Rock Family Reunion

**Note** read this blog first followed by this blog second before reading the following entry.

After a partial week at home with Mike's birthday, we hit the road again. This time, we went to East Idaho to visit my family! Mike and I were reminded how much we love and miss that area. We got to my mom's house in Shelley Friday night and met up with my nephews Ethan and Isaac and niece Piper who were already there, and were shortly joined by my oldest brother James, his wife Tessie, and my sister Julie. Emily took to James like she did to Dave at Mike's reunion. The second Hyrum and Piper met up, they grabbed on to each other's hands and took off running. They're always so happy to see one another.

Saturday morning we had the Rock Family Reunion at Heise Hot Springs just out side of Ririe. It was attended by over 60 people. Not a bad turn out!

My Grandma Sears is the last surviving of her generation, so the reunion was centered around her. She makes sock monkey dolls for each of her grandkids and great grandkids when they're born, so the reunion was monkey themed.

One of my aunts made my grandma a monkey crown.

We had games with monkey themed prizes.

Our first game was catching water balloons sent flying from a balloon launcher. Hyrum and Emily helped load the balloons into the launcher. We got soaked and had a blast.





After that we had lunch while my grandma spoke to us about her memories of my Great Grandma and Grandpa Rock and the old farm in Rockland ID (which, by the way, is not called Rockland because my family lived there). Lunch was followed by a variety of three legged and sack races and egg tosses for kids and adults alike.


Hyrum played with Piper and my cousin Jason's daughter Savannah, and Emily latched on to my cousin Jamie.

Some of the family went swimming and golfing there at Heise while Mike and I went to Idaho Falls to visit some old friends and shop. I got to see my friend Sandi and her new beautiful baby Annalee. Both the kids loved the baby and wanted to give her kisses. They also loved their dog.

Saturday night, a lot of us reconvened at my mom's house in Shelley for another dinner. Aside from James's family and Julie, we also had my aunt Jane and my cousin Jason's family. The kids played out in the back yard while the adults took turns playing and visiting. I managed to smack Mike in the head with spinny disky thing and drew blood. I don't think he's going to let me live that down. Emily and Piper blew bubbles together, and Hyrum ran races with Ethan, Isaac, and Mason.

Julie thought we needed s'mores, so she sent me and Mike to the store to get what we needed while the rest got the fire started in the fire pit. We had a great time just visiting and roasting marshmallows and most headed to bed tired and dirty while Mike and I stayed up to watch the Avatar series finale movie with Ethan.

Sunday, James and his family headed back to Boise. The rest of us spent the day visiting while the kids played. Emily must have been getting used to being around people, because after a weekend with Mike's family and a few days with mine, she finally started to open up a bit. She was being much more social and really started to bond with my mom and Sherwin. A little after 5:00, Mike and I left the kids with Mom and Sherwin and headed out to Destinations Inn in Idaho Falls where we had a reservation in the Vienna room. We had gotten the recommendation from Mike's sister and her husband. We came to the room to find sparkling cider in the ice bucket and cheesecake in the fridge. It was nice even though the movie we rented was pretty dumb. It was a little nostalgic for me since Destinations is right across the street from Chesbro Music Co. where I worked for about 2 years before and during college.

Mike woke up Monday morning with an enormous headache. He ate only a tiny bit of the breakfast they brought to our room, then had me drive back to Shelley. I had to pull over on the side of the road while Mike got out and lost his breakfast. Mike was supposed to go home that day and take my sister Julie with him. We were worried that he would be too sick to drive, but Julie had to be home to pick up her daughter at the bus station in the morning. Mike took some headache medicine and went to bed for the rest of the morning and afternoon when we got back to my mom's house. When he woke up, he still felt weak, but thought he was well enough to go home.

My mom had asked my brother James if she could have his kids for a week before the reunion and asked me if she could have mine for the week after. However, she was worried that Emily was still too young for her to watch her alone, so we decided that I should stay in Shelley as well. Mike would meet us part way in Twin Falls on Thursday. So Mike and I parted company once he got feeling better.

Tuesday, I called my Grandma Page to see if there was a time I could come visit her. However, our day was delayed when I came out of my mom's computer room to see a wall of water about a foot or so deep built up behind the glass in the window well of her basement family room. The water was rushing in through the corner on the left side, and the pressure wasn't going down because water kept running in to the well from a hose left on outside. My mom and step-dad had just had an insurance claim for a flooded basement due to a broken pipe only a few weeks ago and Mom was concerned about filing another claim. We quickly got the water turned off and started sopping up what we could with towels, but the water just kept coming. Mom called Sherwin who was out golfing, and he came home right away. We got what we could get out of the carpet with a shop vac while Sherwin went to a rental store and rented a carpet shampooer and floor fans. In the end, we got it all cleaned up, and they shouldn't need to make any claim. The only concern we had was that the baseboards were pulling away from the drywall, and we were afraid of warping. But everything seemed ok once it was all dry.

