okay so you have eight children um what type of things do you do as a family to spend time together
oh we spend a lot of time out doors jogging bicycling uh going to the park
um some time watching VCR movies
um-hum
um-hum
um generally cheap things
uh-huh yeah we know how that goes uh
with lots of kids you don't have lots of money for recreation well that's fun so um
that's right
let's see uh some of the things we do together as a family we like to play games a lot and
uh you may think this is funny but one of our funnest games we like to play together is hide and seek and we just have a hoot playing hide and seek when it's dark in our house
yeah
and that is so fun the kids just get a crack out of that
um we like we do like to go to the park too you like your family um
we don't do a lot of vacationing have you taken a lot of vacations together or
most of our vacations are to go and see Grandma and Grandpa we get an occasional one or two day thing but most of them are going and seeing Grandma and Grandpa
uh-huh and where
oh
oh now where do they live
in Arizona
oh so that's a bit of a drive for you then oh so you like to go there for the holidays and
yes
oh we don't go very often for holidays generally we try to get all of our kids back home for the holidays
um-hum
and let Grandma and Grandpa come and visit us
oh uh-huh uh what are the ages of your kids then
they range from twenty four to five
oh yeah so you have some in the nest and some out huh we have ours start at twelve and then they go down to four
that's right how old are your children
i think the hardest thing for us has been is to find activities you know leisure time activities that all of our kids can enjoy together
so
i bet yeah
with the age span that we have you know like the older kids love playing board games and that kind of thing but the young kids don't understand it
um-hum yes uh-huh
and so they get real frustrated when we try to do that and
yes and then if you want to play something on the little kids' level then the older kids get real bored and and they want to and do something else so yeah i can i can relate to that
yeah
um do you feel that the current trend in families spending time together is a positive one or a negative one
i think it's improving actually
uh-huh
we had an interesting experience the other day we we have a pretty much a a routine that we spend we don't have our kids play with other kids on Sunday and we just kind of keep them at home
uh-huh um-hum
and our next door neighbor uh we were at a soccer game Saturday and our next door neighbor was there
somebody came up and asked if if their daughter could spend Saturday night at their house and she said no Sundays our family day and we keep our kids at home so we can spend time with them
um-hum
um-hum
that's good
and i think those kinds of things are happening a lot where we are right now i think it's gone to one extreme where the families were just all running every different direction
oh good
um-hum
and i think more people are interested in spending time with their kids now
i think so and i feel like you know like President Bush Bush has mentioned quite often that we are trying to become a kinder and gentler nation and it does begin with the families at home
yeah
and so i i'm a firm believer in that too
i think a lot of people are panicked how kids are turning out and how things are going for kids and realizing they've got to start doing something so
um yes that's that's true well we see that a lot out here in Utah and
um so hopefully hopefully it's going to spread huh that's a good
Utah's a lot better than Texas
oh um do you have a lot of large families out there in Texas or
yeah
very few
very few you feel like you're in the minority
yeah
oh definitely when we tell people how many kids we have they look at us like we didn't have good sense but uh
oh dear oh well out here in Utah five is about the the average yeah
average yeah my wife and i were in Utah until i guess we were about twenty four
oh
uh-huh
and we've never been back since then but we have kids up there now so we get up occasionally
oh
oh
oh i have some relatives out there in Texas in fact my mom's out there in Texas right now in Dallas spending a month with her cousins on their ranch and
where where in Dallas
well uh no i'm trying Aberdeen
hum
it is that close to Dallas oh don't you it's i guess guess it's out there clear out they have a ranch it has like five hundred acres and
i don't have any idea i've never heard of it must be a little town
yeah
