Road Trip to Oregon: First half with The Hendersons (June 30th thru July 6th)

This is from my journal:   

We have had a lot of fun here for the family reunion.  We drove out on Friday June 30^th up to Declo Idaho, a 4 hour trip.  We spent the night with Grandma Rasmussen who had fun meeting Ellie Sue for the first time.  We left that morning to finish the 12 (total) trip to Milwaukie.  We arrived at Mom & Dad Henderson’s at around 5:30 (local time) on Saturday July 1^st.  Ellie did REALLY WELL on the road.  She slept most of the time with only a few minor exceptions where she got board and needed one of us back there so she wouldn’t feel so alone.  Daddy was usually MORE THAN willing to play with Ellie while she was all strapped into her car seat which is something that she hates.  L

Saturday, evening, July 1^st:  We spent the afternoon just playing and talking.  Brittney & Randy are living here for the summer while they work to save money for BYU-Idaho this next Fall. Brittney is 7 months pregnant, due September 6^th.  Ellie seemed to be the center attraction though.  Shaun, Marissa, Trevor & Scotty fly in at around 11 pm.  We opted to go to bed before we saw them because of how social Ellie is.  If there is a party going on, she won’t sleep so we had to get her to sleep before the gang showed up. 

Sunday, July 2^nd:  We had 9 am church where we had a lot of fun showing Ellie off to Grandma & Grandpa’s ward.  After church we went to Grandma Meg’s house for a fun dinner with Aunt JaNae & Uncle Pat.  We spent a few hours there taking pictures & talking.  We got home at around 3 pm and had to all take a nap.  After naps, we ate dinner, played games and I gave Brittney a back & body massage. 

Monday, July 3^rd:  Randy’s 23^rd birthday.  We had a nice breakfast of strawberries & ice cream.  We played games…which is what he wanted to do.  We all went to see the movie Cars, all except Grandma, Darron & Ellie.  Unfortunately Grandma had a really hard time with both of the babies fussing.  (I felt badly.)  Grandpa got home from his youth tour to Navoo in the early evening so we had a lot of fun hearing his stories.  Bry & I had to go to get Ellie an outfit for the pictures so we had to do a little shopping.  We found a really cute denim jumper for her that had cute bloomers too! 

Tuesday, July 4^th:  We had a hurried breakfast so that we could get ready for the family photo shoot in the back yard with a semi-professional photographer.  The sun was too high & hot for the babies so it was a hard time.  After the pictures, we had a lot of free time before dinner & fireworks so Bry & I took Ellie to go see Kim at her store.  We surprised her!!  We spent about a half hour letting her meet Ellie Sue.  We hurried back for a fun Family Home Evening.  Grandma put together the idea that we should all learn the 5-Love Languages.  There is a book that she pulled her information out of.  The lesson took a really long time but was well worth it for me to understand how my new family communicates.  It’s also a new tool that I will use with my own family as I (and Bryan) try to rebuild relationships with my family.  It’s always helpful to have tools that provide better, more accurate forms of communication.  After that, “the fam” went to a neighbors house (the Lelands) who had a bunch of illegal fireworks and the Henderson’s had a very large box of legal fireworks that everyone watched. I kept Ellie home because I didn’t think that she’d enjoy all of the noise, mosquitoes, cold air, smell & etc.  Bryan said that it was fun because they were also very close to a city sponsored grandiose firework show. 

Wednesday, July 5^th:  All of the boys had a 5 am wakeup for a 6 am golf game.  They grabbed a bite to eat at McDonalds before they got there and then they played 9 holes of golf.  They got back in time for the girls’ breakfast time.  It was rather funny to see the boys all crashed out all over the house. The girls got to sleep in, which was nice….especially for Ellie & I.  She has been fussy and not sleeping well since we got here.  It’s been hard for both of us.  I think that it’s just because of all of the commotion that keeps her up too late.  I have accidentally eaten onions on two occasions because I wasn’t the chef.  (I need to be more aware and much more careful!  Ellie’s tummy can’t take it. It rumbles & rolls like mine does which makes me wonder if she hurts like I do.)  We spent most of the day just hanging around the house.  We watched movies down stairs.  Brittney, Trevor & I sat in the hot tub for a while.  Bryan’s allergies kicked in and I gave him some Benadryl that knocked him out!!  He slept really hard for hours. 

Thursday, July 6^th:  We had a casual morning.  I have caught up this journal, which has taken a lot longer than I meant for it to.  We are heading to Sea Side Oregon for the reunion with the rest of Dad-Henderson’s family.  We will be there for 2 days.  I can’t wait!