Friday evening everyone started arriving! Even though Rhonda and Troy had come by the day before and Matthew had picked Gavin and me up at the airport, we had not seen the rest of their families or Becky and Matt and their family. It was great to see all my nieces and nephews again! It has been a few years since I have seen them. They all seem so grown up now! Gavin didn't seem to mind the instant chaos of having 12 more people around (we were now up to 20 people in Andrew and Andrea's house and we were still waiting on Becky and Matt who were to arrive later that night, adding another 8 people for a total of 28 people for the weekend... good thing they have a huge house)! In fact, Gavin loved it! He loved the attention from everyone, especially his cousins. They were all more than happy to cart him around and keep him entertained and safe. That meant I had short breaks to actually visit with my siblings and parents without having to entertain Gavin at the same time.
We enjoyed an awesome dinner of lasagna, salad and garlic bread. After dinner was our first activity. We were put into three groups and our assignment was to write a story that was going to be given to another group to be acted out and filmed. It was a lot of fun because the kids really got into it and had some great, silly ideas! Gavin didn't have much to add, but he did think the bean bag chair we had with us was absolutely wonderful. He couldn't get enough of jumping/throwing himself into it and kept giggling away. Unfortunately, it was getting late and Gavin needed a bath and to get to bed. So, we had to bail out early and only helped write the story and missed out on the acting and filming portion. After Gavin was out for the night, the filming was done and Andrew was working on editing them to be watched, Andrea pulled dessert out. They had made ice cream sandwiches! They were delicious! There were strawberry, vanilla, chocolate and mint filled sandwiches. Surprisingly, the mint were the most popular (even with the kids), but it didn't really matter which one you had, they were a great treat! Before too much longer, everyone slowly started heading to bed. What a great start to the weekend!
Saturday morning, Gavin was up bright and early and woke up a few people in the process. Those of us that were up headed outside so we didn't wake anyone else up before they were ready. Andrew got breakfast in the oven (Andrea had prepared it Friday afternoon - overnight french toast). It smelled as great as it tasted. Gavin even enjoyed it (considering he hadn't been eating much in the way of solid food the last few days, that said a lot). After breakfast, showers started. With that many people, it is good that there were so many bathrooms so that someone else could get in the shower in another bathroom when the previous person was done.
After breakfast was cleaned up, we headed to their tv/family room to watch the videos that had been created the night before. They were all really great and so silly! Everyone did a great job with the stories they wrote and the acting of the story assigned to them! After watching the videos a few times, we headed down to the park for some outdoor games and to just hang out. It is a really nice park that is just at the end of their street. Daniel was a good sport (as usual) and let his nieces and nephews torture him.
Others were playing Bocce. The teams kept changing as others either wanted a turn or those playing were tired and wanted to do something else.
The rest just hung out and visited. We all enjoyed otter pops, even Gavin! He was thrilled. Not all that much of a surprise given how much he loves ice, but he even quickly figured out how to hold and eat/drink it all by himself. It is amazing how quickly he figures things out!
We headed back for lunch (and Gavin took a much needed but all too short nap) of hamburgers, hot dogs and fruit salad (with fruit from Matthew and Holly's garden). After lunch there were some projects for the kids to do and then it was time for the talent show! No, Gavin and I did not participate as I don't really have any talents and trying to get Gavin to do anything on command is pretty much impossible, he is only interested in doing things on his own terms. Those that did participate were very talented. Given how many people participated and how talented they are makes me wonder how I ended up with no talent! Apparently that gene skipped me! Oh well.
After the talent show everyone dispersed for other fun and games. Gavin enjoyed lots more time being surrounded and entertained by his cousins and I enjoyed time playing games and visiting.
For dinner, Andrew grilled chicken and there was potato salad that Rhonda had made. It was delicious! After dinner, everyone else got ready to head up to Canyon. Unfortunately, given how terribly Gavin had been napping (and sleeping in general), we skipped it so I could get Gavin to bed a little bit earlier. They were nice enough to leave some goodies for me to enjoy after I got Gavin to sleep. Andrew and Andrea had made marshmallows with mini m&ms and chocolate chips in them. They were so good! Homemade marshmallows are awesome. They took them up to roast them because then all you had to do was put them in the graham cracker and you had a s'more with chocolate that should be melted! The theory is great, unfortunately, the marshmallows didn't hold up as well as thought, but they were still delicious. I used them to make s'mores in the microwave and I also made a standard one (or two). An awesome dessert to enjoy, even if I couldn't roast the marshmallows in the fire. After they all returned, everyone quickly headed to bed because it was getting late and it had been a busy day!
