Home, home and home

Family reunions make us happy.

and they had better, because that is what we’ve been doing for the last five days.

Non. Stop. Party.

If only we could survive on no sleep….heaven knows we tried.  Phil and I woke up early Friday morning and went for a run. When I married Phil, I always imagined us running together all the time. In reality, that hardly ever happens, but this trip we managed to get in two early morning runs before our late nights chatting with family caught up with us. After the run we went to Phil’s parent’s home for breakfast. I love meeting together for meals with more family than what can fit around the table; kids spilling outside with cousins and aunts and uncles all over as if they were all their own. The rest of the time was spent on walks, swimming, a temple trip, way too much food, talking, laughing and just trying to soak up every minute of family we don’t see near enough.

After some peaceful Sunday activities….

We hit the road for Juniper. I never get tired of coming home. I love that my kids feel it too. Home is so much more than where your rump rests.

It was so good to pull into the yard and have family all over. We were so lucky to catch Mike and Michelle before they had to take off. There’s never enough time to really catch up, but I’ll take what I can get, and sometimes just seeing a face, hearing a voice and a quick hug can do wonders for a heart. I can’t wait to catch up with all those we missed…and there were a lot that we really missed. Speaking of those we missed, Joe and his family were heavy on our minds. We had a flag retirement Sunday night, and it was a great way to start off the reunion. It was great news to hear he is finally back with his family, but after years of having them across seas we still miss them so much.

The next day we painted shirts and they turned out so cute. Even the boys who swore they didn’t want to do something so girly got into it and made some interesting creations.

Then there were bottle rockets. Larry helped the kids make their own, and I was impressed by how well they flew even though they had some very creatively placed fins.

The kids would go up to the launching pad and put their rockets on and then turn and run for their lives. Of course, Larry was in charge of the launching switch and he wouldn’t have let it go until everyone was a safe distance, but still they ran. Not Bingham’s bravest moment…leaving Sierra behind.

Then we headed up the canyon for dinner and fun.

The best swing ever.

It was all pretty fun. My kids seemed to have a target on their heads and three out of four ended up with a few bumps and bruises.  Austin got in a little fight with the grain bin and Austin was down for the count.  After it all they are both still standing, but I’m not looking for a rematch.  Then Sonya tried to catch a rocket…with her head. And last, just for fun, Bingham took a dive (head first) off the funnest swing in the world. All of  that mixed with very little sleep led to some unhappy campers….

…for a minute or two, but who can stay ornery with all the good times going on? Even a 40 minute down pour didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits. In fact, for the most part it seemed to add to the fun. Of course it helped that a few brave souls stayed out in the rain to keep dinner going while others (me) hid out in Jose’s truck.

Dinner was yum, and there was plenty for everyone…enough that we had to go on a little hike before desert.

I love hiking because it keeps kids in one place long enough to have some really good conversations  I had a good chat with Sierra and Reigan…who knew she was so chatty?  I’ve heard rumors that she speaks, but it was fun to witness it first hand.

We were lucky to be able to stay an extra day and just relax in Juniper before the trip home. Going home from home is always hard. It took us a couple hours to settle into our traveling groove.

We stopped at a place called Hanging Lake on I-70. It was a fun hike, just hard enough to make it worth getting to the top. But I’ll save that for another post.

It all came and went way to fast and it has us all wanting to plan another trip…soon.