Reunions in July

 Rory's imagination is running wild these days and we spend most of our time in character. Some of her current favorite scenarios are me as Cinderella, Rory as Jack Jack, Ada as Gus Gus and Stephen as Lucifer or Me as Mother Gothel, Rory as Rapunzel, Ada as Pascal, and Stephen as Eugene (even though he usually insists on being the Stabbington brothers). 

Sometime the play is more general and this is when we played hair salon. For Stephen's sake I hope he eventually gets a little golf-loving boy, but for now he just looks so dang good with bows in his hair. 

We finally went and checked out the Greenfield middle school pool with the Hardings, just in time to find out it's completely amazing and was shutting down because school was starting. At least we know how to spend our time next summer and I also snapped this picture of Ada that I will love forever. 

Xandalynne and I threw together this gravity-defying Milky Way cake for her brother very last minute, and it may not have turned out perfect, but it was delicious and super cool to look at. 

We also finally got to go back to church in person! We have to wear masks and sit at least six feet apart from every other family. We listen to the music instead of singing along to hymns, and the meeting is only 45 minutes long. We are excused row by row and are asked not to congregate to chat outside of the building. It doesn't feel like a regular church service, but it still feels good to have somewhere to be on Sundays and to see that other humans still exist. Rory does a great job of wearing her mask and I am really grateful for that!

On Thursday, July 23 the girls and I took off for Washington! I was a little nervous to travel with both of them minus Stephen plus masks, so I had to take this celebratory picture when we made it to our gate without any issues. Rory brought her beloved kitty purse (a gift from Grandma Lucina) along and thankfully she keeps one of Stephen's senior pictures in there so that she will never miss him too much when he is away. 

Oh boy, was our flight rough. First of all, when I went to board with my group the gate agent said I needed to wait to the side because my lap infant didn't appear on my ticket. I then stood there with both girls while he boarded every single person on the flight. When everyone was on the plane, he fixed whatever he needed to with my ticket, and we were finally able to board while everyone watched and waited for us. I passed row after row of empty seats but didn't risk sitting in one of them and being corrected by a flight attendant in front of everyone. I made it to my seat only to discover that in the midst of a pandemic that we are all supposed to take extremely seriously Allegiant had packed the entire back end of the plane full, leaving no middle seats open at all and then didn't let anyone move seats. The lady next to us was very kind, but it was a less than ideal situation obviously. 

I was in the middle seat with Ada on my lap and gave Rory the window. I got Rory set up with her movie and tried to get Ada to sleep in my arms by soothing her with her pacifier and the measly bouncing attempts you can make while sitting in the middle seat of the plane. Ada was super overtired and was lashing out all around her looking for something to save her from herself. Several times her hands made contact with Rory's iPad and the contact made the touch screen react so it would pause her movie or turn it to small screen and Rory lost her mind every time that happened. Then Ada grabbed her pacifier and threw it on the floor. I tried to look for it, but you can't move much in a middle seat with an infant on your lap and the lady next to us was asleep by this point. I paused Rory's movie and made her go down to see if she could find. She reluctantly did so, then quickly informed me she couldn't see it anywhere and it was gone. I attempted to soothe Ada sans pacifier this time and it was going even worse when she once again swiped Rory's screen. Rory reared up with anger, grabbed Ada's hand and bit her HARD. Ada's faint screeching turned into a voluminous howl, Rory became upset at her volume and I now had two little girls crying their hearts out. My eyes filled with fiery rage, I told Rory there would be no more movies until she found Ada's binky. She went down to the ground and came back with it less than five seconds later (and yes being the wonderful mother that I am I popped that sucker right back in her mouth, stranger airplane germs and all.) She finally fell asleep, Rory turned back on her movie, and the rest of the flight was relatively uneventful. I know it was as bad as I think it was because as we were deplaning the lady next to us cooed to Ada, "You be a good girl." Then she turned a hard eye on Rory and said, "And you need to listen to your mom." 

My mom picked us up and we stopped at the Country Mercantile for lunch and ice cream on the way home, and that always makes any rough ordeal worth it. 

My mom had a bunch of clothes and things for the girls and she happened to find this matching set of sunglasses for Rory and I. We put them on and then my mom told Rory to come sit on my lap so she could get a picture. As she climbed on my lap she looked me dead in the eye and whispered, "I look better than you." 

Early the next morning I took off for a trip to Stanley Idaho to meet up with my freshman roommates from BYU. The girls stayed with my parents and obviously had no fun at all. I was gone Friday morning to Sunday night and the Nielsens arrived on Saturday so Rory got all of Grammy's attention and then all of the cousin play time. It was a good weekend for all of us. 

