Just a few days after the Freebairn family reunion ended, we drove down from Lehi to St. George. Roy had left at the beginning of the week for a business trip and actually arrived back in Utah the day before the reuinon so he met us in St. George. That meant that I achieved Super Mom status as I successfully managed 4 bathroom stops, 1 gas stop, and 1 lunch stop with 4 semi-tired but very excited kids (also, I was newly pregnant and experiencing waves of not feeling too great). In reality, I recognize that driving for 4 or so hours with these good kids isn't a terribly hard thing, but I still had to gear up for it and give myself a couple pep talks :)
We arrived in St. George with just enough time to get riled up and hyper before dinner :) The kids were so excited to see cousins and pick up where they left on the games they always play together. They were excited to see Roy too, of course, but he was quickly pushed aside so they could hug other family members.
One of our stops in St. George was the brand new LDS Family History Center. It was pretty awesome! You can learn all sorts of fun things about your ancestors, your last name, important things about the year you were born, and other things that tell your family story. It was a lot of fun!
Roy demonstrating how dashing he would look as a Roman soldier
(they had a screen across from him that used his face on the body of a Roman soldier)
On Sunday, we had the privilege of getting together with all the Pyper people. Roy's mom, Susan, is the oldest of the Pyper children and she and her sisters coordinated a get-together for the extended family. Amazing that so many people can come from an original family of 4 siblings! It was so fun to see the original Pyper cousins all catching up, laughing at old jokes, and egging on their kids. St. George was so ridiculously hot that the evening HAD to include a water balloon war, in which all the kids naturally teamed up against the two oldest boys...
We had a great trip to the St. George Children's Museum, which was a nice break in air conditioning. I'm not kidding when I say that it was so hot there. Andrew especially loved the museum and was my little buddy through most of the time we spent there.
Sam on stage means lots of potty humor
Every once in a while, I see Roy and the kids from behind and I have to slow down and take a picture so I can capture everyone willingly holding hands, at least one person chatting Roy's ear off, and just being happy.
So, so tired!
St. George has this fun lazy river running through the downtown gathering place. The kids all had a great time playing and were pretty much dry when we got to the car.
Poor Lydia ended up getting the stomach bug for a couple days. She was so tired that she literally fell asleep on the toilet. It was pitiful. She is the most likely kid to get a stomach bug among our kids so she knows just what to do to take care of herself, but it was particularly sad that she missed out of fun time with family.
Abby and I went with some of the Zwahlens to see "Newsies" at Tuachan and it was incredible. She loved it so much and still talks about it, listens to the music, and was excited to see that "Newsies" just got added to Netflix. She and Roy have a date planned to watch it together.
We had to go find more water on yet another hot morning.
Sam being attacked by a spider...a candy spider.
And then we were back in the party car heading back up north to spend the last few days with my sister Becky.
On the way back up, we stopped by Cove Fort and went on a little tour. It was really cool to see how the telegraph works, the tiny beds that people would share, the kitchen that was used for cooking for the family and anyone who happened to get of the stagecoach that day, and the strong walls built of volcanic rock from the nearby mountain.
We had so much fun seeing all the Zwahlens at the reunion and getting in lots of great play time with cousins. That cousin play time is always my favorite part of any family get-together :)
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