Where them Earls at?

As much as we were going to miss being at Grandma's and Poppop's, we were excited to have a visit from Taylor as soon as we got home! Since she has the summer off from teaching she decided to come visit us for a few days and it was a total blast. Rory loved all the attention and the adventuring. One of the things we were able to do on her visit was volunteer at Feed My Starving Children, which is a place that packs donated meals to ship to countries in need. It was so much fun and such a cool experience to get to do it together. We watched a lot of Rom Coms and ate a lot of good food, so it was overall an extremely successful visit. Now we just can't wait for her wedding in April!

After Taylor left town it was time for Rory and I to head to Moses Lake for some time with my family. This was one of Rory's very last flights as a lap child and can I get quick Hallelujah for that! I always take a picture for Stephen in the few minutes that she's being wonderful and I feel so happy about life and then everything slowly disintegrates to crap and by the time we land everyone is like, "Just get them off the plane!" But we did it. And we made it to Moses Lake safely. 

Rory loved being at Grammy and Grandpa's house and especially loved all of the cousins to play with, not to mention my mom's cat Joe, who sadly died during our visit of kitty Leukemia :(. What she loved most was chasing the boys around and trying to join in on whatever they were doing. Rory and Quinn have a tenuous friendship at best, but someday they are going to be a lot less interested in making each other miserable and boy, do I look forward to that day. 

Also, I had to include the picture of cupcakes I made for my cousin Tyler's birthday because they turned out so beautiful and so delicious. But sad story, we brought my perfect cupcakes to eat at Grandma's pool and the heat and the travel did not do them any favors so my once-beautiful cupcakes required bribery to even be tried. But really, they were exceptional. 

Before we left for the reunion we took the kids to the aquatic center for some old fashioned Moses Lake fun. I was so excited thinking Rory would just LOVE it, but it turns out they keep the water in the pools in Washington a lot colder than they do in Phoenix and she was NOT HAVING IT. I think of all my grown up experiences, watching my daughter play where I used to is by far the trippiest. 

The next day we headed out early to make our way to Steadman's Place in Idaho for our early family reunion. Poor planning on my part meant that I had NO IDEA it would be a 9 hour drive from Moses Lake, so needless to say I was under-prepared and totally crabby. Still, it was fun to travel with Courtney and her crew and the kids actually did a really good job. 

Steadman's Place is a family owned property with a giant water slide and a couple of other fun little amenities. We drove straight there for dinner after our drive and after the kids had played and slid down the slides a few times we went back to where we had stayed two years previous at the Albion retreat, while some others camped at Steadman's. 

The next day we all went back to Steadman's for more sliding and some matching family pictures. It was kind of a blustery day so I never tried out the water slide, but the kids all seemed to have a blast. Grandma Earl even set a record for being the oldest person to go on the water slide, with a little help from Brandon, and it was awesome. Just when I thought she couldn't get any cooler. 

I ended up ditching Rory with my mom so that I could drive a few hours down to Utah for my friend Andrea's wedding. I felt a little guilty leaving my mom with Rory until I found out that my dad organized a family volleyball tournament that evening so my mom and Jules were stuck watching all the kids while the rest of the adults played and then I felt REALLY guilty, because heaven knows I wouldn't have made the team.

 My drive down was absolutely lovely. I finished my audiobook, listened to the Mama Mia 2 soundtrack and drank Diet Coke, which is about all it takes for me to be happy. Andrea's wedding was in a cool little greenhouse venue and everything was so gorgeous. I also got to reconnect with another friend from my BYU days, Rachel. After the ceremony we enjoyed a nice little dinner and some speeches by the families, and then I made my way back to Idaho before they could whip out the ice cream in the hand made cart. 

As I headed back I found out they had closed most of the highway I needed to take due to wildfires, so I drove around crying while I panic called my mom, Stephen, and Courtney, until I finally realized that my best option was to take a longer route that added another hour to my drive. Thankfully, having finished my previous book I decided to start on my book group book for the month, Educated: A Memoir, and the book was so enthralling that by the time I pulled up at the Albion retreat I was wishing that my drive had been longer!

