Alpine & Other Reunions

The day after my siblings hit the road, we hopped on a plane up to Salt Lake and drove straight to Alpine. Alpine is close to sacred ground to me because of all the happy memories there- My mom was pregnant with me for the first Alpine reunion, and we were there every summer growing up. Being there feels like being home. It was so cool being able to bring my own kid there and have him love it every bit as much as I always have.

Airplane rides are super easy now that he wants to watch TV non-stop.

Grumpa was waiting with chocolate donuts when we arrived

Wandering around the bonfire sing-a-long

Mimi made sure he was well coated in mosquito-repelling stickers (which are apparently a thing. Technology these days!)

Elliot ran up to join Breezy and Clint when they led "Princess Pat"

But completely refused to participate

Lumberjack Blake at the bonfire

He had no shortage of attention from his grandparents and aunt and uncles. Not to mention a hoard of second cousins!

Our young capitalist quickly grasped the concept of the Alpine Store- although his money was earned more through indulgent grandparents than completing chores as was intended

His loot included a yoda head, coloring book, magnet letters, playdoh, watercolor paints, and more!

Art with Mimi

Alpine had all the classic activities- trash talking volleyball, swapping stories with my favorite relatives, songs around the campfire, dirty kids running wild, and the best milk on earth. We shared a cabin with my mom and dad. Elliot had no problems sleeping at night, but he did boycott naps. I slept well despite my late night bathroom trips. Dad gave a great presentation about Kirsten Pedersdatter, a recently discovered ancestor of ours that crossed the plains. Aunt Cecelia put together a PowerPoint with a bunch of pictures of her hometown in Denmark. My mom later called it a "multi-sensual experience" while trying to call it a "multi-sensory" experience much to everyone's amusement. Our family's assignment this year was running the program. We did a fun family feud game that went well.

 After we wrapped up, we drove to Idaho Falls for another great tradition- Uncle Jerry's fish fry! You couldn't ask for better food or company. Uncle Dave's house on the farm is one of my other favorite places on earth, and I'm glad we got to stay the night. There is a dead end road leading to the house. It was unpaved until fairly recently. My dad would let us sit on his lap and drive down the "rocky road" every summer. Elliot was THRILLED to carry on this particular tradition.

He still talks about it even now and will sporadically declare that it is his turn to drive the car again

I have beautiful siblings

And a very graceful son

We went to sacrament meeting in Idaho Falls, then drove back to Salt Lake to briefly meet up with Kristy and Laura before catching our late flight home. Both of them are predictably doing awesome at life.

Roommates Reunited! There are few things I love more than catching up with old friends

I didn't take any pictures at the cool restaurant Laura took us to, but here's one of Elliot being way more bold than I wanted him to be on a trail behind the restaurant. Why does he only hike when we aren't actually going hiking?

Our already late flight was delayed several hours. We ended up not getting home until about 2 am. Elliot did not fall asleep in the airport or on the plane despite our best efforts, but he was kept happy and calm through the power of movies on cell phones until we made it to our car.

One neat experience that came from our delayed flight is that I was able to help a lady having an anxiety attack. I was walking to the bathroom at about 10pm in the Salt Lake Airport when I noticed a woman sitting down by the wall with two airport workers huddled by her. One was shouting angrily into a walkie talkie- I think he was trying to get transferred to someone who could help her. I later found out he was a night janitor. He gets props for stepping up to do something, but I could tell that he was making the situation worse by shouting and getting all riled up right in her face, demanding answers to questions about her age and situation to pass on. I sat down next to her, started holding her hand, and told her about how my mom gets anxiety attacks around heights. She had lots of the same symptoms- shaking, sobbing, etc. I was able to get angry janitor guy to back off and her slightly calmed down by the time the paramedics got there. This was especially neat for me because I was helped in an intense situation by a stranger in an airport last Christmas with a screaming Elliot on the plane. I felt like this was my chance to pay it forward. We late night airport people need to stick together!

