Monday, July 20, 2009

Taylor Family Reunion

My mom's family reunion was held on Cedar Mountain this past weekend. I left with my parents on Friday morning. We had to leave by 7 am because Shawn and his family was coming up from California. They were going to leave at 3am, so we needed to be there early to be able to spend as much time as possible with them.

On our way down, we had to pick up Grandpa and Louise in Salina. Grandpa can't see well, but they needed their trailor down there, so dad drove him and the trailor down while mom drove Louise and I in dad's new truck. Grandpa is usually raring to go, but when we got there, they were still packing, and Louise still had to take a shower. We were there for an hour and a half before we got back on the road. Kind of frustrating, but in the name of helping grandpa, I guess it was worth it.

My niece Kiley was too funny throughout the weekend. She was in LOVE with the 4-wheelers. All she wanted to do was sit on them, or go for a ride. Either way, it didn't matter...as long as she was on one. She is definiately an outdoors lover. Her favorite person was whoever was willing to take her outside at the time. This happened to be grandpa Vic most of the time. She couldn't stay clean to save her, but she was a pretty happy girl running around camp. She had her ornry moments, but who can blame her? The weather wasn't the best all weekend, so it forced us inside for a while...she was tired from the trip, tired from playing all day, and just out of her environment. Despite her ornriness, she is still a doll and totally entertaining.

It's always nice to spend time with Shawn and Michelle too. I wish we lived closer so we could spend more time together. They are fun to talk with and just joke around together.

Kuso came down on Saturday. We didn't do much, but it was nice. We had our annual "Peso Tossing" contest. Teams were randomly drawn. Shawn and Uncle Burke were the winners, but I and my Aunt Karen took 3rd place.

Saturday night proved to be a difficult night of sleep. The first night, I slept on a cot in the trailor with my parents. Saturday, Kuso and I set up our tent we got for Christmas. We borrowed an air mattress from my parents. But the air pump was missing, so we borrowed one from my aunt. For some reason, it didn't seal well, so the mattress didn't get pumped up well. I figured it wouldn't be a big deal for one night. I was SO wrong. I slept OK until around 2:30. Then I had to use the bathroom, but I didn't want to go to the trailor because Kiley was sleeping in there because she had gotten so cold the night before. I knew I would wake her up if I went there. So I waited...hoping that Leila would shift positions and the urination feeling would pass. No such luck. An hour later, I finally gave in to go use the bathroom. And yes, I woke up Kiley. Luckily, she went right back to sleep after I left.

When we got back to the tent, and I laid down, I couldn't breathe. I think due to the altitude difference, the low inflated mattress, being a little stuffed up from the mountain plants, and just breathing heavier because I'm pregnant, it made it extremely difficult to relax. I tried for about 15 minutes, but kept panicking knowing that I would not be comfortable and still had 4+ hours before anyone else would be awake. I ended up going to sit in Kuso's car so I could sit up. I wiggled around for over an hour, but then finally was tired/comfy enough to rest. I rested a little over an hour. Then the sun was up. I went back in the tent and laid with Kuso for about an hour longer before we got up. He also had a rough night of sleep because he woke up with me to go to the trailer.

Anyway, it was a good weekend. Everyone in the family made an appearance at one point or another except for Troy. He had just come back from Europe, and needed to focus on school. There also wasn't room for him to ride up with Shawn and his car is having trouble. His heart was definately there though.

I didn't take any pictures except for these pics from the Zion's Look Out point on the way up the mountain. Friday afternoon, I had to have Shawn drive me down there so I could get phone reception to call Kuso and give him directions to the camp site. On the way home, Kuso and I stopped to take these pictures. What an amazing site.

Normal Shot
Zoomed In a Little
With the Camera Flipped.
So Gorgeous!!!
Grandpa is getting older and kind of ornry at times. But he truly appreciates the effort that his girls make to keep the family together. He got a little emotional thanking everyone for making the effort to continue to get together. This tradition will surely continue as long as anyone is willing to make the effort.


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