The last day was spent much the same as the first two, lots of chatting with cousins and generally trying to ignore our children. It was also the day of the famous cousin races. I didn't even come close in my age group (who knew Cassidy was so fast?!) but RORY WON THE TWO YEAR OLD DIVISION. I may never be a champion myself, but those who can't do, breed and I made me a winner! Stephen was insanely proud and said it was obviously due to her Marsh genes, which I guess with an Olympic runner in his side of the family that is a fair guess. But seriously, I was an absurd amount of proud for a race that involved the other two competitors running directly into each other and falling to the ground within two seconds of starting the race. 

People slowly started leaving so for our last day it was down to mostly our group and Doug's group and a few extras. We were able to be there when Isaac blessed baby Vi and that was a really special thing to witness. I love my extended family and I think more highly of myself because I am related to those people. 

I was supposed to fly out Sunday night after driving 9 hours back to Moses Lake, and then an extra 2-3 hours to get to the airport (I forget which one I was supposed to go to), but the thought of having Rory on my lap in an airplane seat after ALL that made me cry, so my parents kindly offered to get me a different return flight back and we got a few bonus days in Moses Lake with the other cousins sticking around. 

There was lots of cousin play time and a little dressing up. We got to go out on the boat, which Rory loved, and watch the cousins tube, which Rory wouldn't try. Best of all, we ended the week with scones at Grandma's and all was officially right in my world. Had Stephen been able to come along it would have been a perfect trip, but even without him it was pretty awesome. 

Rockville 2018

In the middle of our time in St George we were able to spend some time just the three of us up in Rockville again. This is one of Stephen's favorite places filled with memories from his childhood and it is quickly becoming one of my all time favorite places too. 

The first day we were there, we got there later in the day so we got settled in the house and then went for a little family walk while we watched a storm roll in over the park. That night we watched "A Quiet Place" while it rained and thundered outside. We enjoyed some oven s'mores while we watched the movie and it was a pretty perfect night. 

The next day we woke to a report that most of Zion National Park was closed due to the flash flooding caused by the storm, so we opted to go to the Virgin Petting Zoo instead. They have one of those crazy souvenir shops where you can find just about anything and attached is a little petting zoo. Rory was a little wary of the hungry 'naminals' but also mildly obsessed. She talked about it for the rest of the day. 

After we left the petting zoo, we took a rainy drive up the Kolob canyon that was just gorgeous. I wish I would have taken pictures, but honestly they wouldn't have done it any justice. That night we went out for a family dinner at Oscar's which was delicious as always. Rory particularly enjoyed their fries and dip. It continued to rain on and off most of the day, so there wasn't a lot of time spent outside, but it was lovely nonetheless. I love a nice summer storm. 

The next day there were still some park closures so we spent the morning checking out the ghost town Grafton. It's so interesting reading the stories from the people who settled Grafton and it's a little eerie being in these homes and buildings that have just been completely deserted. I find the basement with a staircase leading nowhere especially spooky. 

That afternoon we decided to head to Zion's and see what we could do. Rory loved riding on the tram and thought it was pretty cool being out of a car seat, though it was quite a feat to convince her to stay seated while we drove. We went to the Riverwalk and even though the water was muddy from the storms, we had a total blast splashing around in it. Rory kept the perfect balance between overjoyed to be playing in the water, but too wary to try to go in too deep so we didn't even have to make some panicky saves, which I thought would for sure be the case. Rory is still just the best little adventure buddy.

After the Riverwalk we headed over to Weeping Rock, which I had never been to before. It is such a cool little formation and Rory loved feeling the drops of water on her head. In spite of the heat, she stayed in good spirits and we had a great afternoon. 

The next day we went back to the park in the afternoon, but we weren't quite as lucky. We hiked to the emerald pools, but only the first pool was open so it was a pretty lackluster walk. We took Rory to check out the horses on the way back and she got a kick out of that. We went for walks most evenings back at the Rockville house and Rory always wanted to walk down to where the neighbor keeps his horses and cattle and would just sit there and 'moo' and 'neigh' at them for a while. 

And that was our Rockville trip for 2018. We had a blast and we looked pretty good doing it (which I feel I have to mention because we were doing a no sugar challenge and DANG it was working!) 

The End.