So about a year ago we moved from Utah to Denver. A family from our old ward in Utah wants to take a vacation to Denver and spend some time with us one night.

The problem is the family is weird. The wife used to play chuch B-ball with my wife so my wife considers her a friend. They have one boy that bothers me to no end. It's like a Dennis the Menace/Mr. Wilson thing. He used to play at our house ALL THE TIME. I say play, but they used to send him over to our house for free babysitting. Both his parents work and my wife stays home so they thought they could send him over to our place every day for daycare or when they needed to go to the store. This really ticked me off when they had long breaks from school and he would spend all day long at our house.

I really got bothered when I was away for six months on a work project hundreds of miles from my family and they still sent their kid over for free babysitting, knowing full well my wife had her hands full with four boys of her own all by herself. Anyway, I really don't care for these people and they want to hang out when they come out for Memorial Day weekend.

I have told my wife that I will find some reason to be absent when they come, but I can't think of a reason to be working out of town on Memorial Day weekend. What excuse can I use?

I know they will ask if they can drop their kid at our place to "catch up and play" while they go somewhere.