Before we got to our home-tel, though, we stayed a couple days (May 28-30) with Joy's cousin-brother* Mike and their family in Lehi, UT, just north of Provo/Orem. (Incidentally, that's also our 12th wedding anniversary. I love you, Joy!) After lunch with my uncle Sherm's family, we drove the 4ish hours across the Utah desert through unfamiliar territory until suddenly we hit the I-15 and we were HOME. I may have never claimed Utah as my home - I've only been a wayfaring visitor despite 4 years at BYU - but it sure feels good to be back!
Mike and Genevieve threw a Memorial Day BBQ and we got to spend some good quality time with a lot of that branch of the family right off the bat.
But first, a trip to Smith's Monday morning. You'd think the kids had never seen a grocery store before, they were so excited! Then again, maybe I'm the odd one for not being excited because I think Joy was also rather happy about it. Among our culinary highlights of the trip was Grandma Sycamore's bread; SO much better than Large Mrs. Baird's in Texas.**
I tried to help the kids understand Joy's complex family tree so they could figure out how they were related to all these nice people they hadn't seen in 3-15 years. Half-siblings and extended cousin-brothers just don't fit the usual diagrams! Superstar eventually got it down well enough to try to draw the genealogy lines during sacrament meeting one Sunday.
The kids had a great time playing catch or air hockey and watching cartoons. Princess became fast friends with their youngest daughter, Sydney (which I might not be spelling right). They played an amazing amount of dress up and she got her first lessons in how to apply makeup like a real six year old! :-D *shudder*
Princess: "We are twins: we look the same and we do everything together. We play games together. Even at nighttime, we sometimes have a sleepover. We could do anything we want together."
We also spent one morning at the community pool. Between the hotels and swimming with cousins, all the kids are asking for swimming lessons and Princess is more determined than ever to own gigantic pool toys we have nowhere to put.
We played several games with them and introduced Superstar to his new favorite card game: Five Crowns. It's a lot like Phase 10, but with five suits of face cards and no aces or deuces.
We visited them a couple more times during the trip. One time it was because Tarleton is hiring a new economics instructor and the internet connection at our home-tel was not fast or reliable enough for me to do the video conference interviews there. So I video-conferenced while everyone else enjoyed another day at the pool, playing chess, and various shenanigans.
It's so nice to have such warm, loving family we can visit whenever we are in Utah.
* - Joy moved in with her aunt and uncle during her teenage/young adult years, so those cousins are as good as brothers and sisters.
** - Okay, now I want to watch a rap battle between Grandma Sycamore and Mrs. Baird.
But first, a trip to Smith's Monday morning. You'd think the kids had never seen a grocery store before, they were so excited! Then again, maybe I'm the odd one for not being excited because I think Joy was also rather happy about it. Among our culinary highlights of the trip was Grandma Sycamore's bread; SO much better than Large Mrs. Baird's in Texas.**
I tried to help the kids understand Joy's complex family tree so they could figure out how they were related to all these nice people they hadn't seen in 3-15 years. Half-siblings and extended cousin-brothers just don't fit the usual diagrams! Superstar eventually got it down well enough to try to draw the genealogy lines during sacrament meeting one Sunday.
Princess: "We are twins: we look the same and we do everything together. We play games together. Even at nighttime, we sometimes have a sleepover. We could do anything we want together."
We played several games with them and introduced Superstar to his new favorite card game: Five Crowns. It's a lot like Phase 10, but with five suits of face cards and no aces or deuces.
We visited them a couple more times during the trip. One time it was because Tarleton is hiring a new economics instructor and the internet connection at our home-tel was not fast or reliable enough for me to do the video conference interviews there. So I video-conferenced while everyone else enjoyed another day at the pool, playing chess, and various shenanigans.
It's so nice to have such warm, loving family we can visit whenever we are in Utah.
* - Joy moved in with her aunt and uncle during her teenage/young adult years, so those cousins are as good as brothers and sisters.
** - Okay, now I want to watch a rap battle between Grandma Sycamore and Mrs. Baird.
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