whirlwind weekend in wyoming

We went to Wyoming two weeks ago for Dave's grandfather's 95th birthday. The family took the opportunity to have a reunion and do some major celebrating in Pampa's honor. We were really glad we were able to go and see everyone. It has been a LONG time since we've seen some of them and it was so good to be together again.

 

We were also super excited to be back in the mountains! I love exploring the country and living in different areas, but the west will always be my true home. My eyes aren't happy unless they can see mountains and the horizon, and once I get back into my natural habitat, I feel so much more at peace. We stopped between Kemmerer and Big Piney to feed Hank and I felt so rested, just sitting in the car, listening to the wind and looking for such long distances in any direction.

While I was nursing Hank, Dave and Jed got out of the car and ran around for a while. They had a great time.

 Especially once Jed discovered an old badger hole and climbed in!

 Jed was like a walking dust cloud coming back to the car when we were ready to go.

I LOVE going to Dave's parents' house in Big Piney. There's always something fun going on, lots of little kids playing together and LOTS of laughter. It was great to just hang out together Friday afternoon before the reunion started. We all showed up at different times and it was so great to welcome the new arrivals and see the commotion get greater and louder.

 Don and Eva were having such a great time with these little rocking chairs. They kept moving them around, sitting down and rocking for about 10 seconds, then moving them again. It was so cute!

 All the cousins played surprisingly well together. I was really pleased at how well Jed got along with his cousins, too. He used his words so well, stuck up for himself, and did a decent job of sharing (with some encouragement). He did scare poor Eva with his "angry eyes" though, and I don't think she really trusted him for the rest of the weekend!

I realized I didn't take any pictures of the actual family reunion festivities. I was too focused on making sure I knew where Jed was, that Hank was getting enough sleep and eating when he needed to to tote my camera around. But we had so much fun! An awesome dinner and craft activity on Friday night, a beautiful flag ceremony, tasty breakfast and a 5K on Saturday morning, the BEST steak dinner and birthday party for Pampa on Saturday afternoon, Regional Conference, yummy lunch and family pictures on Sunday. Dave's extended family is pretty great. His late grandma and grandpa are awesome examples of service and hard work and have left a wonderful legacy with 4 kids, 32 grandkids and 61 great-grandchildren. Of the 32 grandkids, 25 have served or are serving missions and 30 have attended or are attending college. It is truly an amazing family and I feel SO lucky to have become a part of it!

We stayed with Dave's sister Ruth's family and we had a great time--despite Jed's fear of their dog Willie. Poor Willie, he just wanted to be Jed's friend, but Jed was terrified. Once we got past Willie though, Jed had a great time with his cousins. Thank goodness for the busy days or the boys might have had a hard time settling down to sleep at night. They had a blast taking baths together.

 Four boys in the tub! Daniel (standing), Donald, David and Jed.

 They sort of remind me of monkeys, grooming each other.

Dave's brother Matthew was the only one in the whole family not attending and that was because he is serving his mission in Brazil. He was there in spirit, though, because Hannah made a "flat Matt" and he went everywhere with us. He even got to hold Hank!

SUCH a fun weekend! We were definitely exhausted by Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of the day just relaxing as everyone went their separate ways. We were glad not to have to leave right away. We stayed one more night in Big Piney and then went to Utah to see my parents, since my dad hadn't met Hank yet. Stay tuned for more on that.