Briggs Reunion

(I started writing this June 30th and then added a bit here and there over the weeks, but never finished it til now. So goes my blogging career...I start, procrastinate, then eventually finish. If only I wasn't so obsessed with recording all the details, maybe I could finish an entry in a single sitting for once!)

Over the weekend of June 19, 20th and 21st was the annual Briggs family reunion. Briggs is my mom's maiden name, and the reunion is in honor of her father's parents, Eli and Mary Briggs. Every year my grandpa and his siblings take turn hosting the reunion. This year it was my grandpa's turn, which made it particularly special for me because it was held at his ranch in Whitehall, Montana, where I haven't been for a couple of years, and where the reunion hasn't been for 6 or so years. I love Montana and miss it so much...I was looking forward to going to the reunion for months! It was our first time traveling out of town since Jacob was born...traveling almost 7 hours with two kids was a little bit stressful, but thankfully little baby Jacob did pretty well on the way there (the way home was another story!).

My extended family is absolutely huge, and at these reunions every year I have a difficult time remembering names and how I'm related to everybody. There's many people I don't know or recognize at all! I think somebody told me the count for the reunion this year was 104 people! I was especially excited because every single one of my aunts and uncles was there this year. My mom is the oldest of 9 children, so I got a lotta aunts and uncles, and I haven't seen many of them for years and years. I love them all and it was so great to see them, and of course my wonderful grandparents too. And my cousins....wow. They're all grown-up! Since my mom is the oldest in her family, me and my brothers were always the older cousins. I remember growing up, it seemed all my cousins were just babies and toddlers running around our feet. Now they're all graduating high school and college and some of them are getting married! Aaaah!!! I'm getting old!

The weekend consisted of lots of visiting, eating (gooooood food on the ranch, I tell you), and trying to keep dry! Unfortunately it rained and rained most of the weekend, so the weather wasn't ideal for a lot of the activities that had been planned, but the little kids LOVED it! They were having a ball playing in the rain and especially in the mud that was everywhere! We parents didn't love that so much. I tried to keep Thomas out of the mud and rain the best I could, but it was no use...eventually I just gave in. At one point he and his little cousins ended up ankle deep in a big ole mud puddle over by the barn that probably also contained horse poo....ugh! To look at them, soaking wet out in the rain and the cold, you'd think they'd be miserable, but they were having a grand time! I worried a lot because I failed to really prepare for the possibility of cold weather. I brought lots of changes of clothing because I knew Thomas would probably get filthy running around the ranch, but most of them weren't nearly warm enough for the weekend! I only brought one light coat, and before the trip he didn't even have any shoes besides sandals that fit him. Luckily I did go buy him a new pair of sneakers to wear. Thomas of course ended up getting himself, his clothes, his coat and shoes repeatedly soaked and filthy, so we did a lot of bathing and washing clothes and borrowing clothes from cousins!

Tommy had a fun milestone over the course of the weekend...he took his first ever ride on a horse! A few of the little kids were begging to take horse rides, so my grandpa got one of his horses saddled up and led each kid around the corral on a slow, easy ride. It really brought back memories of visiting the ranch growing up...I was always so excited when I got to ride the horses and I loved watching the rodeos my family would put on. My grandpa has his own rodeo arena, and in fact, my lovely mother used to be a Rodeo Queen. =) Thomas was so impatient for his turn on the horse...he kept freaking out and yelling over and over, desperately, that it was his turn! He could hardly stand the anticipation!

Even though we had to stay holed up in the barn or the houses or camp trailers most of the weekend because of the rain, we were still able to par-tay! One night we did Karaoke, which I absolutely love! I sang a couple of songs, and Thomas got really interested and said he wanted to sing. They got Twinkle Twinkle Little Star going for him, but he chickened out and I ended up having to go solo. (I think he really, really just wanted to play with the microphone!) They also had a live band and dancing another night, during which Tommy demonstrated his moves...he loves to dance! At one point one cute little girl (yes, we're related to her but I don't even remember how or what her name was) partnered up with him, and the two of them were pretty enthusiastic and adorable little dancers!

One tradition I love is the family auction we have at the reunion every year. Everybody is asked to bring some unwanted (but nice) things or to make something to bring (like a quilt) to be auctioned off to pay for the reunion the following year. Its a great way to pay for the reunions and I always look forward to it! Last year I ended up buying one of the quilts at the auction for quite a pretty penny (but it was worth it, I love that thing!), so this year Ryan forbade me to buy any of the more expensive items! But we did get a couple smaller things to help contribute to the fund. Its always fun to see what people bring and watch the battles that ensue when people are trying to out-bid each other.

