We felt bad that we didn't have more time to spend with him and his lovely wife, Heather, but after being slowed down a day by car problems, we were in a rush to make up for lost time. We definitely look forward to better quality time with them.
By the time we left Kirk, it was getting late and we were getting tired. The kids had all fallen asleep and me and Greg were barely hanging on. The special soda wasn't helping, the cold brisk air blowing in wasn't helping, conversation and snacking weren't helping, what were we to do? So we turned on talk radio. For some reason having a good conversation on the radio really wakes us up. The only station that came in well was doing this weird show called, "Crypto Zoology". It was all these callers calling in to tell about their personal experiences with big foot (ha, ha Natalie) and the thunderbird. It was hilarious. Supposedly the thunderbird is this enormous pterodactyl-like bird. One guy saw a thunderbird eating a deer on the side of the road and then fly off carrying it. It was fun and funny and it definitely got us through the driving low. And then we were there.
On my side of the fam, we haven’t had everybody all together since my little brother got married some 7-ish years ago. To say that it was great to have us all there would be a major understatement. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for a couple days. The only problem was that now that the kids who were young when we got married are older, it made for quite the divide age wise and activity wise. It felt like most of my time was spent just dealing with my children instead of being able to really hang out (sound familiar?). Not that I don’t love my kids but it just would have been nice to be all together in a few years when Gavin doesn’t need to be on my person (literally) all the time because stanka won’t take a bottle. So I especially enjoyed the time after bedtime or during naps to just be together and the girls most definitely had so much fun with the pets and with their cousins.
While we were there, we had activities all over the town: we were able to get some shopping in, passed the 10 year mark of our marriage, went to a super fun water park (twice), people shot guns, Greg did laser tag , some went rafting down a river, we put up an enormous tipi in the backyard, kids played on a jumpy house, we picked some cherries and raspberries, the little girls opened up a rock shop and sold some rocks, took some family photos and cooked and cleaned a bunch of enormous meals together.
Here is a little photo passport.
The big tipi. I mean, who puts a tipi in their backyard? So fun. All the boy cousins slept out there together. Tati had a grand ole time "helping" them put the tipi up too. She kept typing knot after knot. The tipi actually was put up twice. Once to learn how to do it and then the second time, once they figured it out. Now pretty much if anybody needs a tipi put up anywhere, just call these guys. After we left, my brother invited the scouts in his ward to come over and sleep in it too.
The water park. It was awesome. It had a fun kid area, plenty of grass to picnic or lay out on, a lazy river and a big slide and deep pool area for older kids. It felt so good to just soak up sunshine. I wished that I wasn't so flabby and white but you have to start somewhere and the great thing about being with family is that they always think you look great. We ended up going there twice because it was so much fun. The second time only half of us went because the other half went rafting. We opted out of rafting because of our small baby and the long drive to get there. I think the kids enjoyed our decision.
All in all I needed a few more days to be together because I still didn't feel like I got to spend enough time with everybody. Only one more vacation post to go!
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