We Go Together Like Rama Lama Lama Ka Dinga Da Dinga Dong

The family reunion! I don't remember exactly when we started planning this reunion, but it sure was a LONG time coming. It started with me looking for places that had rentals that were supposed to accommodate a large group, the easiest ones to find being in Utah. I found a few good options down in St. George and with the thought of a family trip to Tuacahn it sounded like a great idea! To me that is, we had a few that doubted one could survive in 100° weather. *cough* Melanye *cough* But after living in Texas and Maryland, both with high temps and humidity I was not afraid of a little dry heat. Some how I got everyone on board, we found a week that was supposed to work for everyone (sorry Loren!), and Mom booked the house! With the disappointment of the previous family reunion fresh on our minds we made sure to get a house with a long cancellation window. We prayed and prayed COVID wouldn't shut down this reunion. And it didn't...until it did. 😅 But hey, we made some awesome memories while we could. 

Our trip started with a bang! We were taking the same flight as Britt and Jaz to get to Utah. Fun, right? WRONG. I nearly had a heart attack! We were sitting in the terminal waiting to board and I look at Britt's location and see they are JUST leaving their apartment. While Ben and I were discussing if she was going to make the flight Riley points down to the airplane pin on her dress and asks, "Will she get one of these? That you can only fly if you have one?" Haha so sweet. The lady that helped us check our bags had mentioned she'd need that pin to fly, but I was surprised that she was actually listening to her and understood the gravity of the situation! 

We are boarding the plane and I see that Britt is at the airport, but still at security. We get to our seats and I am refreshing her location every minute. FINALLY it starts to move and I get hope they can make it. We finally see Britt and Jaz step on to the plane! I was going to try and give her a hard time, but the frazzled expression on her face tells me that experience did enough damage. 

From then on out it was pretty smooth sailing. Nelson slept the who flight, Riley gets her screen time, and Britt and Ben can somehow sleep on planes so they got a bit of sleep. We had a layover in Atlanta and discovered that a restaurant there serves a brisket baked potato and you should DEFINITELY spend the $15 to get it. We also learned that apparently service animals are more important than nursing mothers as we passed a pet pooping area, but no mother's lounge! 

Once we arrived in Salt Lake we were picked up by Ana who was our hero! It's fun to arrive at the same time, but then you realize that means we need a car that fits 6 people...so Ana's van, with no kids in tow was our only option! We had a fun car ride home, Ana telling stories of all that goes along with having your child play baby Olaf in a community play.

Riley was THRILLED to be at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The biggest draw being the Dream Dollhouse. She loves that dollhouse, and asks about it every time we talk about Gma and Gpa's house. In retrospect we really should've prepared her for the fact that she wouldn't be staying at Grandma and Grandpa's house for very long before we went down to a house that had no fun toys. I was so excited about the reunion I hadn't thought about the fact that it would actually be quite the downgrade for Riley. As we were leaving for St. George on Wednesday morning we promised we would be back and she'd be able to play more with Grandma's toys...although our promises didn't work out exactly as we planned. 

The drive to St. George went well with both kids taking a little nap during the drive, which was a good thing since our body clocks were way off now. It was so fun as everyone began arriving at the house! We ended up finding a reasonable sleeping arrangement for everyone, even if that did mean Britt was suffocating in our closet every night. (Upon awaking one morning she said, "Whoever closed that closet door last night was trying to kill me.") 

Thank goodness others came prepared with toys and shared with Riley! What was I thinking when I packed??

As an opening night activity I put together a little Messerly Jeopardy game. I thought it would be a fun way to jump start our Messerly bonding and have a good time as a big group. It was a riot! The teams were Mel+Kip, Britt+Jaz, Matt vs Ana+Danny, Rich+Erica, Dane. I didn't assign team captains, but Mel and Ana quickly assumed those positions. There were so many hilarious moments in that game. Some of my favorites: Matt asking, "Do you have any questions on here about when Dad started wearing shorts?" Mel and Ana aggressively clapping at each other with some Jets vs Sharks vibes. Mel realizing she was losing and using her children to try and win. Mel pushing Ty at me to answer a question about their own family, technically against the rules, but I guess she figured I wouldn't turn down a kid. Everyone's guesses about when the first time Mom and Dad danced together would've been. Then the SHOCK when the answer was at Mel's wedding. Mom's follow up question, "And what would've been the LAST time we danced together?" Mel aggressively poking Britt and signaling to her that it was their address in the answer. Dane knowing the final Jeopardy answer, down to the day of the week Mom and Dad were married. Rich somehow pulling out of nowhere that Dad sang a song from My Turn on Earth to Mom at the reception. 