I couldn't even tell you how wonderful it felt to drive in a car by myself. The trip to Stanley was 9 hours and I listened to an Agatha Christie book and at snacks and stopped whenever I wanted to use the bathroom without helping anyone else. I got to Boise in tine to pick Brianne and Nicki up from the airport, we grabbed some Chick Fil A and then drove the rest of the way to Stanley. 

Amy and Austin live in Stanley year round and they run the Triangle C Cabins, while Austin also helps run the Redfish Lake Lodge which his grandparents own. They live in the office suites there with their two boys (and a girl on the way) and the main room is giant so they brought in some extra beds and we all bunked together. The first night we chatted, ate some delicious pizza for dinner and explored Redfish Lake a little bit. The weather felt amazing and the views were incredible. It was amazing that after ten years we could go right back to our freshman personas and fit our group together again. 

After a delicious breakfast the next morning, Amy hooked us up with some kayaks and we floated a portion of the snake river. We worried the water was too cold and too shallow for us fair-weather kayakers, but as the sun got stronger the water felt better and better and we only got caught on a few rocky patches. We saw three bald eagles, much to Nicki's delight, and had plenty of more time to chat. 

After a quick stop back to Amy's house for lunch, we took off for the Redfish Lake Lodge and caught the pontoon out to a spot to hike from. We hiked to a lily pad pond and a waterfall, both of which were breathtaking. The sun was pretty strong through the afternoon, so by the end of our hike we were ready for a break. We went back to the lodge for virgin Mojitos or "Monkey-does" as Amy mistakenly thought they were called, and relaxed on the beach front. The glacier water took some getting used to, but in the end wading in felt lovely. Amy made us dinner back at her place and then we went out for ice cream. We had a fire and sang Taylor Swift and it really felt like we could be carefree freshman all over again. It was a short but truly delightful respite from life. 

When I got back to Moses Lake Sunday evening, I had one baby very happy to see me, and one baby who was too busy playing with cousins to even notice that I had been gone. Courtney and her crew got to Moses Lake that same evening and we were all able to play together all week as we prepared for the Earl reunion that weekend. 

We threw a baby shower for Jules during the week and I was too busy doing baby shower prep to manage to look cute. I made some paper flowers for her nursery that took a very long time, but turned out very cute. We did a strawberry theme for the food so I also made some strawberry lemonade cupcakes that turned out delicious. It was so fun to sit around (distanced albeit) and just talk with friends and family. 

During the week we were also able to celebrate Ridley's birthday. I packed all my cake stuff in my limited Allegiant flight baggage because I have no chill so that I could make her a pink mermaid birthday cake. It was originally going to make a strawberry lemonade cake, but since we did that for the shower we decided to do a peaches and cream cake instead. It turned out beautiful and delicious and was a very high moment for me. 

I didn't get a lot of pictures, but in the midst of a pandemic we made an Earl reunion happen. Elsie and Kim made these adorable themed cookies. We did our best to respect social distancing, but for the most part we just enjoyed being together as a family. My favorite parts were the taco and sno cone truck, the family trivia game, watching everyone do tricks on the trampoline, finally playing well in a family volleyball game, and eating lots of scones. It was Stephen's first reunion and he did a fantastic job dealing with all the hubbub. 

I had to include these pictures of Evie and Ada because they were too funny. Evie always starts soft with stroking Ada's head or giving her hugs and ends up either kissing or nibbling her. Ada has been trained to be weary of all kids so she dislikes Evies grooming immensely and it was just too funny to watch. 

After the reunion was over, we had a little extra time to deal with the bee situation at my parents house. Stephen and my dad helped Jon Wayne create a homemade beekeeper suit and he broke down the hive that was in my parents vent. There were a ton of angry bees and we all watched in fascination from the kitchen window. He sealed up the hole and now there are dead bees all over, both inside the house and outside. Much to Jon Wayne's disappointment, we did not eat the honey. 

I was much less worried for the ride back since I had Stephen with me. They moved us so that we were all sitting together and the girls did much better this time around. Now that's not to say they were good this time around, it's just so much easier to deal with a sad baby and sassy toddler when you have a teammate to hand one of them off to. Also, our sticky fingered little Rory managed to pack Grammy's magnatiles in her carry on because, "she just really wanted to play with them." Thievery aside, it was a wonderful week of reunions. 

Oh, and this swollen foot was the only bee related injury (stung before sitting on a plane for a long time) and Stephen said it didn't even bother him, even though I gave him a majorly hard time about it because he kept telling us that bee stings don't do anything to you.