Summer Trip

We spent almost a month in Utah and Idaho. It was wonderful to be there. We had lots of quality time with family, and it was exciting to realize we'd been there just six months ago and six months isn't too, too long. We have a goal right now to go see our families twice a year. If we can really do that, Texas won't seem quite so far away.

On our drive up to Utah we stopped to see my brother and his family. They are so great! We had wonderful conversation and delicious food. The kids played with sprinklers and water for the whole afternoon. Aaron was beaten by our nephew in ping-pong. And we watched the Be One fireside together celebrating the 40th anniversary of the revelation on the priesthood.

So nice that we can see these guys on our way through. We sure love and admire them. Aaron and I were especially impressed with the respect the kids show the parents and the parents show the kids in this family. Seems like the kids are respectful and kind because the parents are respectful and kind. Made Aaron and I want to be better.

We tried to take our time a little bit on the way up and stop to see some things if we felt like it. One of the things we stopped to see was the Billy the Kid Museum. It was pretty great. I'm not sure why Billy the Kid is a historical figure of note. He died at age 21 without accomplishing much except being an outlaw.

Best book book summary ever:

On Sunday, we went to church in Monticello, UT. Aaron had brought old, junky church clothes specifically for this day. He has church clothes stashed at his parents' house and my parents' house, but he doesn't have any stashed in Monticello, UT. So he brought the junky church clothes so he could throw them away when he was done and not have to pack them around for the rest of the trip. In the hotel room, we realized that his church pants had a huge hole in the crotch and were too short. The church shirt he brought was way too baggy. And he didn't bring any church shoes. So his outfit was interesting. Aaron wanted to wear jeans, but I said no he couldn't do that, it would be too weird. We sat in sacrament meeting and watched no less than five other men come into the chapel with jeans and a white shirt and tie. Aaron would have fit right in.

We stopped at Wilson's Arch and Looking Glass Arch on our way north. These were so fun! We already really enjoyed the little hike and exploration. This little family adventure actually turned out to be one of those perfect family days--everyone's happy, everyone likes the activity, and we're all getting along. It was a really good day, one to treasure.

We spent our first week in Utah with the Dennis family. Julie and I kept the kids entertained during the day. We also fit in a temple trip, and on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, we had a mini-reunion or "git-togither" as we called it. We did a very hot, non-shady hike to Patsy's Mine and Flag Rock. We ate at chik-fil-a. We chatted and ate, played at the park, and had a talent show. It was fun! Nice to have a little organized time together.

The next week we stayed with Felicia for a few days and then at Alan's new house. It was fun to see the house and do dinner with Alan and his girlfriend Kristina.

We hung out with Felicia and then had the Sandberg Family Reunion. It's always wonderful to see these people. I have really been blessed with a great family. This year we had a panel with the original six kids: Charlotte, Kathleen, David, Gilbert, Philip, and Wanda. I really enjoyed the panel. I learned new things and felt, again, grateful to be part of such a wonderful family heritage. Charlotte's family planned the reunion and did all of the meals. It was very relaxing for the rest of us, but very hard for them I'm sure. They were heroes.

Part of the reunion was going to the Provo Beach Resort. I got to follow around three cute little cousins, Scotty, Ben, and Aiden. We even did a round of laser tag. Annie was brave and did the flow rider. She was awesome! She's a strong, adventurous little girl.

It really is wonderful to see the mountains in Utah. They are so beautiful.

We spent Father's Day in Felicia's ward with my dad and Aaron, then we went to Bountiful in the evening to see Aaron's dad. So much family time! On Monday morning, the kids and I dropped Aaron off at the airport on our way to Idaho. We realized later that we had dropped Aaron off one hour late. His flight was 7:15, not 8:15. Oops. Luckily, everything worked out, and he only arrived in Austin an hour later than he would have originally. That was a blessing.

I wanted to remember that my dad wore this wig for a good portion of Father's Day.

The next week we spent in Aberdeen. It was the week of Aberdeen Days, so the kids were in the play. We got to the first rehearsal a little bit late (since we were on our way from Utah), and the kids felt a bit out of place. It was also obvious to them that everybody knew everybody except for them. Annie figured out what to do pretty quickly, but Scotty was very stressed out by this situation. He showed his stress by sitting by me and whining and hiding his face. Finally, I got him to play tag with the other kids, but then the teenage helper person told everyone to come sit down in a circle. Scotty burst into tears and ran over to me. I was like, "What is wrong?" He said, "They're playing a new game, and I don't know the rules!" There was no new game. The helper was just giving instructions. But Scotty's fear convinced him that there was something going on that everybody else knew how to do except for him. And participating in an activity like that is a big emotional risk for Scotty. But his perception was totally wrong! Wildly inaccurate! I am glad for parenting moments like this to realize that maybe my fears make me irrational at times as well.

