Family vacation

Summer vacation time! We just got back from Winter Park, CO, where we met up with a bunch of Papa's family. All of his brothers and sisters-in-law were there (except the pair who live in China), as well as his mom and step-dad. And, a lovely addition: one of his cousins, her husband, and their three-year-old daughter drove down from Minnesota.

I had never met the cousin and her family. Papa hadn't seen them in over two years. He has told me stories about things like locking her in a dog kennel when they were small, emphasizing that he only had older brothers, and she was like a sister to them.

We also hadn't seen one of the brothers (and his wife) since this time last year. His sister-in-law and I were both pregnant a year ago, and we delivered the cub and his baby cousin a mere four days apart, 1,200 miles distant. Anyway, this was the first chance we've had to meet their first daughter. Also, they finally got to meet the cub and all of the girls.

There were a lot of things we wanted to do while we were all together. On our list were things like boating, horseback riding, hiking, a s'mores event at a resort, the longest alpine slide, a blues festival, and maybe hot air ballooning.

We did manage to enjoy the s'mores, a ski gondola ride, trail riding, and blues festival, but hiking proved too much for both three-year-olds. Most of the other adults went kayaking, but we didn't join them, opting to do more kid-friendly things.

Each night, dinner was prepared by a different brother and/or his wife, with one night also assigned to the cousins. We had a build-your-own pasta bar, pulled pork, homemade pizza, halibut (which one of the brothers recently caught in Alaska), barbecue on the Fourth, and leftovers on the last day. We made the homemade pizza with fresh dough and sauce from my recipes. It was all delicious, but the girls have become frustratingly picky eaters, so we had grilled cheese with tomato soup instead of leftovers.

The Cub woke up sick on Friday. He was congested, feverish, and sleepier than usual, but still eating and we weren't worried about him... That is, until he threw up. He ejected a few ounces of formula in a big puddle right in the middle of his beloved space blanket. That went straight into the washing machine and Papa went straight to the phone. He called the nurse's line at the Cub's clinic, and they reassured us that we were doing the right things, and gave us specific signs to look for before taking him to the hospital.

He's almost entirely better, now. He still has a slight fever, and wants to sleep more often. When he's awake, though, he's his usual self.

A lot of games were played: checkers, shut the box, trivial pursuit, cranium, tsuro, cards against humanity, zombie dice, Monaco, bananagrams, spelunky, and kirbal space program.

A lot of fun was had. We're excited to see everyone again.