Wrapping Things Up

The reunion ended Friday evening.  It was almost more fun than we could stand.  Children were dropping off to sleep all over the place at all hours of the day.  The moms and dads were sneaking in a few winks whenever possible. But we weren't done playing yet.  Somehow we mustered the strength for a four mile hike on Saturday morning.

This mass of humanity is only Abe's and Jesse's families.  My, how we've multiplied!

Annie (in the middle) is really into camping and the great outdoors, so she instructed Elinor and Faith as they went along.

 Not a great picture, but really great dads and their littlest boys.

And really nice moms, if I do say so.

That evening we went on a date with our good friends who live in the area.  They are both originally from the Spokane area and now live there with their six children.  Of course Abe and Justin have been friends since childhood, but it works out beautifully that I adore Emily and we've built our own friendship over the years.

  After a very filling dinner we walk on the boardwalk at Lake Coeur d'Alene.  The baby carseat carrier was kind of heavy for the walk so they grabbed a luggage cart and pulled the baby long.  What might you assume if you were walking by this sight?  Emily and I were chatting and walking a little way behind so we we saw the looks they were getting.  We were so proud of our men!

Sunday night we enjoyed a gourmet dinner at Baden (youngest brother) and Mary's house.  She made us the most beautiful chocolate cake.  I will admit that this picture does not do justice to how elegant it looked.  My children could not get over how good it looked-- and tasted!  All of us in the picture have July birthdays.

We went up to the hill for our final goodbyes to Grandma and Grandpa Fox..

Lucky, lucky grandkids.

We headed back to Jesse and Amy's house with plans to head straight to bed to get an early start home the next morning.  But we didn't go straight to bed.  We enjoy them too much!  We stayed up late (again), drank herbal tea and played Mafia.

Bethany and Julia really took it to the next level and decided to stay up all night.  As in, don't go to sleep at all-- ALL NIGHT!
They did it.

And this was the girls for much of the ride home today.

Poor Cannon tossed his cookies a few times on the drive home.  Sadly, this used to be a much bigger deal when a child threw up in the car.  Now they just call for a bag, someone passes it back, they take care of business, pass the bag back up, I hand back a wipe and a bottle of water, we stop at a gas station to dispose of the bag and we keep moving on.
Elinor and Faith tend to get carsick on long drives so we do have some experience.

So besides throw-up, a speeding warning in Montana, an engine threatening to overheat, and a dying air conditioner-- it was an okay ride home.  We've done it better, but at least there were no snowstorms.

We're so happy to be home, but I absolutely must do one last shout-out to Jesse and Amy and their family.  They hosted us for a full week!  They went from housing 8 people to 16 people for a week!  Lest you think we are super rude in staying for so long, we did suggest that we not stay for so long, but they were so kind and insisted that it was be okay.  And from our perspective it was was more than okay.  We were so comfortable there, our children were so happy playing with cousins there, and the late night adult conversations were so enjoyable.

Jesse and Amy,-- THANK YOU so much!  You guys are the best and we owe you BIG TIME!