Hot and Cold

That would pretty much describe our weekend. The days were nice and hot, and our tent was freezing at night! We bummed an extra sleeping bag off his mom our second night which helped immensely, but it was still chilly!

Mark's family reunion was this weekend, so off to Rexburg we went. There's a little ranch thingy just outside town that his uncle had reserved, plenty of trees for shade and a playground for the kids. It took me a couple days just to get everything together for camping with 3 kids! We took:

A big tent, a little tent, 2 sleeping bags, 2 foam pads, 2 air mattresses, bedding and blankets, pillows, pump, lantern, sunscreen and aloe, bugspray, clothes, towels, snacks, and a huge bag of entertainment for children.

Thanks to some hyper-organized OCD gene I got from somewhere the van was packed like a puzzle and we were prepared for plenty!

The boys had a blast! I regret that I took naps instead of pictures the whole weekend, but after 2 days of laundry and packing I was exhausted. Lots of cousins to play with, since all Mark's brothers and sisters with kids were there. And many of his cousins were too. With their children. Lots of good food and fun, talking, and playing. I even got talked into the talent show, literally last minute. We're talking 10 minutes before the show was supposed to start! My sweet sister-in-law brought a piece of music that I had played for her last time they visited us, "Waterfall" by Jon Shmitt. Steph knows this piece.... :-)

"OH OH OH OH!!!! You should totally play that! You're awesome .....!" and so forth. For some strange reason I agreed and got stuck on the program. As the second performer.....

And boy was I glad that nobody there plays piano very well, they are more guitar folks. And that nobody had ever heard the song except Mark and Mindy, his sister. I made so many mistakes! Not to mention how out of tune the piano there was! But the family all kept coming up to me and telling me how much they enjoyed it and stuff. After I played, the announcer asked how long I had been playing piano. It almost shocked me to say it has been nearly 22 years! (I was almost 6 when I started.) Mark even said afterwards that he forgets how well I play, and he was impressed. Silly guy. So even though I couldn't believe that I let them talk me into doing that, everybody made me feel really special afterwards, and I'm glad I did because some of the young ones are taking lessons and they thought it was really neat to hear.

We stayed at his Mom's after the reunion got over Sunday, and headed home Monday afternoon. Somehow the drive home is harder than the drive there. We got home at 8:30 and the kids went straight to bed after helping bring all the stuff in the house. And slept all night without hardly even moving they were so tired! We were aiming to be home for dinner, but spent a good while with Mark's grandma, so missed that window. That's alright! Golden Corral is just as good as homemade anyway! And Monday is seafood night. Strangest thing, they had mussels. And the boys liked them! They kept wanting more! Even William ate one and said it was yummy. I have odd children....