Memorial day weekend

Sunday after church, we drove to Mom and Dad's in Hyrum to hang out. Good times were had by all. When we first arrived, Dad was cooking a pot roast on top of the stove and the whole house smelled of meat. By the time dinner was served (and oh, it looked lovely, roast and mashed potatoes and gravy and carrots cooked with the roast--my favorite way to have carrots--and fruit salad in real cream), I was so sick I couldn't eat anything. Everything just smelled too strongly of meat. I'm feeling sick just writing this.

So I sat on the couch for a long time, and then ventured outside to try and calm the morning sickness.

Dad had a new baby (well, his mare did), and he was very excited to show us. Miriam walked right up to the day old colt and he let her pet him. He's very, very cute. On Monday we watched Dad put a halter on him for the first time. He was feisty! He jumped and hopped and flipped around and over backwards, and Cowen was transfixed the entire time.

Sunday night we played Balderdash. I stink at that game, so I only agree to play it when Ethan is playing because when Ethan is playing strange things happen and much laughing ensues. This night was no exception, although Wyatt gets the prize for the best definition. Snotter: when a whale can't blow his nose so all the other fish swim around him and chant, "We've got a snotter!" We laughed--oh, how we laughed at that one. Dad also managed to find a word that meant buttocks--curple. So the rest of the weekend people managed to bring curples into the conversation whenever possible. For example, on the Monday morning hike, Wyatt (near the back of the string of people), commented, "Wow, you see a lot of curples on this hike." Hilarious.

The only downside to the Balderdash game was when Lindsay came and warmed up food to eat and included meat. I got out the pickles and sniffed pickle juice while she ate to help with the meat smell. Dad made lots of jokes about my baby coming out with a scrunched up face because I wasn't careful what I "sniffed" during pregnancy. Hey--despite all the abuse I took for "sniffing" while pregnant--pickle juice really dominates other odors, and it really helped!

Monday morning dawned overcast and rainy, but we didn't let that stop us. We went on a lovely, and very wet, hike in the Wellsvilles. Ah, that is a beautiful area. Then we put the kids to bed for naps so we could play more games, but I fell asleep on the couch, Ethan on the couch downstairs, Lindsay Ann in the chair, Wyatt in Ethan's bed, Hailey on the floor, Miriam on another couch (after Grandma woke up from her nap and left the couch vacant), and basically, when I finally woke up hours later, I was reminded strongly of the book "The Napping House."

That night more meat was consumed (I had leftover mashed potatoes) and then the lengthy and involved process of trying to leave commenced, and several hours later, we did manage to get out the door.

Lovely, lovely time--despite the meat.