Hopkinson Reunion - Day 1 & 2

We headed up to the Piggott cabin on Wednesday July 6th, we had an early flight and right away after we left I realized I left my phone on my dresser at home. Major Bummer, and Matt laughed at me.Of course it was fine but all I really wanted was to check the time. I'm lost if I don't know the time, especially in the middle of the night or when we first wake up! Then, going through security at the ever so small Long Beach airport we got our toothpaste and sunscreen thrown away we were on our way. As we are loading the plane I realize we left Westin's car seat in our cart that was being driven back to our house. Great. No big deal, once we landed we met Matthew (my brother) and Matt took the rental car and went to Walmart for the cheap car seat they had. We are now proud owners of TWO car seats. 

The rough day surprisingly didn't end there. We took the 3 or 4 hour drive up to Bear Lake to the beautiful Piggott family cabin. It is massive. A big loft and room upstairs filled with bunk beds for all the Grand kids. A huge and beautiful kitchen with one giant table. Most of the wood furniture was made by my Uncle Scott. Down in the basement was a big great room with 4 bedrooms attached. After we took our tour of the home we enjoyed some zip lining out in the backyard. There was a shorter run and a long one. Matt and I tried the shorter one with success so we jumped on the big one. I must have gone first and was terrified and vowed to not do it again. Then Matt went. Some how he ended up getting thrown off and flipped through the air and hit a big pole, landed up side down. I did a huge scream and within seconds Matt was up and walking around but looked very scared and confused. He hurt his shoulder pretty badly which basically ruined his whole trip. We had lots of fun planned for the up coming week that he wasn't going to be able to participate in. Poor guy was still in good spirits about it. 

After that happened we decided the big zip line should probably not be used. We put the little guys on the zip line, they had a swing like seat. 

Graham loved it,

and so did Dallin.

Then Westin did it. He did not enjoy it.

We still forced him. What a stinker. This is what the rest of the trip looked like. He didn't want anything to do with anyone but Matt or I. I've realized he doesn't like big groups.

Every night we had a devotional, Ruth was in charge on Wednesday. All I remember was it was about prophets and she taught the kids this silly dance.

The next day we went rafting. I think it might have been one of the scariest things I have ever done. It was something that Matt wasn't able to do. We had heard that the water level was really high from all the snow and running really fast. We got up there and the guides said that you could get down the river in about 45 mins and it usually takes an hour and a half. That is half the time my friends. Half the time. I remember some of the names of the sections, like lunch counter (the scariest of them all) and champagne. Luckily we never flipped, the water was freezing. The second time down was way more scary for me, the wind had picked up so it made the water rougher. On the first run my brother Scott turned to the Bryan, who was leading our boat and asked on a scale of 1-10 how crazy these rapids were that we were currently going through. He said something like a 2 or 3. I couldn't believe it. Made me terrified! We had a blast though and we made it through safely.

On our way home, I met Matt at an Urgent care in a town called Montpelier. He got an x-ray which came back with nothing, but we were glad to rule it out. Poor Matt was still in terrible pain.

Weekend of the 4th Part III - July 4th!

I have vowed to never spend a 4th of July away from the beach again. Especially Huntington Beach. We all loaded up on our bikes and headed down for a BBQ and the parade. We had 4 bikes and a tandem bike plus Westin in his seat.

When the basketball float went by of course we had to have Westin show off his skills, we even brought a ball with us which was lucky.

Of course he made it.

After the parade we headed to the beach. This was Westin's first time being interested in the water. He never even wanted to walk towards it until this day, now he now ever go back.

It was pretty warm that day so getting in the water was fun. Just to the knees was far enough for me though. After the beach we rode our bikes and our stuff back to our place showered and everyone headed to see transformers in 3d at the IMAX theatre. After that we rode our bikes back down to the beach for fireworks, we made a dinner stop at TK burger then sat right by the water for the show. We sat close enough to the pier to hear the music playing. In years past I never knew they even played music. Westin loved the show and looked especially cute in his Christmas pj's. 

Weekend of the 4th Part II

On Sunday evening after church everyone except me headed to a putting green. This is of course one of Westin's favorite places to visit plus his Grandpa and Uncle love the game.

I stayed back to get the house back in order. Having 6 adults takes a toll on a 2 bedroom apartment. I did hear that Westin learned what a bunker is and can now correctly identify it.

Weekend of the 4th Part I

We had so much fun with Matt's family over the fourth of July. The first day we hiked up to the Hollywood sign, or as close as we could get. I think people took turns carrying Westin. He only weighs 25 pounds and has for about 8 months.

Westin has a camelback water bottle but he thinks sharing with his Aunt Camille was really fun. They walked like this for most of the hike. Good thing though, it was pretty hot out there.

I really love this picture. I think everyone looks great and Westin is at least looking.

Granpa Shawn and Grandma RaDean were with us but I didn't get pictures of them except for the back of Grandpa.

After hiking we went to Pink's hot dogs which wasn't so great then we went to Diddy Riese, which is a ice cream cookie sandwich. We have had friends tell us since we moved out here we need to go and it was not a disappointment. 

Later that night I was in a 4th of July show just singing. I'm not sure why I signed up but I enjoyed my time in it.

Oceanside -- LegoLand

The next day on Saturday we spent the day at Lego Land. We met up with the Barnums at their hotel to eat some good breakfast. When I walked in to our "Continental Breakfast" at our hotel I literally laughed. It was next to nothing in there and then some coffee.

Lego Land was a fun place if your child was tall enough for rides. That was kind of a let down for us. He did love the little splash park by some of the water rides. He played there for a bout an hour. We weren't prepared with a swimming suit though.

They also have an aquarium you can check out. Westin really liked that and talking about all the fish. This picture was looking in on Westin and I in the middle of a doughnut shaped tank.



They had only one place for you to touch something, and I don't even remember what we touched. Probably a starfish.

We had fun but won't be going back until after Westin and the rest of the kids are tall enough to enjoy the rides, or we will go to the water park.

On the way home we stopped a the Crate and Barrel outlet, I can't stay away from that place. We ended up with a couple of cool things our favorite a patio umbrella. Westin got a little tired and fell right asleep in Matt's arm, a VERY rare occasion.

Oceanside

The next weekend after my birthday we headed down for a weekend in Oceanside with the Barnums.  We started with the beach on Friday.

Just like whenever Matt gets together with his friends they revert back to when they were young. They dragged each other around for about an hour. They sure do look like they are enjoying themselves though.

That night we went to some pizza place as a big group. It was quite the experience with getting burnt pizza but then enjoying some cotton candy that Westin loved.