Sunday morning was a bit busier. Gavin was being entertained by his cousins so I was able to help with the breakfast prep. Andrew and Andrea made muffins, banana and blueberry. The banana were good but the blueberry were fabulous. The absolute best blueberry muffins I have ever had (probably the best muffins I have ever had)! I am glad there were so many because that meant that I could have more than one! During this time the shower process had started again but was a bit more critical since everyone needed to be ready for church at 1 and we still needed to fit in our family meeting that morning. After breakfast was cleaned up, we gathered the adults and those kids that were interested in participating and had our family meeting. It was good to have us all in the same room and gave us a chance to discuss our next reunion and other things that people wanted to discuss. By the end of the meeting, Gavin had had enough and I attempted yet another nap. I was pleasantly surprised that he actually took a much needed 2 hour nap! Finally! A normal nap! Although, this was probably because it was the first time it had been that quiet in several days. After he got up, I set up the pack and play in the bathroom so I could take a quick shower... big mistake. Even though I had put on Yo Gabba Gabba and given him some toys, he was not happy about it and protested by attacking the toilet paper roll that I didn't see was within reach and proceeded to make a huge mess with it. Oh well, at least I got a quick shower.
Before long everyone was home from church and it was time for dinner. Tamales and tacos/burritos. The tamales were awesome. Andrew and Andrea know someone that makes them fresh and sells them to restaurants and they were able to get them from her. That is not something I have often or something I would attempt to make so it was a great treat. After dinner, it was time for families to start packing up and heading home since all the kids had school Monday morning and Becky and Matt's family had a long drive ahead of them as well. I packed up our things because we were heading up with Rhonda and Troy to spend our last few days with them and then with Matthew and Holly before we headed home.
Gavin was not happy to be in the car, but thankfully his protesting didn't seem to bother Rhonda, Troy and the kids (either that or they were just lying to be nice). We made it to their house and Gavin relaxed... for about two minutes. Their dog Cosmo was so excited that they were home that he was barking some and Gavin was not impressed. He proceeded to have an absolute meltdown. Even though the barking lasted for about 2 seconds, Gavin was not interested in having anything to do with Cosmo, including having to see him. He would see him and it would start all over again. I felt awful, Cosmo is such a sweet dog and just wanted to check out Gavin but Gavin wouldn't stop crying. I started to worry that it would be a big problem and we wouldn't be able to spend the time I wanted with Rhonda and Matthew's families. He did eventually calm down, but bedtime couldn't come soon enough that night!
Monday morning Gavin slept a bit later than he had been (wahoo). We were still up in time to spend some time with the kids before they headed off to school. Rhonda was nice enough to make pancakes for breakfast, one of Gavin's favorites! He was thrilled! Then Gavin took a great nap. I was hopeful that he would sleep a bit better with it being quieter because the kids were in school and he had hopefully worn himself out to a point where he had to sleep. It seemed to be working that way. During the day, Gavin napped really well and enjoying playing with more new toys. Sydney let us stay in her room and Gavin loved checking out all her toys. Although, he also loved checking out Devin's toys, so I am sure it was partially because they were out, available for use and Sydney didn't mind. Gavin also started to get used to Cosmo and even started to get brave and get close enough to touch him and check him out.
Once the kids were home from school, Gavin was in an even better mood because he was back to being carted around by his cousins. They really did such an awesome job of entertaining him! Rhonda and Troy made enchiladas for dinner that were so good! I wish that when I made them they were that good! Gavin had mashed potatoes and peas. He was happy and eating much better than he had been, probably because things were much more calm. After dinner, Stephanie pulled out her cotton candy machine and made us cotton candy! It was really cool. I have never seen anything like it and that worked so well. It was just like getting cotton candy at the fair, but better because she had all kinds of great flavors! I hope we have a reason to have one some day, it really is a fun treat to have! After Gavin was in bed, I watched a great movie with Rhonda and Troy. They have so many movies and as I was looking through, they mentioned a movie I had never heard of that they loved called Stardust, so we put that on. It was a really fun movie. I am glad that we watched it!
Tuesday morning, Gavin really slept in! I was shocked when I woke up and saw it was after 8! He rarely sleeps that late and considering he had been getting up between 6 and 6:30 for the last week, that was a welcome change! He enjoyed pancakes for breakfast again and we hung out and he played with Cosmo (getting braver by the day). I really enjoyed getting to catch up with Rhonda and Troy! After a couple of awesome naps, the kids were home and we had a little more time to hang out before it was time to pack up so we could spend the night with Matthew and Holly's family.
