{Summer Vacation Part 2}

 
Tack on another fifteen and a half hours of driving and we landed in the beautiful Durango, Colorado for the second annual Larry R. Pettit family reunion! What was supposed to be a short six and a half hour drive turned into more of a ten hour drive due to our caravan of 4 vehicles, containing 6 adults and 10 children five and under. There was some car trouble, lot's of potty breaks, and every time we stopped it took an hour to load everyone back up again. But alas, we did arrive!

We weren't able to attend the family reunion last year, but this year EVERYONE was able to come. It was nothing short of a small miracle! It is difficult trying to work with everyone's work, school, and kids schedules, but boy oh boy did we all make it happen!

For those of you who know me well you would know that I am not much of an adventurer when it comes to camping, but I'll tell you what, this place had my kind of camping! Each family stayed in their own little individual cabin. It had enough room for a bunk bed and a full size bed. And even though it may have been the hardest bed I have ever slept on, let me take that back, it WAS the hardest bed I have ever slept on, I was just grateful to sleep with a roof above my head, bathrooms close by, and with grandma and grandpa's camper a short distance away!

Some of the activities of the trip included exploring downtown Durango, swimming at the rec center, attempting to take a few family photos, talking, eating, talking some more, eating s'mores ;), lot's of laughing, and . . . more eating. I am pretty sure we had two desserts every night. Sno cones from Grandma's new sno cone maker that she received for her birthday, churros, s'mores, canadian candybars, you name it and we probably ate it.
 

Have you ever seen so many blondies in your life?! This family's blonde hair gene is a strong one!

So there is one big difference between when my family gets together and when Ryan's family get's together. In my family there are thirteen grand kids twelve and under. In Ryan's family there are twelve grand kids, six and under, and the majority of them 3 and under. So when we get together it's crazy. Crazy fun, but crazy  none the less!
  

The cousins had such a fun time chasing each other around the campsite and getting dirty. And yes, my children were included in the dirty part. Yuck. I have never seen them so gross. But hey, I thought I did good about controlling my OCD tendencies and I really tried to just let the kids be kids! So yay me, haha!

We celebrated Grandma's birthday with a good ole' Costco cake. Everyone got a kick out of our "sneaky" little Eli. I guess he wasn't satisfied with his individual slice of cake. If there is one thing Costco has taught us all, it's that bigger is always better!  

No matter how crazy things get I am so grateful I have these guys to call family. I feel like one lucky gal to have married into this family because they really are some of the funnest, kindest, and loving people I know.

 

 Two days just wasn't long enough and when it was over we were all wishing we had just one more day. But, 4 a.m. rolled around and we were homeward bound. Sixteen more hours of driving with only two and a half stops, I'd say we were pretty darn lucky. My kids exceeded all of my expectations. They were such troopers. I don't know too many kids who would drive happily for 55+ hours over a three week time period. And then to top it all off, the following night Addy informed me that she wanted to get back in the car, drive a long, long ways, and go see her cousins! Crazy girl. But it just goes to show, that time spent with family makes the greatest of memories. We love our family!


 And we don't love this:

The facial hair that is ;)