The game was such a hit everyone was trying to come up with other Jeopardy questions throughout the reunion. Although it took some time for people to start understanding how you phrase an answer in Jeopardy so that the response can be a question. It really is an art form, it kind of feels like your thinking like Yoda once you get it, everything is backwards. 

Unfortunately, big groups of kids aren't great for Riley. She won't get involved in the play if there are too many other kids, and they are all older than her. So, this wasn't the best environment for her to bond with cousins, but she is actually a big fan of playing with adults. So, while she may not have had meaningful experiences with cousins she had some really cute moments with her Uncles and Aunts. I loved watching her trying to scare Matt and Dane. Matt would usually jump for her, but even if she didn't get much response she was still so sure that she was scaring them. Riley also decided everyone needed new names. Although calling them names is a little generous when you know, for example, that Grandpa's name was Ploby. She named a fly toilet paper which I heard from Ben got a pretty good laugh. From then on I'd hear the little kids refer to any fly as Toilet Paper.  

I think I see a smile on Dane's face. :)

Nelson was passed around from person to person and I'm pretty sure he was never dropped by anyone. :) Poor babies put up with so much, just getting touched and crowded by all the kids. It's too fun having a real life doll to play with. 

Yes, there was a splash pad near by, but Riley has her priorities straight.

When Kip puts you in charge of Calvin's skin care you turn him into a ghost.

At some point on Thursday Britt and I went up to the hammock and enjoyed some porch time. I was telling her that I regretted not having everyone just vote on which musical we should all go see because it was a big time commitment and it meant that Wednesday night was basically the only night we'd all be together for the reunion. She agreed it would've been good, but we'd have to make the best of the time we had and at least Wednesday was fun. Well I guess I can then be blamed for the COVID outbreak that caused all the performances to be cancelled. 😬 I just wished for one of the performances to be cancelled, but I guess whenever you make a wish you always have to deal with unforeseen consequences. 

I think it shows the bond we have as a family that even though there was some disappointment, if you were looking from the outside in that night you would've seen a bunch of people sitting at a table smiling and laughing. Not appearing to be sad at all. We had such a fun time playing a game that Ben and I bought for this trip specifically. It's called Charty Party and it seemed like a great group game so we had to get it for our reunion! Almost everyone got in on the fun and we had a grand time! We even taught Ty what graphs were so that he could play, and he did great! 

Friday morning Ben went to hike Angels Landing, I bid him farewell and prepared to be a single mom. While the brave three were off hiking the others of us hit up the pool! There were hardly any people there, and we had such a good time! It was the first time Riley had actually swam in a pool, other than as a baby. She was a LOOK. She just wanted me to pull her around the pool in her awesome floaty and shades. She did pool time right. 

The only sister pic of the reunion and I look like a crazy person.

After the pool we came home and I put some music on the TV. I found that Spotify lets you put the lyrics of most of the songs on the TV. Welllll guess what that means?? Impromptu Karaoke! Such a fun unplanned activity. 

Started out as a friendly game, and then Ben got involved. He was dive bombing poor Dad!

Of course, around 4 pm all the fun we'd been having turned sour. Britt came downstairs and gave me a look that I should follow her to the garage. Then I heard the words that would really change the course of the next few days, "Kip has COVID." We spent the rest of the time masking up and trying to keep family members with their own family members. The more complicated aspect of this was that Ben and I were supposed to stay with Mom and Dad for another few days. We did stay with them Saturday night, but we were back to our cautious, masked up ways. We didn't spend much time together on Saturday because we went over to see Ben's family that evening. Riley had a great time playing with Grandma Jack and all her cousins outside and Nelson again made the rounds. 