Rhonda brought us over to Matthew and Holly's house (just down the road). The kids were excited to see Gavin again. Awesome! Nicole was more than happy to show Gavin around and find some great toys for him. She found some books that he could chew on and they even still have their cozy coupe! Gavin was happy to put that to use! Theirs is a bit lower to the ground, so he could actually use his feet to push himself around. Spencer helped by showing him what to do!
We were just in time for Holly to cut up some watermelon, it was yummy, Gavin and I both had several pieces. Watermelon is definitely a favorite of his now! Holly also made some rice crispy treats for dessert! Delicious, especially since I don't even know when I had them last, so good! Matthew made a delicious dinner for us, shrimp and vegetables over rice. Gavin enjoyed his vegetables and rice that Matthew pulled out for him. After dinner we hung out and found some fun toys and clothes that Spencer had outgrown for Gavin to grow into.
Unfortunately, before long it was time to get to bed because Gavin and I had a really early morning Wednesday to head to the airport. So we got set up and ready for bed and said good night!
Wednesday morning I got up really early so I could shower and quietly sneak around the house to finish packing up and get everything loaded so Matthew could drop us at the airport for our 7:30 flight. Gavin didn't seem to even notice being moved from the pack and play to the car and slept the whole way to the airport. A nice start to the day! Even though the Salt Lake City airport isn't as small as Stewart, it also isn't that big and that time of the morning you don't need to allow tons of extra time, so we planned to allow about an hour. We ended up getting there a bit earlier because it didn't take as long as it might normally to get there. Check in was quick and then we were saying our last good bye for this trip. Security went smoothly and reasonably quickly and we were off to find our gate. Gavin had some time to burn a bit of energy and walk around before we boarded our first flight of the day.
We were flying from Salt Lake City to Detroit, a 3 hour flight. After having such success on the way out with 3 flights, I was hoping for similar success on our way home. Gavin explored the plane while we waited for everyone to board after us. He did reasonably well during that time. Unfortunately, it was another full flight. At least the people around us were all very nice. Gavin did fall asleep during take off and slept for about half of our flight. The second half was somewhat interesting. He woke up happy and willing to be entertained on my lap with various toys and snacks but that didn't last. He wanted to get down and explore which was not really an option. He settled for me standing with him and walking him around some so he could explore that way. That only lasted so long before he really needed to sit back down. Although he didn't really cry or scream, he did whine for roughly the last 30 minutes of our flight because he didn't want to have to sit on my lap. Despite that, everyone commented on how well he did and how good he was. I think they were just trying to be nice and make me feel better but I still appreciated it and I know it could have been much worse.
When we arrived in Detroit we had to make the trek from terminal A back to C... absolute torture! They seriously need to come up with a better way than just walking that far to get around! When we got there, we used the family bathroom again (love these) and then settled in a corner of our gate to hang out and wait for boarding. Gavin watched planes, explored and enjoyed making more friends. We boarded our final plane and within minutes of pushing back from the gate, Gavin had passed out in my lap! He slept until we had landed at Stewart! The nice old man next to us and I chatted the whole flight and Gavin didn't even notice. I was relieved! We had survived all that time on planes and Gavin had slept most of it.
I was really glad Stewart was so small after we deplaned. Aside from not wanting to haul 50 pounds of stuff around anymore, I was looking forward to seeing Scott and it was great that the walk out to baggage claim was so short! Gavin was so excited to see him too! It may have only been a week, but that is a heck of a lot of time to be apart!
So, we waited for my suitcase to come out and then headed home! Gavin was even in a good mood for the ride home. We had a great time hanging out and tried to get Gavin back on his normal schedule on New York time. It seemed like it would work, but it ended up just being a short nap before Gavin insisted on getting up for a few hours. It was a bit painful after such a long day, but it worked out well because he slept great after that and slept in past 8 the next morning so we were both able to catch up on some much needed sleep!
It was a great trip. A wonderful family reunion. It is always so much fun to spend that much time with family and I am so grateful that Gavin and I were able to be there for it. I am so grateful for everyone taking care of us while we were there and for Scott to tolerate us being apart for so long (it was hard on all of us... especially since Scott had to deal with hurricane Irene while we were gone). I look forward to the next one and hope that Gavin enjoys it as much as he enjoyed this one!
