This last weekend I was able to spend with most of my family. As you know, we are all far away from each other and we don't get to see each other very often. Somehow, all but one family was able to get together over Labor Day weekend at my parents house in northern Arizona. John, EZ and I drove down a day early because it is a 9-hour drive and I can't make that drive back to back. Since I had some time to spare before everyone else showed up, I visited with some old friends. Just a reminder, I lived there for about two years between ages 14 and 16. So it's been 15ish years, and it's so wild to see myself and my friends all grown up, married, with kids. Here's a few of us and a few of our kids...
Later that day we got ready for both my brothers and their families to arrive. However, my oldest brother got in too late and I couldn't wait up for him. Only because I didn't get much sleep the night before. Why is it that whenever you go away, you never sleep well the first night? EZ was still getting over a cold and he was up all night coughing. Which meant we were up all night. We got him some medicine the next night and he slept great, and so did I! So on Saturday we went to a parade -a small town parade, which was over very quickly and not all that exciting. Haha, but we still had fun. We spent a lot of the afternoon riding on 4-wheels and playing games. We went to lunch at the town fair and then came home and hung out some more. My sister had arrived by now too. The kids got in their bathing suits and played in sprinklers and on a slip n slide. EZ loves water and splashing, you can probably see that well in these pictures.
Another great story from this trip was Saturday night, when we did some fireworks. My brother, Brett brought a box full of super awesome fireworks. The first few that he lit, all at once, went flying in all the wrong directions! It was so funny, and scary. The first one zipped towards the house and under some bushes. The next set shot and exploded in front of my nephews and almost hit them and us sitting behind them. The last one soared far off and under a car where it lit up and sparkled dangerously. For some silly reason we kept going, lighting all the fireworks until they were gone. We were laughing and feeling terrified the whole time.
Well Sunday was a nice and relaxing day where we stuffed ourselves with traditional Shumway family meals. We actually ate way too much the entire trip. My mom is awesome at taking extra care of all of us and we always have so many left overs. That night we played with a voice-jammer and told fun stories. Being the last night, many of us stayed up too late talking. We reminisced and felt impressed that we need to see each other more often. We all want our kids to know their cousins. In fact, when EZ saw the first set of cousins that showed up, he was all smiles and followed them around eagerly. (On my side of the family there are more younger kids and on John's they are every age, but there aren't many EZ's age.) I think EZ really enjoyed being around little kids and rough housing with them. He was always clapping in approval!
We were the first to leave Monday morning. Surprisingly, I did not cry this time when we drove away. I think because I feel like it won't be that long before we see each other again. At least I hope it's not too long. Oh I should also state that Ezekiel did amazing in the car. He didn't sleep nearly as much as he should have, but he hardly cried at all and never screamed. Thank you buddy, it was more of a pleasant drive than I was expecting.
Here's some pictures of EZ and John jumping on the trampoline. My nephews, Sebastian and Oliver joined in on the fun and spent a lot of time jumping over John's legs. No one got hurt either! Look how fun!
I can't believe we're already home and back to our normal day-to-day life. Being with family is the best, and I can't wait to be with them again!