Bend Right

I'm going to speak as if it were yesterday, as yesterday didn't actually end until today at 2am. Thus, know that when I say, "today," I mean Sunday.

Today we went to church at 10, my favorite time for church. I also love going to another ward on fast Sunday. You learn a lot about the ward in a short amount of time.

After church we went home for some quick family pictures. I use the term “quick” loosely. Then we had a delicious hamburger feast.

Next we were heading to a place called Tumalo Falls. You can drive right up to the falls. The whole clan decided to go except for some moms with young kids. It was a challenge to drive caravan style to the falls. There were 8 cars in the line. So, we lost people and drove around in circles, many times. It was amazing that we all ended up at the falls at the same time. It was a really beautiful place. We were able to follow a short trail up to the top of the falls. At one point someone, who shall remain nameless, saw some younger cousins walking along a trail under where this person was standing looking down. So, this said someone, grabbed someone who was a proficient spitter and told that person to spit on the poor kids below. The spitter missed the first two people, but beautifully hit poor Mark. It was awesome. Good times, good times.

Later was fireworks shot off the top of Pilot Butte. We found a viewing spot on a hill and watched. It was cool to watch. I love fireworks. Unfortunately, Orion fell and wanted to go back to the car to get cleaned up. Fortunately we could still see from the car.

We have had really bad sleep hours here because we are always up late talking. We were so tired, so we decided to just go say goodbye to all the clan since everyone was leaving Monday morning and head to bed. We made it through one house fairly quickly. Hugs and promises to see each other more often all around. Then we went to say goodbye to Kenneth's twin uncles who are only 11 years older than he is. They asked us to sit and we did. We didn't leave there until 1:30am and didn't finally get to bed until 2. So tired, so very tired, but so worth it.

We had such a fun time with everyone. Big thanks to Grammy Evie for making it possible for everyone to be there. Big thanks to Mom Rawlings for arranging all the details for all of her kids. Big thanks to Scott who was the reunion guy this time around. I feel so blessed to be a part of the Rawlings clan. They are an amazing family with a lot of wonderful people whom I love to be around.

Tumalo Falls was where we went.

Driving in circles all patience was spent.

Someone spit on Mark's head.

Something we should all dread.

Building relationships was what this time meant.