Hillbillies

Okay, first of all, don't even know if I spelled the word "hillbillies" right. How sad is that?

Last Wednesday we went to the Brooks family reunion. That is my mom's family. I haven't seen any of my cousins for awhile so it was a lot of fun to see them. We packed our van FULL. I wish had gotten a picture. It was so full that I had to heave two or three bags out just so Lyndi and Seth could get out every time we stopped for food/ bathrooms, etc. We could have rolled the van (which we didn't, thank goodness) and nobody would have moved. The reunion was at Little Creek Ranch which is a little ways north of Cedar City, UT. It was in the hills and it was SO hot during the day. We were camping out in a tent, so at night it got really cold. Camping is so not fun when you are either hot or cold.....but the kids loved it. We did all kinds of fun things and the kids had an absolute blast getting filthy dirty...I tried really hard to not let it bug me. Kids are supposed to be dirty, right?

On the way home we stayed in a fabulous hotel in downtown SLC that I got a great deal on. $50.00 for a huge suite. It was great. Honestly it was my favorite part of the trip. The room had a huge comfortable King bed, and two rooms so I didn't have to listen to the kids snore and talk in the their sleep (which all of them do). They even had a crib for Lawren. It also had two TVs so the kids could watch whatever they wanted and I could watch whatever I wanted. Jared just kind of went back and forth. We walked to the Gateway mall and ate at McGrath's fish House. It wasn't great service but I LOVE seafood. It was pretty good except the fact that the kids' food ended being wasted. That's kind of a bitter subject, especially for Jared.

The next day we dressed for church and went to Temple square to see if they had sacrament meeting at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It just so happened that we were right on time for sacrament meeting. I can't imagine meeting in the JSMB for regular church. It was such a beautiful chapel. That is why I entitled this post "hillbillies"-because that is how I felt. Seth had his shoes on the wrong feet, Nathan stuck his whole arm in one of the fountains on temple square, so not only was his shirt wrinkled, but also soaking wet. Lyndi had lost one of her two front teeth during the campout, and pulled another one out during the closing prayer in church and started bleeding all over. They also oohed and aaahed and were really impressed with temple square......acting like we had never been anywhere before. After church we were going to walk around and tour some more but I was just too tired. Overall it was a great trip, but I definitely feel more at home where I am at.