Anyway, at this point I thought there was no hope for Scotty, that he would choose not to participate. They gave him a role (Mushroom #4), but he wouldn't go up on the stage when it was his turn to be told his role. It wasn't looking good. But then it was lunch time. All of the kids were going to walk over to the cafeteria to get free lunch. (There is no free lunch!) Scotty saw that Aiden and Seth were going to go. He perked up, his tear ducts immediately dried up, and he said, "I'm going to do it!"

And he did! His fears and worries and stress about the situation disappeared. Seth and his friend (both age 13) took Aiden and Scotty (kindergartners) over to the cafeteria. They helped the little boys get their food and sat by them. It was so sweet! And Scotty felt pretty secure with his big, grown-up cousin. I don't think every 13 year old boy would do something like that. I followed several yards behind and watched just in case Scotty had another melt-down. It was fun to watch. Annie sat with Klara and Klara's friend. I told Annie, "This is like public school! This is public school lunch! This is a cafeteria!" She totally lived up her public school experience.

So the kids spent a good portion of their time at the play and with their cousins. I felt like I hardly saw them. I read and relaxed and watched TV and played piano duets with my mom and helped my parents with their basement and did some painting with Liz. My mom and I really had fun playing duets. Such a delight. We also had some really good, heart-to-heart kind of conversations. It was great. Love that lady.

Annie also got to go to Shooter's League with Klara and Grandpa, and she and Scotty rode on the bus with Grandpa. He was driving for summer school. The kids also had a lemonade stand. They made five dollars, three of which came from related customers such as the little brothers and me. It was a great week. The only downside was missing Aaron.

My dad played softball with Annie and Klara and me. After the girls got tired of it and went outside, my dad and I played catch for a few minutes. It was really nice to get some one-on-one daddy/daughter time, a good memory. I admire and love my dad so much. I'm grateful for all he's taught me.

Saturday was Aberdeen Days festivities. We went to the breakfast, ran into my former math teacher at the car show and did the pingpong ball drop and the parade. It was great to see Mrs. Pulliam. She really was an awesome teacher and such a cool person. She remembered me as Sally in You're a Good Man Charlie Brown and was telling Annie about my performance.

The kids performed their play and were so cute. Afterwards, the arts council had a gala to raise money for lights and a piano in the new auditorium. We had yummy refreshments and got to go see the new auditorium, currently under construction. So happy that Mr. Millett finally gets a lovely, functional space for all of the great work he does.

After the gala, we drove down to Utah and spent the night at Gilbert and Michelle's. Then we went to church with Felicia again because Connor got back from his mission and was speaking in church. We really hit a lot of family milestones on this trip! Connor gave an excellent talk. I really liked that he focused on the topic he was given instead of just telling random mission stories. He tied all of his mission stories back to his topic.

We had tostadas at Nick and Felicia's afterwards. Connor sat around and talked to us like a real adult:) He also showed me his ukulele skills, which should come in handy for wooing the ladies. The Lewises were there which led to much joy and rejoicing.

We spent the night at Kathleen's. It was lovely to have some extra time to chat with her. She also showed me a home video from when I was a baby. Our family was living in Kathleen/Grandma's house and the Hogans, who were our neighbors, had come over for FHE. They were doing a family talent show. We had 7 kids, they had 5 or so, and everybody got filmed doing their talent. Like I said, I was the baby, so there was footage of both my mom and dad holding me. I got to see my parents being parents of young children. I got to see my grandma, who had Alzheimers at the time, talk about sewing quilts. That was her talent. It was wonderful to hear her voice. I'm so glad Kathleen showed this to me. I was surprised I hadn't seen it before. It was precious. And it was extra special to be watching it in the house where it happened.

The next morning, after a lovely breakfast, we headed back to Texas. Just me and the kids. Everything went pretty smoothly except for some trouble finding a hotel on the first night. The kids watched lots of movies; I listened to lots of books. We did Squirrel Girl 2 together. The car worked great, and we were so glad when the drive was over! We love Aaron, and we missed him a lot.

So there you have it...our epic summer vacation.