On the Sunday morning of the reunion, usually everyone just has breakfast and then packs up and heads home. But this year, Sunday was a special day because my niece Anika, the daughter of my oldest brother Josh, had just turned 8 about a month before the reunion, and decided to be baptized that weekend during the reunion, since all the family would be together. We had a nice little service on Sunday in the yard of my Uncle Jeff, who lives right next to my grandparents. My two brothers Zane and Travis gave short talks, then we headed over to the pond for the baptism. Anika was the first of Josh's children to be baptized and he got kind of emotional during the baptism, which I thought was very sweet. It was cool being at a baptism in the great outdoors...I don't think I've ever experienced that before. Afterward we all headed over to the barn for Anika's confirmation and then had lunch one last time before Ryan and I headed home. Our trip home wasn't exactly pleasant, as Jacob was very unhappy in his carseat the majority of the way, and we ended up getting home very late because of frequent stops, but...we survived!

I felt especially bad because it was Father's Day on the day we drove home, and in getting ready for the reunion I didn't find time to get Ryan (or my own Dad even!) a gift in time...I did get them cards, but I didn't end up writing in them or giving them to their recipients! (Please know, both Ryan and Dad and Grandpa too, what wonderful fathers you are and how much I love you. Sorry I dropped the ball on Father's Day this year!) I did, at Ryan's request, drive the whole 7 hours home, which is extremely unusual for me. And I don't especially love driving his giant, lifted pickup truck! Ryan always drives when we are together, I think because we both prefer it. I think my driving makes him nervous, and his being nervous at my driving makes me feel nervous while driving. Therefore, he usually drives!

Even though it was a bit of a crazy weekend, being the first time I'd been away from home with two children, it was a great weekend spent with family and I was so happy to see everyone. I am so lucky to have so many wonderful people to call family and I love them all so much! I loved getting to see everyone I've been missing for so long and spending time at my grandparents ranch where I have so many beloved childhood memories.

July?

Where have you gone? Its your last day already? And summer...you are already two-thirds over? Wow. I could say I don't know where the time went, but Ryan pointed out yesterday that it was probably just about the busiest June and July we've ever had. Very true. There's sooooooo much for me to write about, and finding the time is getting harder and harder! But I am still going to try and catch up.....don't know how that's gonna go. I think it will take me half of August to do it! (And I think I'm writing this blog entry to procrastinate!)

When we were talking yesterday about how summer has gone by so quickly, Ryan started panicking a bit about winter coming. Already. I couldn't help but laugh, as winter is nowhere near imminent quite yet, but I can see where he's coming from. The months are flying! I don't much like winter, but take that statement and multiply it by about 10,000 for Ryan. I hear him repeat the sentence "I hate winter" constantly over the course of the cold and snowy months. I can relate to the reasons why he dislikes it so much...he grew up in Wyoming and I grew up in Montana, both places where winters are hard-core freezing and often feel like they last 6 months long. Not fun. Ryan's fondest dream is to move to Hawaii someday. He would move us there tomorrow if he had his way, and if he wasn't worried about a job!

But I'm starting to get excited for probably my favorite times of year...indian summer and fall. I remember indian summers in Montana when I was growing up...so many evenings I would sit out on our trampoline and watch the sun go down, and I would often wonder if I would ever see a sky as beautiful as that one ever again. Thinking about that makes me miss Montana and Billings and my old blue house so much! Curse the people who bought it for painting it mustard yellow...that really bugs me.

And fall. I loooooove fall. I love when it finally starts to cool down and you begin to sense the briskness in the air. I love the colors and the smells and even the fact that school is starting, even though no one in my family is really in school. (But I miss school! I love the beginning of fall semester at BYU.) I love that quote from the movie "You've Got Mail," about how fall "makes me want to go out and buy school supplies!" and make "a bouquet of sharpened pencils." I totally agree! =) And Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, I love it, I can't wait! I'm already wondering what the boys and I will dress up as.

Anywho...wow, this was a bit of a random post. Oh well! On to catching up...

Thank You, Nie Nie

I feel a little guilty about my previous post. I am such a whiner sometimes, I can be so ungrateful. My life is good. Not perfect, but good, and I should remember that. Sometimes I come to realize that what I focus on so much as problems, really aren't problems at all.

Just now I went to read Nie Nie's blog. I always seem to find myself wandering over to her blog when I am feeling down, or overwhelmed, or sorry for myself in any way. Reading what she writes grounds me immediately, humbles me every time. I always cry when I read her blog.

I don't know Nie Nie at all in real life...I only know of her. Many people already know who she is, but if you haven't heard of Nie Nie (pronounced Nee-Nee), she has a sad but amazing story. Her real name is Stephanie Nielsen, and she and her husband, who are a young couple with four children, were in a terrible private plane crash almost one year ago now. They both miraculously survived, but both suffered terrible burns. Stephanie got the worst of it....burns on 80% of her body. Almost one year later she is still in a very long state of recovery. She suffers from chronic pain, has had to undergo many surgeries, lots of therapy, and has to retrain her body to do simple things we all take for granted. And yet she handles this huge trial with amazing courage, humor, grace and faith. Though she definitely doesn't pretend that she doesn't struggle, she lives her life in an amazing way, to the fullest that she possibly can.

