2018 :: week 27

June 24

Lauren is a girl after my own heart. Over the weekend we worked on getting the Lego situation under control again. We have to do this every 4-6 weeks. We take all the structures apart and then sort the pieces by color. The kids do most of this themselves. After they were done Lauren took it a step further and made color-coded labels for each bin.

June 25

Monday evening Anthony took the kids to the pool. It had rained the night before and the water was chilly. The most exciting part of their visit was the baby duckling in the water!

June 26

Tuesday Will and I spent the day at Cub Scout camp. It was so hot! I drank a ton of water and didn't have to use the bathroom once! Our ward is small, so we combine with another ward that meets in our building, which happens to be in a different stake. That stake recently realigned boundaries and a different ward in that stake had boys that were previously in the ward we combined with, so that ward combined with our group too. I give all that background to say that I really only knew the five boys from our ward (out of 15 total). Regardless, the boys had a lot of fun together and our piecemeal pack "dominated" the water fight. My good friend and college roommate Carrie is the Den Leader in her ward and was there as well.

June 27

Lauren, Elliott and I went to splash pad at Sapling Grove with Renee and her boys. Elliott and Blaise have a lot of fun together. Blaise struggles to handle his feelings for Lauren--he seems to like her--and often pushes her or pulls her hair. The kids had a blast cooling off the in the water and playing on the playground. We couldn't stay as long as I would have liked because I was spending the rest of the day crossing items off my to-do list before we left to go to Idaho.

June 28

We drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming (approximately 9 hours). The kids were great sports drawing and watching various kid shows. As Anthony and I listened to the 90s Love Song station on Pandora and the Revisionist History podcast we realized we are undeniably parents in our 30s. We packed food and ate a picnic lunch at a rest stop in Nebraska. Will and TJ played a little catch and Elliott, Lauren and I ran a few laps. We made it to Cheyenne just before dinnertime. After dinner at Arby's we took a refreshing swim and finished up the night watching The Lion King. Road trip 2018 is off to a great start!

June 29

We made it to Idaho in the middle of the afternoon. My dad gave the kids a tour of the barn and fields around the house. The kids climbed the giant pile of hay bales and chased the sheep. Then we drove down to Maple Canyon to set up camp. After dinner people shared some of Grandma Crane's poems, with a few jokes peppered in. That night we camped for the first time as a family of five! Will slept in Uncle Jake's tent, which made our tent much more comfortable. We will need to upgrade to a larger tent when and if we go camping again.

June 30

We all woke up pretty early Saturday morning. We joined some family members on a hike, visited, and played with cousins all day long. Will quickly became buddies with my cousin Alicia's son, Eli. Lauren spent most of her time with my cousin Anne Marie's daughter, Alivia. Elliott wandered around exploring and making people laugh. It was a great day, everything I hoped the reunion would be. We strengthened family bonds, leaned about our past and ate too much delicious food.