Seeing Family

So, I rushed up to Idaho thinking that it might be my last opportunity to see the last of my grandparents since grandma has been loosing weight steadily and can't get any nutrition from her food. Gwen said that everybody visiting has totally revived Grandma. She spent a lot of time with us at Kim and Gwen's. Saturday we went to her house and Devanie and Mom and I helped her re-frame and hang her family pictures. Dad was finishing up changing the fixtures on her bathtub and Jared arrived with his family and they fixed the fence that had been blown down and cut some trees.


It was great to see Jared and meet his family. One of his daughters was listening to Crazy Frog on Hailey's MP3 player and I thought of how much my kids liked Crazy Frog and some of the other silly songs they have listened to and/or watched on YouTube. The it occurred to me: not only have I never met Jared's wife or four children, but I haven't seen Jared since the advent of public access internet. That struck me, because as much as the world has changed, and even as much as Kim and Gwen have changed their house with add-ons, and even with as many children have been added on to the family, nothing has changed. It still feels like family and time stands still--or we freely drift into other time periods.

Leonard and Kelli got there in time for the BBQ at K&G's. We didn't know when LeeJoe would get there, so I suggested we save some of the Jello salad. Jared's little boy, Jackson, finished it off and Devanie licked the bowl- ha ha.

LeeJoe arrived late Saturday evening with his family and we did our usual obscure and random reference conversation that you just have to be there for. We laughed until we couldn't keep our eyes open any more. About 2:30 AM we went to bed.

My cousin Krishaun (K&G's daughter), her husband Ben were there with their 2 kids most of the weekend. Her sister Lara had to work so we only got to see her on Sunday afternoon, but her husband Mike and daughter, Jasalyn, (another flaming redhead) were there on Friday as well. Their brother Andy was there most of the time. He is now serving a Family History mission in his stake since he has Cerebral Palsy and can't go on a regular one.

Each night that we were there, Devanie got out the Cookie Lee Jewelry and we shopped and played dress-up. Grandma was there for it and I commented that it was her fault we were all so enamored with the collection of costume jewelry. She has always collected such things.

Devanie and I were among the last to leave on Sunday night, around 7:30. There was more silliness and Nibs consumption, but not so much since I was exhausted from all the activity, little sleep, and multiple baby interruptions in the night. With things as crazy as they were, the twins got off schedule. Small price to pay. I am thankful for the opportunity to see everybody. Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came. Now I am going to check what Devanie had to say about the whole trip.