Sunday morning Ben woke up with a slightly hurt throat, he tested and was positive. We spent the next few hours trapped in the guest rooms, trying to keep a 3 yr old happy stuck in a room, and deciding where we were going to sleep for the next few days. We ended up deciding to book an Airbnb in Provo near some parks. Mom felt like she could have a bit of a sore throat so she tested as well, but her test was negative. When she told me this she said, "But I can try again!" Like we wanted her to be positive! Haha I know what she was thinking, if she was positive then we probably wouldn't have to go to the Airbnb and we could all be miserable together. Well, luckily, Mom never got COVID, but that did mean we spent the next few days in a random Airbnb. This was all a lot to be happening on the day we were supposed to be blessing Nelson. Looking back I really wish we had thought it through better. For whatever reason I felt like we needed to get to the Airbnb and do the blessing there. I didn't even think about the fact we could just do the blessing in the backyard, away from everyone, until we were in the car RACING to the Airbnb. I was like, wait, we are going to get there right when we are supposed to be blessing him. I'm going to be rushing and stressed. Why can't we just bless him here? If I would've thought of that earlier I would've suggested Ben's Mom and Dad could come be in person for the blessing outside. They had travelled down from Rexburg for the blessing and then they just watched it on Zoom! I so wish I could've navigated that better, but it was such a difficult situation and you just do your best. 

After we got home everyone (except Nelson maybe) ended up with COVID. It took us a few weeks to recover from this trip, and it sure wasn't fun being sick, but we never regretted the trip. Just a few hours of fun together with the family was SO worth it. The only regret I felt was when we were worried we could've gotten the parent's sick, but once we were sure they were good I knew I'd do it all over again. 

I love Nelson in this picture, he's like I'm not sure this kid is qualified to hold me!

SO grateful we took these pictures before the outbreak! 

I love that Calvin was laughing so much he's covering his mouth. Mel and I must've been hilarious :)

The many flattering faces of Nelson.

Sorry kid, I knew I had a chance to get Riley to smile so all my attention was on her.

Rileyisms

 It's long overdue.....it's another random assortment of cute quotes from Riley! I have some quotes dating back to at least February so here we go! 

Riley is so fun to watch when she watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She loves Mickey so much. She'll respond to what he asks, but she also will just try and chat with Mickey. Like when she told him with such joy, "Mickey, I have a Mickey and Minnie!" 

It felt like I was watching some inspirational moment when Ben was playing with Riley outside. He asked her if she wanted to touch the sky as he threw her in the air. She said, "I didn't quite get it. I want to grab a cloud! I want to reach the clouds!" I was just waiting for the Full House music to start playing and Ben to sit her down and tell her that she can do whatever she puts her mind to and blah blah blah. 

She witnessed Ben swat a fly for the first time. Soon after she said, "Next time there is a fly I'm gonna use my magic hand and clap the little buggie!"

Riley is old enough that you have to make sure you only say things around her you don't mind her hearing. When Britt tried to covertly whisper something to me Riley whispered back, "What did Bo say softly?"

After reading some Lady and the Tramp books Riley would refer to most dogs as Lady or Tramp. One day we are walking by some people with a big dog and she says, "That's a big Lady!!" Hahaha it's not as insulting as it sounds!

It became evident that Britt hadn't spent enough time upstairs when Riley randomly said, "It was so nice to see you upstairs!"

Soon after that statement Riley went to the top of the stairs and called down to Britt, "Bo would you like to welcome me to come downstairs?"

One family chat we mentioned that Riley's nightlight broke. I believe she decided that Mel looked like someone who would get things done and asked her if she could fix it. Mel tried to talk her way around the issue without making any solid promises. Well Riley wouldn't have that, she kept asking and trying to nail down a date that Mel would be fixing her nightlight! 

"I love you and I miss you. For some reason."

In one of those moments where you realize your child picks up on things said around the house Riley will say, "Just live your life Bo."

Ben was tickling Riley, but then she said, "No tickles!" "No tickles? How about rubs?" "No rubs!" "No rubs? How about pats?" "No pats!" "No pats? How about massage?" "....yeah that's great!"

Riley has started really getting good at sounding out 3 or 4 letter words! She's had her letter sounds for a long time, but being able to actually realize what word it was by putting the sounds together all the sudden clicked in June sometime. But before it had clicked she'd often try to use picture clues to help her out which led to moments like when she'd sound out, "E-L-F, girl!" or "A-N-D, cookies!" 

One day at a park a little kid, maybe 18 months or so, was really interested in Riley, but he didn't have many words so he'd call her, "Baby." After a few times Riley realized he was calling her a baby, and her adorable response was, "Hi, I'm Riley. I'm sure not a baby anymore I'm a big girl. I used to be a baby." Although she had eloquently presented the facts the little boy still called her baby over and over. She ended up thinking it was pretty funny and would come up to me and repeatedly report on how this baby was calling her a baby!   