After an eventful morning, we went to the credit union where my mom is the manager so she could show off the grandkids. Hyrum withdrew $5 from his account and even got to sign the receipt for the transaction. He liked doing that. Afterwards, we headed out to Firth to pick up my Grandma Page for lunch. She treated us to lunch at a restaurant in Blackfoot, and we had a nice visit. We had to go back to my mom's house afterwards because Emily had completely caked her cute dress and her perfect little curls with macaroni and cheese.

After we got the kids cleaned up, we headed to my friend Sandi's house to drop off a present for her baby that I had forgotten to give her when Mike and I visited earlier. Then we visited my Grandma Sears. I took some of her rhubarb to make a strawberry rhubarb pie for Mom and Sherwin. Hyrum liked playing in her yard, and Emily loved playing with her basket of toys. Emily warmed up to Grandma Sears quite well and even let her hold her. Maybe the ice cream cone she gave her helped too.


That evening, after we went home, we chatted and ate the pies I made from grandma's rhubarb. Even Sherwin had to admit that they were tasty. Sherwin is a pretty good cook himself.

Wednesday, I woke up feeling a little sick, so I went back to bed at about 10:00 when Emily took a nap. When we woke up again at about noon, we decided to take the kids to the zoo. I knew Hyrum would love it because he's really in to wild animals, but I thought Emily would be too young to enjoy it and just get cranky and tired. I was totally wrong. Emily loved the zoo! Both kids had a ball looking for, and pointing out animals and mimicking the sounds they make. Emily refused to sit in her stroller or be carried unless you were just picking her up so she could see into the exhibit.

Hyrum found his favorite animal early on. He thought the otters were so funny the way they swam and watched for quite a long time before we convinced him to move on.

Emily surprised me with her favorite animal. As we neared the zebras, she suddenly called out, "Zebra!" I didn't even know she knew what one was. For a very long time after leaving that area, she was still happily chanting, "Zebra! Zebra! Zebra!" Both kids liked the monkeys and the big cats. they got to feed the ducks and the goats in the petting zoo. Hyrum really enjoyed that. Emily tried to eat the food pellets for the ducks, but decided they were yucky (thank goodness).

We also came during the feeding time for the penguins. Both of them liked watching them swallow those fish whole and hop from rock to rock waiting their turn for the food. We went to gift shop when we were done and found a stuffed zebra for Emily. She snatched it from my mom's hands and hugged it tight. She glared at the lady behind the counter when she tried to take it from her to ring it up. I had to turn the tag around for her while Emily still clutched the zebra and gave her dirty looks. We gave Hyrum a few options on which toy he wanted. It was no surprise that he picked a stuffed otter. We took Hyrum to the playground nearby, but Emily had had enough by then and wanted to go home. So we put the reluctant Hyrum and the sleepy Emily in the car and headed back.


Once we got back to Shelley, Emily got a second wind and was just as energetic as ever. She and Hyrum played with play dough and sidewalk chalk on my mom's back patio until late in the day. Needless to say, we all slept well that night.

Thursday morning, I got up and folded laundry and repacked our bags. We were headed home! Mom and Sherwin were swapping one set of grandkids for another. Sherwin's daughter Carla's kids were coming to stay with them for a few weeks. Sherwin picked up the kids at the airport while Mom and I went to the store for some juice for the kids. I also took Hyrum to the dollar store to spend the $5 he had pulled out of his account on Tuesday. He got to pick out the toys he wanted himself. He also picked out toys for Emily. Seems he didn't think it was fair if he got toys and she didn't. What a sweet kid! We went back to the house one last time to pack my bags in the rental van and we were off!

It was a long drive to Twin Falls with 4 little kids, but I was excited to get there anyhow. Not just because we were meeting up with Mike again, but because we had planned to go to the Twin Falls temple's open house. As I mentioned in my post about Mike's family reunion, Hyrum loves temples. We drove him past the Idaho Falls temple while we were in East Idaho as well. But this would be different. He could actually go inside the temple! I know he's young. But I was 4 when I went to the Boise temple open house. And I still remember it. Hyrum really did enjoy the tour. He was quiet and reverent through the whole thing, just looking around and taking it all in. Emily, on the other hand, was hyper and noisy. The tour guides were telling us that they loved her happy little voice and not to shush her. We still shushed her, but not because we were embarrassed. But we did want her to understand what it means to be reverent. Still, for such a young child, she did very well. She even knows what a temple is and will exclaim, "Temple!" every time she sees one or sees a picture of one. What a cutie!

The kids and I didn't get the luxury of going home after our trip. Mike's boss Spencer invited us to a BBQ at their house, and we went straight there first. We had an enjoyable evening chatting and playing with their two new puppies. Hyrum had fun playing with their daughter Ellie, and Emily was showing off going from lap to lap and chasing the cats and dogs.

We're home now, and glad to be home. When Emily came in the house for the first time when we got back, she threw open her bedroom door and yelled, "Hi!" to all her toys and squealed as she ran off to play with everything she could in as little time as she could. She was thrilled to sleep in her own bed with her new zebra. Hyrum also seemed happy to be back in his bed, although he didn't miss his toys as much as Emily missed hers. Now all that's left is to unpack everything. Ugh..