The Sun!

By the time we hit our like 300th rain day in a row, you can bet we were ready to get out of town for Memorial Day weekend.  Now, I'm used to spending the day at the cemetary, but this trip was fun too.  We headed to Hurricane (pronounce that Hurr-i-cun, ya'll) to hang out with my brother, Mark his wife Elaine, my sister Betsey, and all the cousins.  Here are a few of the highlights (and lowlights...)

Got in late Thursday night.  Highlight of the drive? Eating at Jason's Deli and figuring out how to rig up the laptop to watch a movie. 

Lowlight: My brother had some kind of episode Friday morning scaring us into thinking he had had some kind of heart attack or blod clot issue.  It's too long of a story, but he hurt his leg a couple of months ago and the troubles keep on coming!  Still not sure what happened, but they did find pneumonia so he was admitted.

Highlight: The kids were having a blast playing with each other and had no problems whatsoever!  Elaine was able to stay quite a while at the hospital, I was able to go in and visit, and John got to read and read and read.  That night we took a nice walk to an awesome park for a change of scenery.

Highlight:  Saturday we found out the age restriction had been lifted for Mark's floor so we ALL went in to see him.  That's 5 adults and 11 kids.  We had a great time.  The littler kids even left him a nice present of hot breath and fingerprints all over the window. 

After that we ate a picnic lunch on the Tabernacle lawn, then walked a few paces to the town square (sounds so quaint!) to the new splash park and water ways.  Best part?  FREE!  And the kids had a blast. 

One of the following two pictures is a pose and one is not...any ideas which is which?

Lowlight:  Ran into an old highschool pal and completely forgot her name.  Wouldn't be so bad but I ran into her at Christmas and did the same thing.  BRAIN???  WHERE ARE YOU???

Highlight:  Ran home, bathed my kids, and sent them all (yes, 11 of them) to see Kung Fu Panda 2.  No adults this time.  We headed into the hospital with Bajio food in tow for a nice relaxing dinner.  Mark had other visitors while we ate and then some, (including my awesome Uncle Dale!) and then we got down to business.  You know how they say laughter is the best medicine?  Well, he should be doing fine now!  We were laughing and carrying on that the nurse told us she could hear us with the door closed.  At one point he was supposed to be taking his tylenol, when something set him off.  The tylenol and water went spewing all over the bed, the floor, and his gown.  Elaine had to do the cross-legged hop into the bathroom as fast as she could! 

Lowlight:  We thought he'd be home on Sunday but it was not to be.  He still had a fever and that had to be dealt with before the discharge.

Highlight:  When Elaine and Melanie (my neice) played their piano duet in Sacrament Meeting, someone on the stand called so Mark could hear it.  Phones do come in handy!  Sunday afternoon included lots of yummy food and yummy naps.  And the kids did the dishes!  Here are Maeci and Jack doing their share:

Highlight: Monday morning I got to go to Ace to look around. (It's not just a hardware store!)  Plus, free popcorn.  Nice.  Mark came home about an hour before we wanted to leave so we were glad to see him!  We stopped at Cove Fort on the way home and remembered why we went to Hurricane.  Freezing! (I guess that part was a lowlight).  Made it home just after 10.  Katie Anne fell asleep about 15 minutes before we got here.  Debating the use of Benadryl on our next trip!