoking his brother. Andrew was a much better brother and did not hit him back.

Lance was being cool and just lounging anywhere he could find a place to lounge.

The best part of the morning is that I could not get great pictures of any of the boys because they were in constant motion. I think the only time they were not moving was when they were consuming food. That was not for long because teenage boys inhale more than they chew. Here is a decent picture of Andrew even if his face is dark.

Kyle in his best form. Should I let Kyle that he has the best of the Hellewell genes showing right there? The tongue thing is sure to make an appearance in at least one of any Hellewell gathering. At least I know which family he belongs to. I suppose we could use the tongue to ID him later if necessary.

Sometimes Andrew does show emotions that we cannot always explain. They are just spontaneous. I am sure it is because of something Kyle said or did. It usually is. Kyle is great for making us all laugh.

Here are some of our other boys – (right to left) Vu, Drake, and Hyrum.

Another picture of the boys in motion. They really are a lot of fun. Andrew contemplating something Vu was saying. From left to right – Andrew, Raul, and Vu.

Vu picking on Andrew even though it looks like it is the other way around from the picture. Yes, Vu is practically half Andrew’s size.

I told Vu he really should pick on someone his own size, but he did not listen. After watching these boys go at it, do not let size deceive you.

It was not enough for Vu to pick on Andrew, Lance and Kyle have to gang up on their brother as well. It was pretty funny. Andrew is tall. He looks big, but he is so skinny. He is a twig.

Look Lance and Kyle can get along when they have a mutual target…Andrew.

Awwww! They really do love each other!

Then we moved on to Vu doing sit ups/curl ups while hanging around Andrew’s waist. This makes me wonder what they do at school all day that they would even think about doing something like this.

I was impressed that Vu could do more than one of these with Andrew standing up and not falling over. Clearly they had done this more than once.

Lance was proud to show me his rock. I am not sure where he found the rock, but he had a pretty cool rock to show.

Pretty awesome rock.

Pretty awesome kid, Lance, with a pretty awesome rock.

After killing about a two hour wait in the hot, sticky, muggy, humid Houston weather we were admitted to the REI Garage Sale. We managed to get the things that we needed personally. That was good. We got most of the things that each of the other boys needed as well. That was good. We were in and out in less than 30 minutes. That was even better.

It appears that everyone had fun. Everyone was tired after a really bad night’s sleep but everyone had fun.

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