Johnson Family Pictures on the Farm

These are probably my favorite ever family pictures because

1. They turned out great thanks to my cousin Alicia's awesome skills

2. This is one of my favorite places on earth

3. There was so little prep involved.

We were at the fish fry and mom asked Alicia if she could take some pictures of us. A few of us were commanded to go change shirts/brush hair by coordinator mom. Clint was wearing a t-shirt that said "cesspool of sin" on it, so he turned it inside out. It was nice not needing to go through the normal outfit picking ordeal. 

My dad proposed to my mom just a few feet away from this spot

Look how casual and relaxed we were in this "everyone laugh at your neighbor" picture

On the swing

Elliot was a big fan of this pose

The gals (Including Annabelle!)

The sibling head stack pictures are delightfully awkward. I'm going to push to make this a traditional family photo pose. 

I love my family!

Johnson Boys

Blake spent a week at BYU-I at EFY, then met up with Max for a brother buddy roadtrip down to join us sisters. They left Provo on Saturday Morning and got to us Sunday afternoon after spending the night at some motel along the way. Clint flew in from VA on Monday. Max and I drove to the airport to pick him up. It took longer than it should have for me to realize that his flight was actually arriving at 11 pm instead of am. We only really had Tuesday with all the siblings together before the four of them got back in Max's car to drive up to Alpine. 

Everyone stands around while Aaron does productive stuff. Typical.
Also I was amused by the college kids who were amazed at all the produce we had around the house.

Lunch at El Guero Canelo. We also hit up Manuels with Clint the next day.

 On Tuesday we went to Biosphere 2. I failed to adequately prepare them for how far away it was and how hot it was likely to be. They still had fun... I think...

The Lost fan in me will forever love the Dharma Initiative feel of this place

Jungle Johnsons

Everything about bearded Clint belongs in this place of science

Elliot was 0% interested in what the tour guide had to say, and also quite tired. He alternated between trying to escape and crawling/lying down on the floor. 

The guy in the background had very... memorable... tattoos

The underground "technosphere" is really cool. They had to do a lot of engineering to get the windows to not burst when the Biosphere was completely sealed off and subjected to weather related pressure changes on the outside. 

The wind when emerging from the diaphragm was intense

I took Elliot to the bathroom and came back to find that Blake had taken over the lying on the floor duties

 We had a good time around the house jamming on our two guitars and viola (I'm very bad at improv but had a blast attempting), playing board games, and playing with Elliot. 

Blake put his scouting experience to good use by wrapping Elliot up "like a tent"

Uncles. Gotta love them. 

Breezy

My sister Breezy stayed with us for a couple weeks after finishing her semester at BYU-I before we headed up to Alpine for the Johnson Family Reunion. I loved having her around for late night board games and explaining Doctor Strange to us.

Elliot likes her too

Breezy and Elliot being Lit. Breezy kept having to explain slang terms to me. I'm too young to feel this old!

I did my best to drag her out of bed far earlier than she would have liked to squeeze in exciting outings like a dentist appointment for her mission papers, my pregnancy glucose test, and story time at the library. Thrilling, right? We did mix in a few more adventurous adventures as well- like a trip to Tumacacori! It was peak monsoon season, so we had to squeeze our adventures in between rainstorms. The forecast had a break in the rain in the afternoon, so we ventured forth. It dumped on us so hard during the drive there that we had to pull off the road for a while. Luckily it only drizzled while we were actually walking around. The sky looked mighty ominous though!

The wet version of history

Elliot enjoyed the experience 10x as much as he would have without the rain and puddles

We wrapped up the outing with lunch at a nice Mexican restaurant. Strangely, there was a band playing Jamaican music.

Putt putting. Let the record show that I won.

We traded the rain for sweltering heat for our San Xavier visit

Artsy picture

Now for the "wandering around Tubac" series of pictures:

We were planning on going on a camping trip, but it rained both weekends that Breezy was here. We settled for a picnic lunch in Madera canyon with a hike to find a hidden waterfall we had heard about.

Elliot outsourced his stick carrying to his indulgent aunt

One of our new favorite places!

She is truly worthy of the pizza hut MVP hat she bought at a thrift store.