PIG OUT!

Annually, we travel to the mountains just west of Cle Elum to the Pig Out (it's an official event for us, so it gets proper case). Some good friends of my grandparents have several acres of forest land and they have an annual gathering for family and friends and family of friends and friends of family. There's more than 100 people for sure. Some of them come days before, the night before and some show up just in time for pig. The hosts definitely have roasting a pig in the ground down to a science. It's quite the production. It's a fun time. About 4 years ago, we were introduced to some family members of the hosts. They are about our age and have a daughter that is about 6 months older than Gunnar. They live in Ellensburg. We see them usually just once a year and Gunnar and their daughter, Allie, pal around all weekend. They've been really cute over the years. They get along really well. Because we have an Ali in our family, we have to distinguish between "friend Allie" and "cousin Ali". So, we saw friend Allie this weekend. It was great weather. We slept in a tent. We left the dog at home with a babysitter, ok, I guess that would be a dogsitter. We didn't want to buy gas to take the truck, we didn't want to have to worry about our dog trying to attack my mom's dogs, so it's just easier for everyone. We found a very responsible young man to come stay at our house while we are gone. We've done it twice now and it works great! So, anyway, we headed up to Cle Elum and hung out for the weekend. It was relaxing. I do get lethargic though when I am not active. I should feel refreshed in the mountain air, but I really just wanted to take a nap. Not sure if that means that I needed sleep or if I just am so used to being on the go, that my body was really not sure why it was stopped.

So, here's a couple of pictures from the weekend. At then of the trip when I wanted to get Gunnar's picture with Allie, he didn't want too, of course! Paden usually cooperates for pictures though. Good times!

When we left the Pig Out today, we came home via Moses Lake to listen to "cousin Robert" speak and try to report on his mission in about 2 seconds. The other speakers took up all the time, but Robert did a good job cutting down the information. It's good to see Robert and see that he has grown and learned on his mission. Robert is still Robert, just like any other missionary, I suppose. They don't usually do a 180 degree transformation, but they do learn and grown and I am grateful that Robert was able to serve a mission and learn more about the gospel and himself. We saw Aunt Ann and the Pyle family. It's always good to see family and really, to me, that is what going to listen to a mission farewell, misison report, run-of-the-mill talk, etc. is all about. It's just about being with family. It's nice to hear your family members share their thoughts and feelings about the gospel, but it's just nice to see them. We live a little further away and probably have reserve trips to see them to the more noteworthy events. I do recall a time when we all were able to travel to hear someone sing, someone speak, someone play musical instruments, someone dance, someone play sports, someone have a birthday. It seems as though, the older we all get, the less of that there is and I miss that.

Ugh, tomorrow is Monday. Back to grindstone. Better hit the hay! {Where the heck did that saying come from anyway?}