There's no Place Like Home - 3200 Miles Later

Wow! What a week, and then some, we just had. Shane's family had their family reunion in Nevada this past week, and boy was it fun. First we went to Suzy's house to hang out for a few days. We really miss Shane's mom, so it was nice to have some time with her before the reunion. Then we drove to Reno, where we got to stay with Shane's brother Brock, and his family. They took us to Virginia City to see on old west style town. It was quite fun. We got to have a tour of an old mine, take some fun pictures, and see some neat things. Thanks, Brock and Crystal, for taking us. We loved it.

Doesn't this look about right? PS- The extra one is Shane's niece, Chloe.



Shane thought this was a good description - NOT!

The canary in the cage is how the miners knew if the air was safe in the mine. If he stopped singing, you knew you needed to get out quick!

Next it was time for the reunion. The reunion was at Lake Tahoe, and we had a great time. We rented a house up in the mountains, and then would drive down the mountain to the beach. It was so beautiful, and the best part for me, 10 degrees cooler and much less humid than Nebraska. It was a welcome change in weather for me.

We spent two mornings at the beach, letting the kids play and swim and eat sand to their hearts content. OK, we really didn't let them eat sand, but they tried to anyway. Let me tell you, those diapers afterward were disgusting. Anyway, the beach was surrounded by pine trees, and the sand was a little coarser than I'm used to, having gone to the beach in California. The water was a little chilly, you know, coming down out of those tall mountains, but wasn't too bad once you got used to it. The problem was, that took some time - getting used to it - at least for the adults. They kids however, had no problems. Kaitlin and Tanner just went for it, with the other boys following at a slightly slower pace. They loved digging holes, trying to bury things, or people, and making bathtubs for Parker. We brought lunch the second day and ate at the beach, which presented problems when Parker would try to eat and walk. He'd fall more often than not and whatever food he had in his hand would then become sand covered. He couldn't understand why we kept taking his food, but I'm sure his digestive system thanked us for it.

Thanks to help from my mother, I also made up a "survivor" game for us to play at the beach. It only had one minor hiccup, as one team couldn't find their puzzle buried in the sand. But over all, I believe it went well and is something that I am in charge of next year, too. I'll be watching this season's Survivor to get some more ideas for next time.

There was also a trip to a train museum in Carson City. I stayed home with the little boys who were napping, but Shane took the older kids to the see the trains.

We also had a "grandchild" talent show, and then dance, for the little ones of the group. What a hoot!! I am assuming that Shane's family will post the talents of their kids, so I'll just post mine and a video of the dance. Tanner was the star, I think, of the dance, because he was just a groovin' and a shakin' coming up with his own dance moves. Parker even got into the action after getting over being a little scared.



We left Sunday morning at 4:30 a.m., after loading the kids, and drove all day. The kids behaved very well, even Tanner and Parker. Parker whined a lot, because he couldn't understand why we couldn't hold him. He didn't sleep as much as I'd hoped, either, because he wanted to lay down flat or on his tummy, but overall they all handled the traveling very well. We made several stops on the way for gas, food, and stretching, and after 3200 miles roundtrip, and 23 hours of driving, we made it home Monday at 5:30 a.m. local time. What a ride!


We sure loved seeing all of Shane's family, we missed Cody, Joanne and Jack, and can't wait to do it again next year.