At the park, noticing there are only boys around, "Where did all the shes go??"

We've let Riley watch a few movies now, and we've realized the problem with a movie is the conflict isn't going to be solved as quick as in a little show. When she watched the Paw Patrol movie and saw her beloved Chase be taken by some dog catchers she looked at us with tears in her eyes and asked, "Why aren't the Paw Patrol helping him?" Another time while watching Cars when Lightening McQueen gets bumped off his truck and gets lost she called out, "Don't worry, he'll find Mac!" I tried to gently explain he wasn't gonna find Mac right away, but this way he gets to meet Mater!

"March is when Baby Nelson will be a pumpkin!"

"I'm ecstatic!"

Riley went through a phase that she always liked to leave you with parting words. As Ben was racing out to work or Bo is hurrying to catch an uber they'd stop and wait for Riley to bless them with her last words like, "Don't forget to tell Jasmine you look pretty!" or "Tell the kids I'm sorry they're sick!" 

Riley was playing with Ben's shoes and I called them sneakers. She was very confused and said they were shoes not sneakers. I explained they could also be called sneakers. She replied, "Or they could be called sneaky shoes! I made a joke!"

Ben singing along with a song in a mocking tone. Riley, "Dad, that's not the voice she uses." Yeah Dad, respect her music man.

"Jesus loves Nelson too."

Nelson crying during home church, "Why doesn't he want to be reverent?"

Riley decided she wanted to show me a trick, "I'm gonna do something that I probably don't know how to do yet!"

We were eating our family night treat and Riley had finished hers. She often likes when we eat treats with her because then she'll ask us to share ours when hers is gone. She turns to Ben and asks so sweetly, "Can you share?" When Ben says that he's already eaten all of it she says in the same sweet voice, "Can you spit it out? Can you put it into my mouth?" 

I was excited about something and said, "I can't wait!" Riley replied, "You will have to." Haha yes Riley, we try to teach you that patience is a virtue and sometimes we have to wait, but that's not what I meant. 

She's done this for a long time, but I'm just not sure if it's documented everywhere. Whenever Riley asks me for something, if I take a minute to think about if I want to answer yes or no she'll prompt me by giving a big sigh and saying, "Oh, I guess." Mimicking what I must sound like when I decide it's not worth the battle and I'll just say it's okay. 

"Why is there a bug in the house?" "Maybe they just wanted to live somewhere that someone would love them."

I put Riley in an apron to paint. She asked, "Do I look like Daddy when he was carving? I want to be just like him!"

Discussing why she shouldn't attempt to jump off something too high. "I would have fun until I hit the ground cause I would be almost flying."

"I'm excited for you to be pregnant again!" Woah there kid, I don't think you're thinking that one through because I sure did use that pregnancy as a reason to not have to do a whole lot of things you asked of me. 

Riley will surprise me sometimes by offering to share a bit of a treat with one of us. One day she offered something to Ben asking, "Do you want to share with me?" Followed quickly by a whispered, "Don't eat all of it." As Ben is holding the whole thing in his mouth. 

"Why is your face like this?" (Makes a sad face.)

The other day Ben blew Riley's mind by making this joke, instead of saying whoops a daisy he said whoops a Donald. She thought about it a bit and then started cracking up. Now she'll often say whoops a Mickey or whoops a Goofy.

I spend a lot of my life doing a second rate impersonation of Mickey Mouse. Riley loves pretending we are different people. If it's Mickey's world I'm Mickey, Ben's Goofy, and Nelson is Pluto. In Trolls I'm Harper, Ben is Branch, and Nelson is Tiny Diamond. In Cars I'm Chick Hicks or Luigi, Ben's Mater, and Nelson is Guido. Occasionally she'll be Minnie, Poppy, or Lightening, but recently she just plays Riley. 

Reading a Doc McStuffins book that says the "toys came to life." Riley asks, "Why were they dead?"

Riley did a bit a soccer this year! It was just a few practices led by teens from our ward, but was a good introduction to listening to coaches and trying to kick the ball in a certain direction. She definitely progressed from the first practice where we had to hold her hand the whole time, but it was still sometimes a struggle for her to let Mom and Dad stay on the sidelines. After one practice we asked her what was her favorite part. She said, "The game where we said 'Go Lions!'" Haha the cheer at the end of practice. So great. 

I've still got a bunch in my notes, but it's getting long. Well, until next time!

We love you Riley!