we are family

Dave left with Slade and Nathan for Missouri on Saturday, July 31st. They drove to Colorado to stay with my mom on Sunday. Then they drove the rest of the way to Missouri on Monday, arriving late that night. They went to middle of nowhere Missouri for a family reunion on the Daniel side. Hopefully, I'll manage to get Dave to sit down and write a post for that.

WEDNESDAY
We were off for a reunion on my side of the family. I drove with Emma, Sawyer and Anne down to Vegas. We left about 1:00 in the afternoon with the hopes that Anne would nap for a while. Instead she only slept about 20 minutes but thankfully she handled the drive fairly well. After stopping in St. George for dinner, we made it to Vegas after 7 hours. My cousin Shea was nice enough to let us stay with her that night. It was hot especially since I ended up with all the kids in bed with me.

THURSDAY
After breakfast, we followed my cousin Britt on the drive to El Centro. I had Emma in the front seat so that she could help me. It turned out that she was hardly helpful at all. Since I am the one who is usually stuck in the front seat, I completely understand how frustrating it is to be constantly turning around to help those in the back. Emma took her frustration to the extreme though. At one point, Sawyer had peed in his pants and I needed her to go help him get changed and cleaned up. She actually refused. We were in the middle of nowhere in the desert with no shoulder to pull over on. There was absolutely nothing I could do. All three kids were crying and I just kept pleading for her to help. Finally after a long ten minutes she got him changed. Sigh. The drama with Sawyer's bladder control issues continued the whole vacation but that's another story...

the sand dunes about an hour outside of El Centro

We made it in to El Centro around 3:00 that afternoon. And it was hot! 110 degrees. Seriously how do people live here? That evening we met at the church for a-mazing carne asade for dinner. Followed by games led by Aunt Denise.

playing "Have you ever?"

the Lofgreen girls: Mom (Gay), Lani, Laurie, Denise, and Kjersti

FRIDAY
Dave and the boys flew into San Diego this morning. After nearly making it into Mexico, I managed to get to the airport and pick them up. Then we were off to the beach! We spent a lovely day digging in the sand, boogie-boarding, jumping waves, snacking and talking. The weather was perfect and besides losing Slade for about a half an hour it was a truly wonderful day.

We went back to the church that night for pizza, dancing and storytime from Aunt Denise. She told us a few favorites from Grandpa Lofgreen. The kids were enthralled.

photos from my cousin Justin

The down side of the evening was seeing how badly Dave's feet had gotten burned at the beach. He couldn't even stand up. It was a bad omen for the rest of our vacation.

SATURDAY
We had breakfast at Aunt Kjersti's house followed by swimming and visiting with GGma.

four generations

My sister Dana came to the reunion from Boston with three of her girls. Emma was so excited to spend time with Avery. We went back into San Diego in the afternoon. We checked into our hotel and then went in search of fun. Destination: La Jolla Cove. Dave took one look at the rocky steps and knew that he wasn't going to be able to handle it so we traded Emma for Audrey and headed back to the hotel.

at La Jolla Cove (via Dana's iPhone)

At this point, I was beginning to feel the frustration of having a handicapped husband. Dave's feet were so swollen he couldn't put shoes on or walk very easily. There we were in lovely San Diego unable to take advantage of the adventure all around us. The boys were totally happy to go back to the hotel and swim. Emma was happy with Avery and Dana. I was left alone to deal with the disappointment of not being able to do the things I'd planned. Because I knew he hadn't burned his feet so badly on purpose (of course), I couldn't really be mad at Dave. He certainly didn't want to be in that kind of pain. I just had to get over it and make the vacation fun in spite of it all.

SUNDAY
We went to Sacrament Meeting and then headed over to the Cabrillo Monument. While Dave stayed with a sleeping Anne in the car, Dana and I went and explored the rocks and tide pools with the rest of the kids.

Next we went to the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center. We had been told not to bother going here because it was just so boring. Fortunately, we ignored the advice and went anyway. Everything had recently been renovated and the result was fantastic.

Afterward, we went back to the hotel and swam for a little while. For dinner we got McDonald's and took it to a park. We were unprepared for the chilly evening air though and didn't last long. We got Percy Jackson from Redbox and watched it on the laptop in the hotel room.

MONDAY
It was my turn to make a mistake that limited our plans. I had left my camera at my aunt's house in El Centro. I was lucky that my mom was still there and was coming into San Diego later. We had to wait for the camera to get there so we couldn't just head home. We couldn't go back to the beach either. Unable to do much else, we went to see Toy Story 3.

After getting my camera and saying our goodbyes to my mom, we were finally on our way home. We stopped in Vegas that night because who can pass up $27/night hotel rooms? We pulled into the driveway about 5:00 on Tuesday evening.

It wasn't cheap. It wasn't easy. But it was worth it. We were able to attend two family reunions, strengthen family ties, and make lots of memories. What a blessing.