California - part 1

Thursday June 16 we woke up at 1:30 in the morning (we went to bed at 8:00 the night before anticipating our early departure) hoping to get a quite a bit of the drive in while the boys were still asleep, and we were on the road by 2:00 am. We told Roman the night before that we were going to leave during the night for California so he was super excited when we woke him up to go out to the car. So excited that he couldn't get back to sleep once we were in the car and stayed awake the first 2 hours of the drive. He did finally fall asleep but only for about 2 hours then he was awake excited to get to California. Luckily Hudson slept until almost 7 so we were able to make good time the first half of the drive. The second half of the drive was much more eventful. Roman gets motion sick and we forgot to give him medicine before he was feeling sick, Hudson we think may have been feeling sick driving through the canyons too because he was screaming so hard he was turning blue and we were afraid he was going to be sick too. We got to Spencer's aunt Jill's house around 1:00 in the afternoon (California time) and we spent the afternoon grocery shopping, unpacking the car, wandering the property, just glad we weren't in the car anymore. Spencer went to run a friend to take care of his RV and then Roman and Spencer went to their house to play/visit. By that evening I realized we still hadn't seen anyone in Spencer's family.

Friday morning started out about the same. Quiet morning at Jill's house. We went over to Spencer's brother Steve's house to see family, let the kids play together, to celebrate Rachel's (Spencer's step sister Stephanie's daughter) birthday and Spencer's dad wanted to get pictures of each of the families and a picture of all the grandchildren together. It was the first time we were able to see some of the babies (Nolan included and he's 2!) It was entertaining trying to get 18 kids 13 and under (including 4 babies under a year) to look at the camera. We got lots of interesting pictures. This was the only one that I saw that you could see all the kids faces.



That night Spencer's brother Steve and his wife Angie went through the temple for their endowments. It was the first time that Spencer and all of his siblings have been together in the temple. Before they went in Spencer's dad got a few pictures of their family. The first picture is Spencer with his siblings and his mom, the second is his dad and siblings.



Saturday, June 18 was their family reunion. We haven't been to their reunion in 3 years and it's always fun when Spencer's family is together. One thing that I love about Spencer's family is that they are very welcoming. If you talk to his aunts, they will introduce me as their niece, I am not their nephew's wife. They are amazing with my kids, I know when we are at the reunion, my kids are entertained, loved, and protected. Most of the day I had no idea where Roman was...well, not no idea, I knew who he was with all the time, but I didn't know exactly where he was. That was because I knew he was okay. He thought he was one of the big kids. He was always off playing with all the twenty-somethings. He played so hard all morning that he slept through all the afternoon games. Spencer's sister Andrea and sister-in-law Angie were in charge of planning the reunion this year. They did a great job. The games were so fun. They had relay-races, tug-a-war, toilet paper mummies, cream eating contest, and a water balloon fight.





Once Roman woke up he was ready to go again. We had an evening weenie-roast, took a walk up the road (they live on a small road that is vineyards on both sides that leads up to a small canal. It's a lovely walk that we take every year at the reunion.), drew with chalk on the driveway, and played night games. We let Roman stay up to play hide and seek in the dark since he slept through all the other games. He LOVED it. He told me several times the next day that he made it to safely. Hudson on the other hand, is very much in a stage where he will only go to me or Spencer. He wouldn't let anyone else hold him, or he would scream like he was being tortured. He enjoyed the reunion from the safety of our laps. He did smile at a few people, and even wave as long as he was sure no one was going to try to take him. It was, as always, a fun reunion. There were several people missing this year, but we enjoyed visiting with everyone who made it.