Charlie, Andy, my niece Allie, Sarah, my niece Ella, my sister Kathy and my niece Sarah.The first of our two "vacations" was a family reunion (on my mom's mom's side of the family) in Estes Park, Colorado. I say "vacations" because before we left I didn't really think a family reunion counted as a vacation. For one, my parents bribed the whole lot of us to go and didn't really give us much of a chance to say no. For two, I've never been that close to the extended family (I'm talking really extended, like my mom's second cousins and their kids and grand kids) so it didn't seem like it would be that much fun. Of course, I was wrong. I have a theory in life that if you have super low expectations for something it is almost always going to exceed those expectations, and of course I was not let down.
We started the weekend by visiting my old (she's not old, it was just a long time ago) college roommate, Kim, in the Denver area. She has two kids that are about Andy's age, so our kids had a great time playing with them for the weekend and I had fun catching up with my friend. We don't get to see each other as much as we used to, and it was fun to see all the new endeavours in her life. From there we went to Estes Park. We stayed at the YMCA of the Rockies. You think YMCA and you don't necessarily have warm thoughts, but it was really nice. We were in a lodge that has only been open for a year or so, so everything was brand new. Everything except the TVs, because there were no TVs in the room. I thought Andy was going to have a heart attack when he figured that one out, but it really was a good thing. We were able to get up and moving much faster in the morning and everyone was more willing to leave the room and try thing since there was nothing to do in the room.
Since all my siblings were there with their families as well, my kids were in heaven with the amount of time they got to spend with their cousins. There was a great playground, or park as Sarah likes to call it, where Sarah and Ella played at least twice a day and there was a fantastic craft center that the kids unfortunately did not visit until the last day and then I didn't even go with them. They made tie dye shirts that my sister picked up and still needs to send, I can't wait to see them. Andy also spent an afternoon driving through Rocky Mountain National Park with my brother and his family. My sister-in-law said he fit right in, just like one of their own kids. I'm not at all surprised and am so glad they had so much fun together. Andy's cousins, Kevin and Jack, also taught him to play black jack and euchre. They are both 13, so it is reasonable that they would be playing games like that. For a seven year old, not so much. Now Andy thinks he is a euchre genius and is always asking me to play with him. Have I told you before that the kid is not lacking in confidence?
The only negative thing about the trip was the dining situation. It was all cafeteria style. That would have been fine if Charlie was staying all week, but he only came for the weekend to drop us off and after that it was up to me to go through the line with three kids, putting food on plates and carrying more trays than is humanly possible. Lucky for me I had a mini breakdown the evening Charlie left, only to my mom and I tried to be quiet about it, that I couldn't handle everybody on my own and my family totally stepped up. Everybody helped by taking my kids and helping them through the line and making sure I never had to eat alone. I was so thankful.
I thought I would have all these crazy stories from the family reunion, but it was relatively tame. The only thing I got fired up about was my brother convincing Andy that he wrestled bears. Truly, I wasn't as annoyed with him for telling Andy the stories, because that is my brother to a T, but more annoyed with Andy for believing them. Not just for believing them, but continuing to believe them after asking me whether or not they were true and me confirming that they weren't. So, in a nutshell, he chose to believe that his uncle declawed, muzzled and wrestled bears instead of believing his mother who said it was not true. When I asked him why he believed his uncle over me he said, "What (he always starts an argument with what), he's very convincing". Yes, he should be convincing. He's a highly paid lawyer in a large city. If he can't convince a seven year old how is he going to convince all those juries out there that his clients are innocent?
Anyway, my nephew, Jack, finally fessed up to Andy that they were pulling his leg. This was after I gave Jack a look of death because I was totally fed up with my "you don't know anything I know everything" son telling me that I was wrong, and because we were up on an 11,000 foot mountain in the Rockies and were perilously close to Charlie missing his shuttle to the airport which would have resulted in either me driving him two hours to the Denver airport or him flying out the next morning and being very late for work. I hope Jack didn't hold it against me but I was pretty stressed at the moment and he didn't seem to be bothered the next time I saw him. He's a great kid by the way, even if he gets great humor tormenting his little cousin.
The worst part of the trip was getting home. I really hate the Denver airport. You have to go up and down and back up again, which is a big pain with the stroller, and their security is very cumbersome. Throw in three kids who just can't seem to get along no matter how much candy you bribe them with (Yes, that is our weak attempt at getting good behavior when we travel now, candy. Generally they don't behave but somehow get the candy anyway. This third kid has really messed up our travel mojo.) and even though you get to the rental car return two and a half hours before your flight you still get to the gate about 15 minutes before boarding. Despite that, we made it home alive and ready for our next adventure.
Overall it was a great trip. I got to spend some quality time with the family, the weather was awesome (I even got to wear jeans and a sweatshirt in the evenings) except for a few rainy days, and even that didn't stop the fun, and my mom and dad were so happy to have us all there. To be honest, I didn't spend too much time with the other relatives, which is kind of the point of a family reunion, but I kind of had my hands full. Maybe by the next one I can mingle a little more.
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