Vacationing (Part 2)

After the family reunion, Grandma and Grandpa took three kids with them back to Langley because there wasn't enough room in our car for everyone to go back in that. Those three people were: Lizzie, Sam, and (you guessed it) Me!

The ride was about sixteen hours. I listened to music almost the whole time so it didn't seem too long. We arrived at about midnight on Saturday or Sunday, depending on which side of midnight we arrived on.

The next day (or same day if you decided we arrived on Sunday) we went to church and settled in and came up with some things we wanted to do that week.

Monday, we continued to settle in and make plans. Lizzie and I went to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 2) which was great. Some things were a little jarring or surprising but the overall movie was great. I loved that they skimmed over some stuff I didn't like in the book, they came up with some stuff I did like. Unfortunately, they had some characters say things out of character for comic relief.

Tuesday we went on a 'hike'. It could more easily be called a walk. I think Grandpa was amused by our slow pace, (we were taking pictures!) but we had a good time.

Wednesday was the beach! We had a wonderful time there. Sammy and Lizzie went around with other kids, hunting for crabs. (Blugh.) I took a bunch of pictures. Here they are:

I always imagined the ocean as being rather wild but it was beautifully serene

Sammy, wishing his crabs would fight

Lizzie, looking for seashells

This is how our family looks when we're thinking. We're commonly asked, "What's wrong?"

I had a really cheesy description for this one character a while ago that went something like, "His eyes sparkled like diamonds in the golden sands of his face." I saw this shell half buried in the sand and thought of that line, so I just had to take a picture.

Thursday, we went to Vancouver Island to visit the Petersons who we haven't seen for years. It was great to see them.

Friday we traveled to Vernon, where we stayed with the Kilistoffs. We went swimming a lot, which was a real novelty because we don't have many good swimming lakes here. Aunt Boo introduced us to cliff jumping, which is both awesome and scary. Unfortunately, I got swimmers' itch. It's fading now, but it really puts a damper on the whole experience.

The rest of the family arrived in the middle of church on Sunday. We went camping in our boat - which was less than great because I hate camping - on Wednesday and came back to the Kilistoffs' on Friday. We left for home on Saturday morning.

So there is the summary of our trip. After three weeks away, my own home seemed strange. Which just shows how much of a homebody I am.

Vacationing (Part 1)

Okay, so I just got back from a three week vacation at 12:00 Sunday morning and I'm finally getting around to writing a blog post about it.

First, the day before we left for our family reunion at Bear Lake, was Sam's baptism. Preparations were hectic, as all baptisms in our family have ever been. Sam was very particular about the special musical numbers he wanted us to do but we were so busy preparing for our leaving the next day and getting the refreshments ready that we had no time to practice the two numbers he wanted us to sing while he was changing. So we didn't sing them (don't tell him).

I made him a beautiful, tasty River Jordan cake:

You see those delicious chocolate rocks? Somebody sneaked a real rock in among the fake ones. Dad nearly broke a tooth when he tried to eat it.

The next morning, Saturday, I got up at 4:00 am because we planned to leave at 6:00 and I wanted to get everything I needed to do done before people were telling me I had to hurry. We left at 7:00.

Grandma and Grandpa drove up for Sam's baptism and so they also drove with us down to the reunion. They took three kids in their car and the others travelled in our car. I drove in our car. The 14 hour drive was rather too short to me because Mom spent just about the whole time reading us Great-Grandpa Greene's autobiography or sleeping so I didn't get to talk to her much, which was a gigantic disappointment. (Car rides just aren't fulfilling unless you get to talk to Mom the whole time.)

It had been planned for Grandma and Grandpa to take the three oldest (Sarah, Erik and me) to the Dushku's, in Centerville, while the others went on to the Eagle Mountain Burnham's house. However, we arrived in Centerville area at 9:00 and Aunt Jen offered to let the others stay so that they didn't have to drive another hour.

The next day was Sunday, July 17, my cousin's birthday. There were about thirty people there to celebrate with her so we needed a big cake. Aunt Jen was busy preparing a meal for that many people and presents for Bella so I got to make the four layer, red velvet cake:

We spent forever trying to figure out what design to give this cake so my cousin finally suggested this cake design by Cake Boss.

The other side of the cake:

Mom did the writing, because my writing on any surface isn't visually appealing. You see that cloth under the platter? That is our attempt to counter the cake's relentless sliding to the side because our filling was too thin.

Monday we went to welfare square for a tour and then went on to Bear Lake. Random pictures from the week we spent there because I'd rather not bore you with the details of the whole week:

The Lake

A second after I took the last picture, I heard a pop above me. I looked up in time to snap a picture of my murderer.

I wonder what impression he meant to make with this face...

The kids went hunting for tadpoles under the dock

They caught one!

The sailboat

That's all to post in part one of this post! The next one contains my trip to Langley! (And sorry about the weird formatting of this post, it just happened and I don't know how to fix it.)