A Day in the Life of Mamma: Trip to Medford

Last week, we took a trip to Medford to be with my whole family. It was a little mini reunion; everyone was there, and it was really fun!

We started our trip on Wednesday, August 6th. Daniel and I got everything packed the night before, and got up early, so that we could be all ready to go when Brooke woke up. Which worked pretty well. We left a little after 8:30am. It wasn't a bad trip at all, Brooke handled it well, and she didn't even have a nap. We expected her to crash at some point, but she never did. So, we did have a few rough periods. And the last 2 hours from Redding to Medford were almost painful. For me, more than Brooke or Daniel. I was just ready to be done driving.

Poor Brooke was so exhausted. But when we got there, everyone was so excited to see her, and there were so many people, I think she was a little overwhelmed with everything. We tried to get her to bed as soon as possible after getting there, but it wasn't until almost 9pm when she finally went down.

That night, we talked and played games with everyone. I loved seeing everyone! Especially my new little nephew, Owen. It was so fun seeing Diane as a proud little mamma! He's so cute, and SO chunky. Dad calls him a brick, and I think that is an apt description. :)

The next day, Julie, Brian, Danielle, Diane, Daniel and I left the kids with Gramma and went to see "America", an interesting documentary about history and the current state of our country. Mom really wanted all of her children to see the movie, so she paid for us to go see it.

That night we played more games together after the kids went to bed. We stayed up way too late, of course. But had lots of fun!

Friday was a pretty crazy day. Daniel took a bunch of the family to go on a hike. Diane, Julie, Mom and I stayed home with the 3 babies, and just hung out. When everyone got back, Danielle, Mary and I went shopping for last minute things for family pictures and also for dinner. We went to Lithia Park that night to do family pictures. It was pretty crazy, and took a couple of hours.

I was pretty exhausted after that day's activities. I think most of us were. So we just hung out and watched a movie that night.

Poor Diane was a slave to Owen's sleeping, of course. She was always kind of in and out of activities with the family, trying to get Owen to sleep, and then joining us when he was asleep and in his crib. It really took me back, and made me a little nervous about that happening to us in a few months. :)

Saturday, in the afternoon, after naps for the babies, we all went rafting down the Rogue River. It was quite fun, but a little too long for me. And Diane. With me being pregnant, I had a hard time moving around and taking care of Brookie. And Diane had been working all day and was missing her baby/ needing to nurse. Plus, it was getting quite cold by the end, and we were all having a harder time dealing with the cold water. But we still had fun. Brooke took about half of the time getting used to it. She really wasn't liking it that much at the beginning. Every time we went over the little rapids, she got scared and started crying a bit. It took us a while to convince her that it was fun. But she got there. She started squealing like the rest of us when we went over rapids, and laughing and talking about the bubbles in the water. By the end, she was having fun.

Once we were done, Dad took us to a little burger shack for milkshakes and fries. And we were all starving, so it was delicious!

We just hung out and watched a movie at home again. Rafting had worn us all out. It was nice to just relax together.

Sunday was Owen's blessing day. It was a wonderful blessing. Danielle and I took notes and wrote down the blessing for them. We had our mothers do that for us when Brooke was blessed, and I love that we have Brooke's blessing written down for her. So we wanted to do that for Owen. After church, we had Navajo Tacos for dinner, which were so delicious. (Although, I have to say that I thought the chili didn't taste as good as I remembered it. Mom's recipe was always the best. But, I'm not used to meat anymore. I kind of prefer my meatless chilis to mom's recipe these days. Interesting.) Scott also got ordained to the Melchizedek priesthood that night, at home. It was great to be there. When all the men had left, the family just stayed in the living room, talking all night.

Brian and Danielle left that night, after Scott's ordination. So we said our good-bye's to them. Brian gave us all a little gift of some European chocolate he'd picked up on his dance team tour there. :) Delish!

Daniel and I went to bed WAY too late. But so did Brooke. She slept in the next morning until 9:00! Which means that we did, too. We didn't get out of Medford until 10:30. It was a long day. We didn't get home until 11:30 or so, at night. It was a fairly uneventful day. Brooke took about a 20 minute nap and went through some rough patches of grumpiness from lack of sleep. After stopping an hour from home for dinner at Chipotle, we got stuck in traffic going over the hills into the valley. It was pretty lame. But Brooke was so good, so cheerful, and maybe a little bit delirious. :) We made it, though; late, but safe.