Reunion Recap

I keep putting off writing a post about our 4th of July weekend and the reunion because I haven't gotten around to downloading any pictures from my camera yet. I finally decided that the pictures aren't that great anyway (partly because I kept forgetting to bring the camera with me anywhere) so I'll just talk about things and if I find a great picture later, I can share it then!

So on Thursday we headed out for our trip. That was July 1 - Aaron's birthday. So to do something fun for his birthday, we went to Leadville and rode the train there. It was a 2 1/2 hour round trip and we really enjoyed it. There was spectacular scenery. The weather was beautiful. The kids behaved themselves. It was just altogether a great time! Sadly, I forgot to bring any of Aaron's birthday presents along, so he didn't get to open anything on his birthday. Actually, he didn't get to open anything until about 2 days ago, when I finally remembered to give him his gifts!

Friday through Sunday were spent with my family on the mountain. It was fun to see everyone and visit. Happily, there were no big hailstorms or snow this year. There were a couple of big windstorms (enough that one tent got a big long rip in the side when a branch blew into it). And there was rain. But not torrential downpours, so it was manageable. While the adults tended to stay under canopies out of the rain, the kids really paid no attention to the rain. They were out playing any chance they got - wet or not!

We tried to take the kids fishing on Friday, but ran out of time. We tried again Sunday, but the weather was so cold, windy, and rainy that after a couple of hours (really!) of driving to different fishing spots hoping for better conditions, we gave up for the day. We made plans to go up the mountain bright and early on Monday morning so the kids could do a little fishing before we headed back to Colorado.

Sunday night is when the stomach flu hit our family. Brekken and Preston threw up all night long. I was feeling VERY grateful that we were staying in town instead of in a tent. At my mom's house we were able to wash laundry and wash children and keep up with the mess. I hate to think about trying to manage in a tent with no running water or electricity! The bug ran through a lot of our family - I don't even have a count of how many people ended up with it by the end of the week.

The kids were still sick on Monday morning, but very determined that they WOULD go fishing. So my dad and my brother were nice enough to take us all to a kids' fishing pond. It wasn't the lake, but at least they'd have the chance to throw the line in a few times and feel like they'd done some fishing! They actually perked up and tried fishing for a good hour or so and had a good time. Hopefully next year they can try some real fishing.

The ride home with 3 (Haley started in, too) sick kids and one Mom who was dealing with either the stomach bug or returning morning sickness (still unsure which) was not a lot of fun - the less said, the better, I'm sure! But happily everyone recovered pretty quickly and we have mostly a lot of good Reunion memories!