On Tuesday night Garrett got off work early so we could head out to Vernal for almost a week! What fun! We got to Sherrie's house after everyone was in bed and when Dynelle woke up (on her birthday!) we were in the living room to be the first to sing "Happy Birthday". Yeah, we are the best! We had a great day partying it up Brinkerhoff style: lots of good food, lots of laughs, giving Dynelle all the love she deserves, and letting the kids play in the sun with the kiddie pool and the dog (but the dog was not in the pool, that would be gross). That evening we dropped Bekah off at my parents house and went to the temple with Kirk, Dynelle, and Camille. Sherrie is working at the temple now and has been learning to do inititory and it was so amazing to feel the spirit there in the temple and to have my sweet mother-in-law reminding me of all the blessings promised there. It was just what I needed! Afterward, we went to Wingers and poor Dynelle got embarrassed when the waitresses came to sing to her but I stopped feeling bad for her when they handed her a plate of delicious ice-cream.
Thursday we all woke up and cake and ice-cream for breakfast (awesome!) and then we all packed up our cars and headed for the mountains! The kids loved playing with the pine-cones, sticks, and dirt and at the end of the night we all had to use at least 4 wet-wipes to clean each kid up for bed.
Friday we headed to Flaming Gorge and spent the day relaxing on our pontoons. Seriously, super fun. Garrett brought a stereo and we listened to the
Pontoon song about fifty times. Bekah acted sleepy all day so I just sat in the shade cuddling her, unfortunately it was because she was the first of many to become sick. We thought she was just sea-sick till poor Camille was up all night with two of her girls being sick on Saturday night. Sunday I wasn't feeling too great and Camille's other girl came down with it. That was not the highlight of the trip. But swimming and exploring in the pontoons was amazing.
Saturday we spent some time relaxing and then Garrett, Cody, Kirk and Brett got supplies from Sherrie (that she worked very hard on) and came up with a way for the grandkids to become pirates. They yelled at the kids, made them do push-ups whenever they felt the kids deserved to, hid pirate treasure and led the kids on an adventure that kept everyone entertained for at least an hour. What good uncles they have! Crystal's two-year-old even got down to attempt a push-up after seeing so many of her brothers and cousins doing them!! That night we had a special not-so-surprising birthday party for Lon's 60th birthday this year. His sister and her daughter came with her family and we played games and told Lon how much we all love him.
Sunday we cleaned up and went back to Sherrie's house. I stayed in bed for the next 6 hours but felt better after that and we stayed up late playing game and talking.
Monday we ate a delicious breakfast and headed back to Logan where we immediately set up the kiddie pool that Dynelle lent to us. It is pretty nice. All 3 of us can fit in it comfortably and Bekah loves playing in the "watee".
Overall, we had a wonderful week with the Brinkerhoffs. It was so good to see everyone and I'm already excited to get everyone together again next year!