Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Family Reunion, Part II

Where do I begin? I hope you're comfy. I'm just filling in where Tris left off....As you may recall, this trip all started with a hair-brained idea around 8:00 on Monday to drive some 12 hours to Colorado. Once I got there, all I wanted to do was talk to Jana for 3 days straight, so we got pretty creative when it came to putting our kids to bed. Hey, we were on vacation!Lucky for me, Jana came up with ways to keep the kids entertained...here they're having a water-balloon toss. I love the concentration in Em's face! It only lasted about 2 minutes before they were making "mud-pies" in the back yard.My super-heroes escaped at bed-time and I found them rocking away like grumpy old men on the back porch!After Jana's, it was on the road again. We went camping for a night in Heber with Dan's extended extended family. Let's say it was an ADVENTURE! For the children, right? Here's a shot of the cabins with some added wild life for good measure. The best part was the last hour when we rented paddle boats and canoes on the lake, but Katy hasn't blogged about that yet and all those pictures are on her camera. :)
We made it to temple square one afternoon and ended up walking around the entire temple to find the visitor's center. While doing so, we interrupted only about 14 weddings! Phew, that place is busy! I love this statue of Jesus and couldn't wait to hear something really spiritual come "out of the mouth of babes." Instead, as we were walking up the circular corridor to Jesus, Lukas shouts out, "Mom, we're in Toy Story 2!" (for those of you who don't have it memorized like he does, just watch the opening scene.)After dinner and a show at the Mayan, we headed to Deanna's house (Dan's sister) for a baby shower. It was great! Her baby is precious beyond belief! Here she is wearing a headband I made for her. I just wish you could see her perfect lips. I must admit, it was the most unique baby shower experience. Since it was her first, Deanna led the conversation with pen and paper in hand with all the questions she had. It was just the sisters (in-laws too) and mom and we got down and dirty and by the end, I think several people had tears from laughing so hard. Gotta love girl time.The next day we were favored to take part in Brocky-boo's blessing. Here are our reverent children and the closest to a family photo we got all vacation. (we're still missing 10+ people)
And here we are, King and Queen of the Rook Tourney. A title that can't be stripped from us for the next 3 years until we meet again in Ohio. And if I lug that piece of a-hem, "work" all the way to Ohio, taking up precious suitcase space, you better believe it is not coming back! We had a special glass case made for it, along with cute little outfits for all the people on the trophy. They weren't modest.What's better than watching tv on Papa and Nana's bed while everyone else is playing rook?After our 5 hour nap and 12 hour night's sleep, we were ready for the 4th of July Parade in Kayesville. This is serious business! This "float" was throwing out stuffed animals! Lukas was more than thrilled to get a piece of candy, even though apparently he hadn't quite finished his last piece yet...After the parade, there is always a community water fight. It was pretty intense--the streets were lined with trucks pulling trailers full of water to combat the fire trucks.Valora cunningly had Eric carry the water cooler all the way from the car just in case we got thirsty. Instead, she dumped it all over his head. You should have seen her victory dance! The kids had a blast on all the inflatables after the parade. BJ really wanted a picture of him catching some air....And boy did he--he landed over 1/2 way down!Indulge me for a mommy moment....This was not a posed photo. Do you ever just look at your kids and wonder: How did this happen?! I'm a mother of 4 kids! And for one blessed moment they are actually playing together like friends! This was one of those moments. I felt so lucky to have such great kids.The moment was obviously short-lived....Later, we had our own little water-fight. Everyone was split into teams. Right before the main event, little Spencer, Eric's 6 year old stepped on top of a glass aquarium and broke through with both feet. Spencer was on BJ's "team" for the fight, and all BJ could say after seeing all the blood and screaming was, "well, looks like we lost a guy." His empathy was truly astounding. It was a miracle that Spencer wasn't hurt more than he was, and after the bandages, he still had a great time, as you can see in this action shot:After the boys played ball, they played with FIRE, which I think they enjoyed even more!

And that's the end of the longest post ever. And the longest vacation ever! I miss everyone already. Oh well. See you in three years! :) (now you see where BJ's empathy comes from.)

2 comments:

jana jacob said...

What a fun trip! How could it not be fun when you got to see me? Really, I am still in awe that you drove here! You are the greatest friend and I miss you terribly!

Raenie said...

Sarah...your blog is so fun and it's great to see how grown up all your kids are! We'll have to keep Boise in mind as we are making job/city choices soon!! Take care, Raenie