Family Fun - Day Two

Today is the day that the whole family - absolutely everyone - will be together. We've got fun things on tap, but the best will be spending time with everyone. If you get up early (like Greg) to go for a run because you're training for a marathon, you catch things like this:

I, however, slept in until the last possible moment - yay! (*Definitely* NOT going to be running a marathon - that's me...) Sheri, Sara, Jeannea, Greg & I met for breakfast at IHOP. Even though we have one back home, this one has sentimental ties - we had breakfast here with Grandma, Dad, & Aunt Anna a year and a half ago. The food wasn't special - even though they offered steak and shrimps (apparently not meaning short people) - but the company was good. Sheri & Sara took off too quickly to be part of the photo op. Oh well - there's always next time.

In preparation for the family eat-a-thon, we stopped at Costco. Turns out there's a cache in the parking lot. They didn't find it, but they found the one in the other parking lot Greg "accidentally" pulled into when he passed our destination. And on the way home, we were going to stop and get the car washed (it's filthy outside, and not all of that is from us), but the line was too long and the price too steep - I'll just say they better offer inside detailing too...

The rest of the day was spent playing, cooking, visiting, laughing, and enjoying each other's company. A very, very lovely day! We spent hours & hours playing Rock Band, with people rotating in & out or changing instruments when they got tired. I played bass guitar (on easy enough for morons with no rhythm - EEMNR) and did okay. Then I moved to the drums... Let's just say that there are 4 drums, you have to work both hands, and somehow incorporate the foot pedal. I opted to work the red & yellow drums with a partner to work the blue & green and the foot pedal. Apparently when you're used to doing the whole set on your own (and probably on a higher setting than EEMNR), it takes a bit of adjusting to use only one stick and do half the drum set. But my various partners & I increased in skill from 72% (not really my lowest) to 94%. From there, I moved into Backup Singer - which really just means I sat with Sheri and tried to sing along. She did GREAT - me, not so much. But it was fun and there was lots of laughing and hilarity.

I'm not 100% sure about everyone else, but I had a marvelous time. While we were cooking, we didn't want to have anyone left out, so we crammed as many people as we could in the kitchen and overflowed into the dining room. People were so close together doing so many different things, we had to call out to move outside our particular location. =) Then we had our gift exchange. Baby Amy made out like a *bandit*!! She's got lots of aunties and uncles that seem to think she's pretty spiffy... (myself included!) =)

On tap for tomorrow: cooking chili, cornbread, & cookies for the cousin's get-together; a trip to Antelope Island (in the middle of the Great Salt Lake) for Greg & Jeannea; getting Sara prepped for skiing with Greg tomorrow; more family fun - this time including the extendeds.