Marquis family lives all over the place. His parents are really close to us along with one brother and sister, but he has a brother plus wife and four kids that live in Ohio and a sister plus four kids that live in Missouri. That same Missouri sister also has another son on a mission in Peru, and her oldest son, currently living in Missouri, will soon be married and moving to Idaho to go to school. As a result of this, getting together with the whole family is entirely too rare, so when we had the opportunity to see all these fun people (except our missionary) in Idaho, I did the unthinkable. I drove six hours in the car to see them.
Do you hear that, people? First, I left the house! Weird, but it does happen sometimes. Then, I rode in a car for six hours. SIX. 6. In a car!!! Six hours in an airplane is a piece of cake, in a car is something else altogether, car drives are the equivalent of torture for this poor girl. The last time we did anything close was the time we drove about a million years in a car to California to see CG while I was pregnant with Princess, which was horrid, but of course we'd drive twice as far to see CG. See what I do for the people I love?
I grew up in a teeny town, but moved to the "big city" very shortly after high school. I like people and tall buildings, they help me feel safe. I only had one little teeny, well, smallish, panic attack when the mountains disappeared, but once I could make myself breathe again and with relatively few tears shed, I really did ok for the rest of the trip. However, I felt totally out of my comfort zone when, as we are driving down the highway, we ran into a traffic jam of a different kind that I am used to.
Here is one of my preview pictures:
Obviously a cow, but just one of so, so many!
These pictures don't really show just how many cows were there, there was too much fumbling by the crazy city girl trying to get her cell phone out to take pics of all the cows. I totally missed the "cowboy" on the dirt bike that rode out in front of us for awhile trying to clear the herd enough to let us through.
The first part of the reunion extravaganza happened at a cabin by a lake not far from where Marquis's parent's grew up. It was a great cabin, and we crammed it to the max, cramming in all the aforementioned people, including the beautiful fiance of my nephew. The upstairs was just an open loft with a bunch of beds, with an irresistible spiral staircase and a balcony that just had to be explored.
But this reunion didn't just include Marquis's siblings. In order to make this the beginnings of a true extravaganza we invited a few more people. Or they invited us? Something. The cabin next door is owned by Marquis's uncle, and sleeping in that cabin and in the one next to it were all Marquis's dad's siblings along with their spouses as many of their kids/grandkids as could come. Some of these people I had still never met, and others it had just been far too long since I had seen them. My Marquis? He comes from good people, and it was very nice to get to spend time with those people.
Right off the deck of the uncle's cabin was a dock, and sitting on that dock was the uncle's waverunner, which Marquis just couldn't wait to get out on the water. Sweetheart was game, too, and once we found a life jacket small enough for her, they headed down to the dock to wait for their turn.
Another preview picture:
Marquis's hand, driving away on the waverunner with our daughter.
Marquis has this weird talent. We haven't had many opportunities to do things like ride waverunners, boats, four-wheelers, etc. But somehow this boy just knows how to drive every single mode of transportation that exist out there. A few years ago we went out on a boat, and when he was asked to drive he just hopped in and started driving. I know for a fact that if he has ever driven a waverunner before, it was before we were married, 13 years ago. And yet he just knew how, no learning curve. Wacky boy! (Nerds out there, it is just like Neo in the Matrix, where he downloads something to his brain, and then suddenly, "I know Kung Fu." Exactly like that!)
As they drove off, Marquis could hear Sweetheart saying something, but he couldn't tell what. He finally slowed down enough to hear what she was saying, and she asking him, "Where are we going?" When he explained that you don't really go anywhere on a waverunner, you just drive around, she thought that was silly and asked to go back.
By then I had decided Princess would be missing out if her paranoid mother kept her from going, too, and I had her suited up. She was so excited and ready to go, and as Marquis sped up and drove away we heard a loud, triumphant, "Haha!" It wasn't long before they were back, though, and I was actually a little happy to hear that my little adventure girl adrenaline junkie had found something she was a little bit scared of.
Sweetheart decided that just riding around really was fun after all and she went out one more time. Then we hung out for awhile, my sweet niece gave me a manicure and we all ate good food, and before long it was time for bed. I put the girls in their jammies and put them in their beds, which were right by the window looking out on the deck where everyone else was hanging out, enjoying a fire and some bedtime snacks.
I finally decided that it was pointless to make the poor girls watch the fun and brought them out until everyone else went in to bed. Then Princess showed us some of her climbing skills,
and then proceeded to scream for a very long time because she was somewhere strange and she was just too wound up from her really, really weird day to sleep.
But hey, it's not a good party if you stop long enough to sleep, right?
More to come!
1 comment:
fun!
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