Even from the first time I read her blog, I could tell she is one of those kind, beautiful, passionate people that everyone loves and wishes they could be like. She is an amazing wife and mother. In fact, she's so incredibly talented as a wife and mother that when I first read her blog I couldn't help feeling self-conscious and envious, wishing I were more like her. The way she talks about her children and especially her husband is so sweet, sometimes humorous, always reverent. She has a true artistic flair and is always creating beautiful things, or surrounding herself with them. She began blogging long before the plane crash happened, and as I read her blogs from both before and after the crash, and learned about the creative and passionate person she is, I saw that her accident hasn't changed her in that way at all. She has a real, true challenge, something physical and painful that is a struggle every single day, and yet she lives her life with such beauty and grace and courage, and has such a positive (and funny!) outlook despite all her struggles. On top of all her amazing qualities, she has incredible faith. She never loses sight of what's important, of the eternal things. I'm not even close to being where she is. I think that's why I'm drawn to what she writes when I'm having my own struggles...what she writes puts things into perspective for me, and reminds me of what is truly significant. After reading her blog, all the little things I was so worried about don't feel important at all.

Nie Nie, you are a strong, beautiful woman who inspires me to be better. I want to be like you. Thank you.

If you haven't read her blog yet, go there.
http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com

*Sigh*

This photo reminds me a lot of my life right now. Though my "line of work" (stay-at-home-mommy-hood) is very much not in an office, I feel like task after task and project after project is just starting to pile up in the inbox in my head. Along with the demands of my "everyday" job, which revolves around laundry and dishes and diapers and feedings, I have a thousand things I want to accomplish on the enormous, never-ending to-do list in my mind ! Potty-train my toddler, finally get around to hanging all the pictures in our house (not a single one hung in the year we've been here), finish decorating the boys' rooms, finally get all my paperwork filed and organized, organize my photos and make digital scrapbook albums for the boys (not a single page done), get on a regular exercise regimen, go through all the stuff in the basement and organize everything into our new storage room, get our food storage going, finally get ready for the yard sale I keep talking about having...it never ends. My fondest dream is to have it all done, to be completely caught up and have my home to a point where all that is necessary is a little everyday maintenance. With every big project done. To reach a point, someday, once, where I can truly say...I have nothing. to. do. Ha! Like that will ever happen!

And then, along with all of this, is what has also become a chore, in its own way: Blogging. I like blogging. Truly, I do! But its become another thing on my infinite to-do list! I am constantly thinking about things I want to write about and scrambling, trying to figure out when I can find time to get to the computer for more than a few minutes. Its nearly impossible these days! But even when it starts to feel bothersome, I desperately, desperately want to be good at writing about my life (commonplace as it may be). I regret so much that I didn't keep any form of journal, except for maybe a few measly entries, through some of the most eventful times of my life: when I was a teenager, when I was a college student, when I was dating Ryan and then engaged to Ryan, when I was first married. Its sad that I can never go back and read what the past me was feeling and thinking, especially during some of the most memorable or funny or challenging times. So I want to try and be at least somewhat diligent about journaling this period in my life. When I was young, I used to love opening up my mom and dad's old journals and reading through them, about when me and my brothers were born or when we were young. I want my kids to be able to do that. Even though I've failed to write much about myself growing up, I don't want to miss out writing about my kids. Because not only will they want to read about times they don't remember...I will want to read about the times I know I will probably forget. I already enjoy reading my own blogs from a year ago! So when blogging/journaling starts to stress me out, I remind myself that someday it will be wonderful and worth it and entertaining to read all about my life as a young mom, and that I won't care one bit then whether the kitchen was clean or the laundry done the day that I wrote.

I've also begun to realize that this period of time...summer...stresses me out pretty much every year. That sounds sad!...Summer should be the relaxing time, but I almost always start to feel a little overwhelmed! The moment this season arrives it seems Ryan and I are slammed with so many events and celebrations and trips coming up that we start to feel like we practically have the whole summer planned from the beginning! The past few weeks have been particularly busy for us. On top of the fact that the busy-ness of the past month has made it very hard to get around to blogging, the busy-ness has created SO many things I want and need to write about! These are all of our events from just about one month ago to now: Ryan's birthday, Father's Day, Family Reunion in Montana, Ryan's trip to Mexico, Fourth of July, my birthday, Thomas' birthday, Jacob's blessing. AAAAAH! I am starting to think about my blog like I think about my laundry...if I can just get all caught up and then do one load(/blog) a day, maybe I can always keep up with it! That shouldn't be so hard right???

And it would probably help if I learned to finish what I started...I often start blog entries and then never manage to finish and publish them. And this is not helped by the fact that I am generally long-winded! I finally decided to post a couple of entries I started writing at the end of June that in my mind weren't finished, because I hadn't written all the details or they didn't have photos with them or whatever, but I finally just decided to post anyway. I am determined to catch up eventually, but it is overwhelming...along with this last month, there are other things from even further back that I've been meaning to write about. Like Hawaii, from clear back in January!!! How pathetic am I!!?!?!?!

*Sigh*.