This is going to be a serious long journal for the next bit, so those of you bored by such are free to skim and enjoy the pictures. The kids and I took off for Utah on July 22nd with my sister, Andrea, as backup adult support since Joe couldn’t come until the next week. Here’s what I learned after 16+ hours in a car over 2 days – I have the BEST KIDS EVER!!! This is largely due to Joe’s incredible mother, who made AJ and Natalie each a backseat toy/colored pencil/book holder. They were able to keep all their stuff organized and easy to play with. Not only were they entertained for the entire trip (without the use of any electronic devices), but they were a LOT cleaner. Andrea was shocked at how good they were. When they both started to get tired, Natalie announced that they needed their pillows because it was bed time. Even Brooklin was an angel despite the long ride. We had to stop every 3 hours or so to feed her, but she didn’t complain at all. We stopped in Twin Falls, ID, for the night and took our time getting to Monticello the next day.
I’m pretty sure we just bummed around Friday playing with Peggy and her kids until it was time for me to go to my class reunion. I saw lots of high school friends and met their spouses and ate a delicious dinner prepared by Heather Frost Holm and her family. Macie got to come with us because Natalie couldn’t bear to leave her at home with Grandma and Grandpa, so everyone thought I had four kids instead of three. When I told them that Macie was Peggy’s daughter, everyone went, “Oh, yeah. Definitely.” I was really disappointed at how many people didn’t come to the reunion though. It seems like there is a LOT of people from my class that live in Monticello and didn’t show up. And there were quite a few others that I know were in town and still didn’t come. I was really worried that it would be just like high school, and everyone would separate into their respective cliques, but it didn’t seem that way to me at all. In fact, there were a few people that I thought, “Why didn’t I hang out with him/her in high school? He/she’s so cool!”
Saturday morning was the Monticello parade. I swear our kids scored enough candy to last several lifetimes. It totally filled the basket under Brooklin’s stroller plus a few grocery bags as well. I’ve decided small town parades are way funner than big town parades because you know the people on the floats. Even here in Moses Lake, it seems like every float is a blatant ad for some business and nothing more. No one gives out treats; they give out flyers for their business. We got to sit with my Aunt Tamara and her 18-month-old grandson, Cooper. He’s quite the busy little boy. The abundance of candy was partially due to CJ, the pre-missionary my parents were fostering until he left for the MTC this week, who collected and gave our kids everything he found.
That evening, I abandoned my kids to go on a cookout with their grandparents while I went to part II of the class reunion. We had a very nice dinner catered at the K&A Chuckwagon. The presentation included updates on where everyone is and what we’re doing. The families of Darla Redd and Brandon Larcival (who both passed away since we graduated) gave us an update on what they were doing before they died tragically. We signed cards for the families with our favorite memories. I’m really glad I went.
Sunday was church and a visit to Grandma Muhlestein. I had a déjà vu moment when we got out of church and saw actual rain in Monticello. I thought I was in Kansas for a minute the way it was pouring down. Despite being parked right next to the door of the church, we all got drenched. Here is a picture of me and Andrea and a couple of the kids. You can’t tell very well, but we were dripping wet.
Sunday evening, I brought Natalie, Macie, and Lydia over to Shannon Young’s house to visit and play with Avery. Shannon gave me a tour of her house. They’ve done a lot of work, and it looks great. She told me all about living back in our tiny hometown after the metropolitan community of Kansas City. There are some definite advantages and disadvantages to each!
Monday evening, we went out to Grandma and Grandpa Harvey’s house for a visit. I haven’t been out there for a LONG time. It’s always fun to see them. The kids got to put their names on Grandma’s fridge as the last ones to visit.
Monday for FHE was shooting rockets at the elementary school. The kids had a great time chasing the rockets and rolling down the hill. AJ was the brave one who had to be hoisted onto the roof by Grandpa Muhlestein to retrieve a wayward rocket.
Tuesday morning, Andrea, Brooklin, and I took off for Salt Lake. Andrea’s flight left shortly after Joe’s flight from Spokane landed. We planned it pretty well, so I exchanged one passenger for another and didn’t even have to park at the airport. Joe and I continued our trip to Logan. We decided to visit some friends and see how Cache Valley has changed since we hadn’t been back since we moved. We wished we had time to see everyone! As it was, we saw a few friends when we made a deposit at Deseret First Credit Union (where Joe used to work). And we were able to see a couple of Joe’s old mission buddies. One of them was gracious enough to watch Brooklin for us while we hit 9 holes at Logan River golf course. It’s as fun as I remembered it! Our friends told us they wanted to adopt Brooklin after a couple hours with her. I must admit, she is pretty adorable! That night, we drove back down to American Fork and stayed at Dennis and Gayla’s house.
After a fantastic breakfast prepared by Gayla, Joe and I were able to attend an endowment session at the Mount Timpanogas temple. Joe and I got asked to be the witness couple for something like the 5th time in a row! The last time was in Spokane when the temple president asked us to be the witnesses before we’d even handed them our recommends!
Wednesday afternoon we drove back down to Monticello and went to bed. While we were gone, the kids pretty much terrorized Grandma and Grandpa:) Actually, they spent plenty of time on the trampoline and enjoyed the time with their cousins.
Natalie decided she wanted her hair cut while we were gone. So Peggy gave in and cut it for her. She actually wanted it as short as her friend, Avery Young (Brad and Shannon Young’s daughter from Monticello), but I said she had to keep it a little longer, so we can pull it up for ballet. It really was getting long and stringy on the ends.
We abandoned our kids again to go golfing at the Monticello Hideout on Thursday morning. It is a beautiful course and challenging, too. I would love to spend more time down there. There’s not too many places where you see deer on the course!!
After that, I got us ready to go camping while Joe played around with his RC car. (Grrrr). Then, we headed out to the beautiful LaSal mountains with the rest of the family.
Friday morning, we heard our neighbors hundred or so dogs (okay, it just seemed like that many when I was trying to sleep) barking up a storm. Turns out they treed a bear! Poor little cub of a thing was scared half to death.
This is AJ and Dallin on their “treasure hunt.” It included a map made from a piece of bark!
These next few pictures are of the hike up Mount Peale. Most of us had to turn around due to small children part of the way up, but a few (including my trooper, AJ) made it almost to the top.
Saturday morning we packed up and headed back to town. After a few desperately needed showers, Joe and a few others drove over to Cortez to see the Extreme Rock Racing finals.
Saturday night we drove out to the cabin to play with tannerite, which was rumored to create really fun explosions when hit with high-powered ammo. So we set up a bunch of rocks and stuff to blow up. After an hour of not hitting the target, the boys had to sight in Dennis’ rifle, and we finally had an explosion. It wasn’t quite the pyrotechnics we were expecting, but it pulverized everything around it.
Sunday after church, we all packed up and headed for our various homes. Joe and I stayed at a cheap hotel outside of Twin Falls and finished the drive on Monday.
The first picture is driving through Red Rock country near Moab. The second one is Deadman’s Pass through the Blue Mountains of Oregon.
