Virginia Sempervirens: August 8, 2010

August 8, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

We had such a great week in Yosemite, and such a great weekend back in San Diego. The only problem with the week is that the time went WAY too quickly. Monday morning we woke up at 3:15 a.m. and were on the road by 3:30 a.m. We thought that by getting up so early we would miss traffic, the kids would hopefully sleep some of the trip, and we would get all day Monday to play and enjoy with the family. Our plan actually worked very, very well. The boys slept until about 6:00 or 6:30 a.m. The rest of the drive was very uneventful, which is what we like. We made one stop for fuel and breakfast. We hit a little bit of construction traffic in Yosemite, but we were at our destination by 10:00 in the morning. We then met up with M' aunt and uncle who just happened to be there the same week. It was such a happy coincidence. We didn't have to wait too long before the rest of M' family arrived. We then unloaded a few things, changed into our swim apparel and headed to the "Swinging Bridge" a swimming hole that they have been going to for years and years. We had a great afternoon at the water. We ate lunch and just enjoyed being together. On our walk back to the car we did make a few wrong turns, which convinced us to always park at a different trail head for the rest of the week. That night for FHE we had a little competition where we took a test that was on things that have happened in the family in the last nine months or so.

The next three days were a lot of the same wonderful thing. We would walk to the water, spend the day there enjoying the perfect weather, and then head home in time to make dinner. I was usually one of the last ones there every morning because I would try to let J take his morning nap. J and B-man loved the water. J was not afraid, and would crawl around on the rocks to get to where he wanted to be. B-man loved having some of the extended cousins around that he could play with. The days were just lovely and wonderful. Tuesday morning we went to Mariposa grove. It has Sequoia Redwoods that are enormous. The hike around was easy, we were happy to have a backpack to put J in for the walk. That was the day that a group also hiked Half-Dome. Wednesday for dinner we ate with M' aunt and uncle as well. We had a fantastic meal, and then after dinner we had a cross-word game with clues from family history. I didn't do very well on it, but it was fun to learn all the answers. B-man called me over during the evening and asked if he could "close his eyes." Of course I agreed. He fell asleep on the couch with a few pillows on his head. M had also taken J back to our cabin for the festivities. He was just too tired to last.

Thursday there was also a big group that walked up to the waterfall. B-man went up with M, but I stayed back with J. There was no safe place for little children at the waterfalls, and there was no way that I would be jumping off the rocks into the water six months pregnant. I was happy to sit and guard the beach. All that hiking must have worn out B-man because by the end of the day he was toast! He could barely walk to the car to leave. Thankfully Grandma Elna was very good at distracting him from complaining by asking him all sorts of different questions. After dinner that night we played the postcard game. M' mom was the official winner, but since she doesn't "count" I was the second runner up! I was so excited.

Friday we were sad because we had to get up and pack the car to go home. We made excellent time and were able to get out of our cabin way before check-out time. We said our goodbyes to all of the family and then M' parents headed to Yosemite Valley, and we headed back to San Diego. The trip went very well, but we hit a lot of traffic. It was a good thing that we had left so much earlier than we planned. The trip took almost three hours longer than we had anticipated. It was painful actually. If I had known to plan on it taking that long than I would have been more prepared. Poor J was very done with the car. We needed to pick up a bike for M' race, and were rapidly running out of time, so we drove straight to the bike shop and I dropped off M with my brother, and then drove the kids home. I unloaded the car and let the kids run around while we waited for M to come home with his bike. That night my brother Lance and his wife Nicole also arrived from Arizona. The racers did a lot of preparation for the race the rest of the night, and M went to bed early.

Saturday morning M left with the racers. I got up and got the boys going so that we could be there when the race started. Once the race starts you have to park much further away. Q, Nicole, the boys, and I all drove to Camp Pendleton for the race. We were there in time and got a good spot to watch the race. We were standing up on a ridge that let us see the bikers as they left and returned, and then twice on the run too. The weather was cloudy and cool, which was perfect for viewing and racing. Because everyone was so split up in the start times it made for interesting viewing. Everyone was pretty evenly spaced and it made it so that we didn't get too bored. M did a great job! I was so impressed. He swam 500m, biked 30k (18 miles), and ran a 5k. He finished the race with a time of 1 hour 55 minutes. I was very impressed. I was also very happy that everyone finished and no one got a flat tire on the bike portion.
After the race we had to slightly hurry because we had a family reunion to get to. The reunion was at a park in San Diego, and was for my mother's side of the family. Some of the family had to go all the way home before heading to the park, but we were able to just go straight to the park. The reunion was great! Lots of great food, and good conversation with relatives. The highlight is always the water balloon toss. My partner was King (my nephew) and we did pretty well. Although poor King got a face full of water when he caught the balloon and it exploded. B-man was out pretty quickly, and M volunteered to hold J. After the reunion we came home and most of the people took naps. We decided that it would be a good time to return our rental car. Q was very kind and volunteered to watch J and B-man so that we wouldn't have to take them with us. We drove to the airport, returned the car and made it back in very good time. We were so happy not to have traffic. I hate traffic. The rest of the evening was very relaxed and nice. We ate leftovers from the reunion for dinner, and my cousin Jon Shill and his family came over too. It was a great, great day.

Sunday was another fast and furious day. My brother Skate was speaking in church that day. He is getting ready to leave for his mission very soon. It was clear that J was not feeling well. We weren't really sure what was wrong, but he had a fever. We decided that we would go for Sacrament, and then come home. We made it to church with enough time to save seats for our enormous family. This is the first weekend our entire family has been together in a very long time. We are missing Spencer on his mission, but it was very close. The meeting was excellent, and not just because my brother spoke. He and the other speaker did a very, very good job. I then took J home and while he slept I worked on some things for dinner. The rest of the day was just a house full of people and fun. Just like any large family. It was a wonderful day. We even managed to take a family picture. Too soon it was time for people to start heading back home. Before everyone was gone we did wishes for Greg. His birthday had been over the weekend, and we wanted to make sure he got his wishes from the whole family.