WOW, what a weekend!!! (warning, long post)

Wow, it was a crazy weekend for our family. It started early last Thursday morning when we packed the kids into the "burban" for a day on the road. Of course this day followed a CRAZY Wednesday of preparations: cleaning, laundry, and packing for the trip. W headed out about 7am and made just 2 stops between here and Ogden. The kids were pretty good in the car but of course we had the bickering that always goes with day long car travel. I heard my share of "He's touching me" and "I'm hungry" or "I'm thirsty". I don't know what it is about being in the car for several hours that makes the kids think they need to be constantly eating or drinking. Anyway after a fairly uneventful 7 hours we arrived at my grandmother's house and settled in.

Grandma has a great house and basically gives us the whole basement when we come to visit. She and grandpa always make us feel so welcome. We love to stay there. After a couple of hours it was time to head out for the wedding Open House.

Many thanks to the whole Bruce family for making us feel so welcome. We had a nice evening in Kay's home where we saw many family members we haven't seen for ages and had the chance to get to know some of Kay's family a little bit better. We had a great time and the kids had a really fun time playing with some of their"new cousins".

Friday was the wedding day and after a relaxing morning visiting with Grandma and Grandpa, we headed up to Brigham City to the Lodge where the wedding would take place. We watched as pictures were taken and visited more between the two families. Dad and Kay were married in a very simple, very short ceremony that followed a very nice speech by Kay's son, Ryan. Kay had told me before hand that she was afraid she might cry during the wedding, and I told her not to worry that I probably would be crying along with her. Well, I didn't even make it to the ceremony before the tears came. Ryan delivered a very eloquent speech that mentioned the personal losses of each family and how nice it is that dad and Kay have found each other to spend the rest of their lives together. I was bawling. (Ryan if by chance you read this, thank you for your words. What you said was beautiful.)

Then, they were married and we had a great dinner. The kids behaved amazingly well, though as always were very active. We are so happy for dad and Kay to have found each other again. It was amazing to see the picture display they had out on the table at the wedding. Most of the pictures were very recent, but there was one picture of the two of them from many years ago. They must have been around 20 year old or so. It was fun to see that little bit of history they have.

As we were leaving the wedding, we had a little accident. Kyle got his hand slammed in the car door. His ring finger was double size and cut on the palm side. It was purple and he couldn't move it. He screamed all the way back to grandma's house where we were able to clean it up and splint it. He was up several times during the night due to pain and even the tylenol didn't help that. So it was a rough night and he was pretty miserable.

Saturday we had another great day. We took the kids to Lee's market where they were handing out Easter candy. That made their day. Afterwards we got all the Pierce clan together and went for lunch at the pizza factory and took the kids to the Treehouse in Ogden. It is a children's museum and the kids all had a blast. Even Kaylee and Tiffany who felt they were too grown up for such a place ended up having fun playing with their younger cousins. It was great to all be together.

After the Treehouse, most of us went over to Farr's Ice cream for a cone. We filled the place which was already crowded when we got there.

Saturday night my Aunt Tami gathered all my aunts, uncle and cousins from my mom's side of the family that could make it and we had a fantastic potluck dinner. It was great to see all my cousins that were able to be there and despite there being a lot of people there, it was a really nice time. Thank you Tami!!!

Sunday we had the chance to go visit some of our friends. We went to visit Bret and Evelyn Miller in Alpine. They had invited us for Easter Dinner. It was quite a crew to feed with their 7 kids and our 5, but we made it through and had a great visit. The kids played on the dirt hill and the trampoline and allowed the adults some wonderful time that was actually pretty quiet considering all the kids that were there.

Next we paid a visit to Tina McGuire and her kids. It was good to see them again as well. It has been about a year since we saw them last and it is amazing how the kids have grown. Tina's Husband, Les, was killed in a plane crash almost 2 years ago. He and Mike had been friends since middle school, and we have always been good friends. They are doing well, though still adjusting to the challenges that accompany losing a spouse and father at such a young age.

Our final visit for the day was with Mike's sister Teresa and her family. Again the kids had a great time visiting with their cousins and gave the adults some peace and quiet to visit together. Then we were off again back to grandma and grandpa's house.

Today we had a reasonably pleasant drive home. The trip went pretty quick getting us home in about 7 hours. We hurried to unpack the car and I took Jake in to the Urgent Care. While we were at Bret's house, he hurt his foot on the trampoline and today was unable to put much weight on it. Being cautious I decided to take him in for a quick x-ray, and sure enough he has a small fracture in his foot. They put him in a walking boot and we will follow up with the pediatrician in about a week. So when I say crazy weekend, it really was. 5 days, about 1000 miles logged on the car, a wedding (adding to the family, Kay, her 5 children, their spouses and 9 almost 10 grandchildren), two more parties, a big family outing, a smashed finger, 3 more visits, a trip to the urgent care, and a broken foot. Wow, I survived, I wonder what is in store for this week.