I enjoyed a nice break from work in July. I had a two-part trip: 2 days in Denver to visit Jason and Mike's family and then a week in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene for a Burningham Family Reunion.
I flew in to Denver after work on the 3rd and Jason came and picked me up from the airport. It was nice to visit Mike and Desi again. They are such great hosts and take good care of us!
On the 4th of July we ate a yummy pancake breakfast at the park sponsored by their ward. It was fun to meet some of the ward members, especially since Jason's been attending that ward for the last couple of months. Desi loves fireworks, as do I, and we got to enjoy their fireworks show in their driveway. Some of the kids were too scared of the loud noises and didn't make it through all of the show.
 |
| 4th of July in front of Mike and Desi's house |
Friday Jason and I spent several hours looking at housing in the Denver. Since it's a possibility we could live there we decided to do some research to see what the market had to offer. The biggest thing we noticed is that it's quite a bit more expensive to find housing there. We did find one condo that we liked and went to go see it. It's still too early to know if we'll decide to live there, but it's nice to have some options.
That night after dinner Desi and Kim took me to get my very first pedicure. It was super relaxing and nice to have someone else bending over and painting my toes since it's getting really hard to do it myself anymore. :)
 |
| First pedicure |
Saturday morning Jason and I flew from Denver to Spokane, Washington for the family reunion. Jason's parents flew in a couple hours before us and rented a car so we were able to tag-along with them for the week. I'm grateful they were willing to drive!
Saturday after lunch we met up with Tim and Lisa's family from Texas and went to hike the Bowl and Pitcher. Jason spent most of his childhood in Spokane so it was fun to visit some of old stomping grounds and see what he did growing up.
 |
| Hiking the area around the Bowl and Pitcher |
 |
| Crossing the bridge over the river by the Bowl and Pitcher |
My one request for the trip was to visit Riverfront Park in Spokane. The rest of the family planned to go over I had to fly out, so we made a quick trip on the way to the cabin. Jason and I came here on our honeymoon almost exactly 5 years ago. We good pictures on this big wagon and on the blocks so I wanted to get pictures in the same place so we could compare them. We pretty much look exactly the same minus my big tummy, don't you think? :) The other funny thing about it is that there were a bunch of people sitting on the blocks when we got there and they all hurried and moved when we explained that we needed a picture right there for history sake.
 |
| Riverfront Park, 2008 |
 |
| Riverfront Park, 2008 |
 |
| Riverfront Park, 2013 |
 |
| Riverfront Park, 2013 |
|
That night we arrived at the Wagstaff's lake cabin on Coeur d'Alene Lake. The cabin was a perfect size for our large family (14 adults and 15 grandchildren under age 12) and the access to the lake was amazing. The weather was perfect and the lake temperature was around 75F. Sunday we attended their old ward and played games in the evening. We spent the rest of the week boating, skiing, surfing, tubing, playing games, eating, talking, and watching movies. All the cousins got along great and we escaped with only a little illness towards the end of the week. Sally planned and bought food for the meals ahead of time. We were assigned different meals as couples to prepare and clean up. It worked really well and Sally did awesome at planning the right amounts of food for the meals.
 |
| Wagstaff's Lake Cabin |
 |
| Playing the card game "Bang." It was the favorite game of both old and young. |
 |
| This gathering was for a spiritual thought and to go over the lake safety rules since we had so many young kids. |
 |
| We roasted marshmallows on Sunday night. |
 |
| Jeff drove his new boat from Utah to Washington so the family could use it. It was great for surfing and skiing! |
 |
| Surfing on the Lake |
 |
| I obviously didn't do any skiing or surfing, but I had fun going out on the boat to watch Jason. |
 |
| FHE treat at Coeur d'Alene Resort. And no, we didn't eat these by ourselves. :) |
 |
| We spent a day at Splashdown Waterpark in Spokane. I didn't go down any slides but I helped with kids and dipped my feet in the pool. |
 |
| Star Wars were the favorite movies of the week. Some of them were watched multiple times. |
 |
| Friday afternoon most of the adults did a session at the Spokane Temple and the kids hung out with Mike and Chelsey and some young women from the Spokane ward helped babysit the kids. |
 |
| The whole Burningham clan in front of the house where they lived for over 16 years. |
Friday we cleaned the cabin, washed all the sheets and made it just in time to the temple session. That night we had a barbeque at the Dayley's house and then played some games at Ponderosa Elementary School just across the street from the house where they used to live. We checked into a hotel that night and I was the first to fly out Saturday morning. Jason followed suit a few hours later to Denver and we both arrived home around 5:00pm. We had a great time together and we're very grateful for all the work that went into the whole reunion! Now we're all looking forward to the reunion in 2015.
