Summertime #2

Jeff was out of town the day we left for Utah.

Packing the car and bikes alone was challenging alone but I was pleased as punch to actually be on schedule with leaving at 5:00 am. Just as Maryn and I were about to load the food and 3 sleeping children into the car the keys were NO WHERE to be found. NO WHERE I tell you. Vanished. Gone. Nada. Zip.

Argh!

Maryn and I prayed and searched and prayed and searched some more. For 2 hours we prayed and searched. I prayed for a miracle just so Maryn could experience the special feeling of getting an immediate answer to a prayer. What finer teaching moment could there be? Heavenly Father?

Augh!

That is such an agonizing feeling to not be able to find something that you just barely had. What is worse than looking for car keys???? How about getting calls every 10 minutes from Utah asking, "did you find them yet?"

Finally, I got the spare keys and decided to deal with the lack of car top carrier or bike rack keys later. We just had to get on the road. Each moment of searching was one more minute farther down the road. I loaded the kids and Maryn grabbed her purse off the table...

there they were!

Maryn had stuck her purse right on top of the keys on the kitchen table. Although we looked in the purse we didn't think to lift the purse up.

Dang her for putting her purse on top of the keys. We had a good teaching moment of proper places for purses to be placed. (say that 5 times.)

Fortunately, the ride was long and uneventful. The view was magnificent as you come down the mountain into the Yakima valley. We could see Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams at the same time! That is a very rare sight. Don't know if you can see both of them at both ends of the picture... camera doesn't do it justice because those volcanoes are huge and snowy white against the blue sky. Emmy snuggled up for the long ride. Thankfully we picked Uncle Marc up at the Boise airport to join us for the last 6 hours of the trip. We were glad to see him.

Maryn did her best to entertain the driver with camera shots.

That first Saturday we attended a Harston/Briggs reunion in Weber canyon. The kids had a blast at this beautiful cabin owned by Denise Harston.

Mom with 2 of her 3 sisters... Michelle and Melanie.

Just a few of the many cousins that were there. Marielle, Jeremy, McKenzie, Marc, myself, Mason and Miles. Ady and 3 week old Kaitlyn in front.

trying to get a shot of the whole group was a challenge.

It had been a while since I had seen my favorite Aunt Michelle. People used to think that I was her and Melanie's sister. I loved going out in public to let the world see that I had 2 cool sisters. (sleepovers and homemade nachos were the best)

This large family was the reason why we had the reunion. Here's the story. A brother and sister-in-law married after their spouses (who were in fact brother and sister) passed away. One came with 4 boys and the other came with 5 kids. Together they had 5. The children that joined were literally cousins but were raised as brothers and sisters. 11 boys and 2 girls. (the math didn't add up with there. All I know is that it's a yours, mine and ours situation and there were 13 total.) My grandpa is the man farthest on the left. It was so special to hear stories of them all and to know what a strong family they were. I got my turn holding baby Kaitlyn.

Making smores out back.

We had the Johnsons over for dinner on Sunday and of course all the little kiddies had to dress up.

It's not a family gathering unless you play Pounce.

We went to a new pool in Lehi with Heather and Rachel and Marianne and their kids.

Best girl cousins. Does Marianne look like she's about to give birth any second?

I just wanted to add a blurb here about my neglectfulness to this blog. It may appear to the reader that I have not been working faithfully on this blog. But I say, don't be so quick to judge! Appearances aren't everything. My blocks of time where I used to work on this blog have become morsels of moments. I have only been able to download a few pictures a a time or write a sentence or two before I am carried away into a tornado of tumultuous chaos where my children think they need me. Now, I am so far behind in pictures and postings I am overwhelmed. Life has been so humongously wild these days. I won't be offended if eventually you are able to skip all these Utah Summer pictures and get to the here and now. I always take a quadrillion and a half pictures when we go to Utah. This year is no exception because SO much went on. My oh my. We have not been bored. Life is good and hard. Thanks for being patient with me. I still enjoy reading your blogs nonetheless. They lift and comfort me. Don't stop. I won't either.