CA visit / McBurney family reunion

I can't believe it's been a month and I'm just now blogging about our trip to California. There were so many pictures that it just seemed overwhelming! Normally I go to CA by myself over Memorial Day, to decorate family graves with my grandma. This year the McBurney (on my mom's mom's dad's side) family reunion sounded SO awesome, so after consulting with my grandma, I decided to skip the Memorial Day tradition and attend the reunion. It fell on Mother's Day weekend, so we also made plans to spend time with both moms.

At the last minute, we invited our friend Alina to tag along. She is from Henderson (outside Las Vegas) and wanted to go home for the weekend, since she was free from school and work. We rented a car that happened to have a GPS. Nathan had an absolute blast fiddling with it, and it drove me nuts.

Since we left early, we hit the boring part of Utah right as I was getting sleepy and daylight was hitting. I amused myself by taking pictures of sleeping people and random things along the road.

After a brief detour to drop off Alina, we made it to CA!

Nathan went to the midnight release of Iron Man 2 with his brother, dad, and two friends. I wisely went to bed instead.

The next day, we headed to the reunion. It was located at a Christian camp in Sequoia National Forest. One of my cousins works and lives there, and got us a great rate for cabins/dorm rooms. We saw fun things along the way like Hungry Valley and trucks loaded with produce.

We stopped in Bakersfield and waited for my sister Jaime to catch up, so we could have lunch together. Then we stopped again together in Visalia to get gas before heading up the mountain. As we pulled into the gas station, their vehicle (borrowed from her MIL) started making a HORRID noise. We found a mechanic and I played with the kids in the car while the mechanic assessed the situation.

After the mechanic provided bad news and we dropped them off at a hotel, Nathan and I headed up the mountain. The road was curvy and narrow, but the scenery was beautiful.

We had a dorm room to ourselves.

Our feet were super dirty after wandering around the camp in sandals, and I thought it was cute that we were washing our feet together.

The next morning, I was still having fun with the camera!

How can you resist taking pictures when there are bridges, rivers, and giant swings?

Nathan bonded with my cousins over a competitive round of Settlers of Catan.

My sister Janice and her family got there mid-day. My nephew was DYING to drive this himself....so much that he tried to start it with a stick when he thought no one was looking.

Some of us took naps and others went to the zipline.

Janice and I had never ziplined before but we decided to conquer our fear!

Some people even doubled up.

After that, we played games.



We ate way too much delicious food all weekend. Chicken enchiladas, tri-tip, burgers, pancakes, you name it! I'm sure I gained weight.

On Saturday night, we built a massive fire, made smores, and had a talent show. Fortunately, Jaime had arrived by then.

Jaime and I had thrown together a song, and she bought matching costumes and toy microphones. So much fun! We sang Our Lips are Sealed, twirled our feather boas, and shook our hips.

We won a prize! Okay....everyone won a prize.

The next morning, they thoughtfully had Mother's Day gifts for all the women.

We grabbed a few more pictures as people woke up, and then hit the road.

(If you can't tell, we're all freezing.)

We made it back in time to make dinner for Nathan's mom. The next day, we went to see my parents and my grandma. Much to our surprise, my dad is growing facial hair!

Our visit with Grandma was awfully short, but it was great to see her!

After that, we headed back to Henderson and stayed the night at Alina's parents' house. The next day, we HAD to hit a casino buffet breakfast. It's the only thing I like about Vegas.

Who says you can't have dessert after breakfast? Not me!

We made art from the food that wasn't up to par.

Alina and I had fun singing our hearts out on the way home.

And then....we came home. To snow and then rain. It was so much fun! We drove over 30 hours, but it was worth it.