When you take eight kids to Sam’s Club…

  Today, I learned that when you take eight kids to Sam’s Club, it can make for a pretty interesting and fun trip.

My previous experience would be taking our two kids to Costco.  Which is a small comparison.  Because right away, the first thing I noticed, was that it’s a lot different, stopping your car and having your two kids jump out, in comparison to stopping and getting eight kids out and ready to go.  The older ones were good about helping with the younger ones, which I’m sure their mom appreciated.  And sweet baby Matthew slept soundly through the transition, bless his little two month heart.

While in Sam’s Club, I saw that my sister is a warehouse shopping pro (which is probably something that I already knew).  She strolled up and down those aisles with eight kids in tow, grabbing this or that and seemed to be un-phased as her large brood of children followed closely behind.  I also noticed that when you have a big family, chances are, at least one might not be the happiest, but as I watched my sister, she just rolled with it.

And soon enough, everyone was good to go again.

Of course the highlight of the trip was stopping at all of the sample tables.  Most of the kids weren’t fans of the seafood and calamari rice, but the Icee popsicles and barbecued salmon were big hits

The littlest of the eight slept soundly the entire trip.  Which was kind of amazing, if you ask me.  Leslie’s trained him well.

Checkout was quick and relatively easy.  One couple commented on Leslie’s large family, which again didn’t phase her.  I’m sure she gets it a lot.  It’s probably a fine mix of curiosity and wonder at how one mom manages so many children so well.

And when the time came to load up the groceries and kids, again, there were many helping hands and soon enough, we were good to go.

I spent the evening at Leslie’s home and enjoyed a wonderful meal with her wonderful family.  Afterwards, we headed outdoors to take a few family pictures.  It was easier than I expected and I was so happy to be able to capture some shots of her incredible family.

My favorite one of the night was taken in front of the beautiful vehicle that transports her family of ten.  And as I reflect back on today, it was fun to see that when you take eight kids to Sam’s Club, if you’re my sister, it’s just your way of life.  Your family works together, your kids work things out, and you get to be a testimony Of a necessary form of teamwork and helping each other out.