A Long Overdue Entry...

This past week has been very hectic. We had our first big Oregon family reunion since 1997. Last Tuesday, my parents, my grandpa, and my sister Ellen all came to visit my apartment. (That meant I had to spend all of Monday cleaning up.) That was the first time any of them had been here, and everything went well. My parents and sis were here from Idaho Falls for the reunion, and they were staying with my grandpa. Right when they were about to leave, I got a call from my brother's wife.... they were on the way to my apartment, but completely lost. After guiding them back on track, I said goodbye to my current visitors. We figured that it would be best if everyone wasn't there at the same time since the apartment is so small. ANYway, my brother's family arrived a short time later, and the kids had a blast. My brother zonked out for a few hours on the couch, and his wife ended up falling asleep on my bed. They had driven all night, so they were obviously pooped. We played games, went swimming, and had Papa Murphy's pizza while they were here. They spent the night, then were out of here by 8:00 the next morning to head to the coast, where the family reunion was going to be held. They booked their campsite one night earlier than everybody else.

Thursday, we packed up and headed out to the coast. We ended up going the LONG way, taking over 3 hours to get there! Yuck-o! We packed enough stuff for one night, since we were all planning to come back on Friday evening (the reunion ran until Sunday). My hubby had a Code Camp in Vancouver on Saturday that he needed to present at. After we got there, and found out there was a quicker way to drive (that took only two hours), we decided that Hubby would leave on Friday and come back either late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. I had my husband contact the primary president to let her know I wouldn't be abel to play the piano on Sunday. I was able to do laundry at the beach house my aunt and uncle had rented, and everybody was more than willing to help me out with food, etc. Since the dinners were already planned out (different groups of the family were in charge of dinner for everybody each evening), that left breakfast and lunch. My aunt and uncle invited me over to their RV for lunch on Friday and Saturday. It worked out great.

ANYway, Thursday evening we had a dinner at the big yurt. I got to see some relatives that I hadn't seen in quite a while. We also spent a bunch of time down on the beach, even though the tide was coming in quite fast. My hubby got some great pics of the sunset on the ocean. I'll have to post them eventually. We all had fun sitting around the campfire that night. I'd have to say that THAT is my favorite part about camping. That night was rather uncomfortable sleeping, since we didn't bring mattress pads. Jasmine spent the night in my brother's tent with his kids, so at least it wasn't too crowded in our teeny tent.

Tyler woke up early every morning because of the bazillilon blasted crows squawking and cawing. He had a ton of energy that needed to be burned off, so I was constantly chasing after him. Friday, he took a three hour nap, which was rather nice. Daddy left around noon or so, and I just rested a little while Jasmine was playing with her cousins. That afternoon, we all drove like 8 miles up the coast to the hotel where my parents and one of my aunts and uncles were staying. That's when I got to do the laundry. I spent the entire time in my swimisuit. Oh, joy. We played a bunch down on the beach, and everybody participated in building a big ol' sand castle structure. Tyler got momentarily gulped up by a wave (which about gave me a heart attack.... I scooped him up a second later) but other than a sputter, he didn't complain. He absolutely LOVED the cold ocean water. After that little incident, I took him higher up to dry sand where some of my cousins and their babies were playing. There, he was content to play with sand toys for the next half hour or so. Jasmine soon joined us. On the walk back up to the beach house, my cousin's husband was kind enough to carry Tyler up the 100 steps. I tried to, but pooped out very quickly. That's what I get for being pregnant and out of shape. When we got back up there, we made pizza. I got my first taste of anchovies --on a piece of pizza my uncle made-- and just about barfed. I don't think I'll ever try them again. Ew. Just thinking about it makes me squeemish. That night, one of my cousins lent me her mattress pad, so I slept much better. Jasmine was in my brother's tent once again.

Saturday, a bunch of people went deep sea fishing on a charter boat that my grandpa paid for. Individuals just had to pay for their own lisences. Out of the twenty people on board, over half got really sick (including my dad, my brother, and his two kids). They had some pretty nasty barf stories to share when they got back. All in all, 29 fish were caught. So, at least they had something to show for their seasickness. I am sure glad that I didn't go. Instead, I stayed at the campground with a few of my other relatives and all of the little kids. There are six little munchkins, including Tyler, that are within one year of each other... one and two year olds. We spent a bunch of time in my aunt and uncle's RV in the morning, cuz it had rained the night before and was kind of icky outside for a while. After it warmed up, we went for a walk with the kids and pooped out the babies for naptimes. Ty only slept for an hour and a half or so. That was long enough for me to eat and take a shower, though. I didn' see much of Jasmine that day... she was spending all her time with one of my cousins, whom she absolutely adores.

That evening, we were supposed to have dinner with a bonfire down on the beach. However, it was way too cold and windy. Instead, we just built the big fire up at the campsite, and roasted hotdogs and ate smores. The one big plus about this is that we were able to keep the fire going until almost midnight (where we wouldn't have been able to had it been down on the beach). Everyone went to bed pretty early except for my brother's wife and me. She stayed up with me by the fire while I waited for my husband to arrive. Within five minutes after puting out the fire and taking a potty trip, he pulled into the campsite. We didn't sleep very well that night. I had borrowed an air mattress from yet another cousin on this night, and it barely fit into the tent. Jasmine had also decided that she wanted to sleep in our tent that night. I made a makeshift mattress out of a spare sleeping bag for Tyler, so Jasmine, Daddy and I all slept on the air mattress together. The little valve thingy popped open during the night, so a bunch of the air had squeezed out. Limp air mattresses SUCK!

Sunday morning, my husband woke up at 6:00 to fix breakfast. After eating, we cleaned up and packed up. We said goodbye to everybody, then left by 11:00 or so. We made several stops to take pictures, got caught in some heavy traffic, and got home shortly after 2:00. Man, it was so freakin' hot coming back into the valley. I am so glad we stayed at the coast, where the high over the weekend was around 80 degrees or so. It was over 100 degrees at home. I'm just really glad that we left the a/c on all weekend long. There had to be like a 25 degree difference between outside and the inside of our apartment.

I still haven't unpacked or cleaned up our camping junk yet. I've just been so blasted tired since we got back. I need to get everything cleaned up within the next few days, though, because my brother and his family will be spending the weekend with us before they head back to Idaho. We'll be going to the zoo on Saturday, among other things. Fun, fun, fun.....

Well, I can't think of much else to write right now. I'd just better get this blasted thing posted and hope that Blogger doesn't give me any crap. Here goes...