While there's time

between another "reunion". This time it's not official but we could have quite a few people here towards the coming week. So, I'll give a recount of what has gone on in as little detail as possible and then one day when I have time I'll write the wrest. Sound good?

Anyways, our story begins on Monday night at the dinner table.
As Anna passes the salad to dad, Liz asks, "So did you find out what time that commitment was on Wednesday?"
Dad, "Yep"
Mom, "Was it three o'clock?"
Dad, "Worse."
Mom, "Four?"
Dad, "Yep"
You see, really our story starts the week before when the judge calls on Monday morning and says that he'll have to have trial on Wednesday. BUT my dad was going to scout camp and they'd been planning this for months and so the judge let it go but rescheduled for the next Wednesday at four o'clock.
Back to our story.
Mom, "hmm...So we'll have to leave in the evening in that case"
And then of course the big three staring at their parents and the two youngest of the big three asking questions to mom and dad to make sure they heard correctly.
And so we left at 6:00 on Wednesday evening, not bothering to rinse the dishes since grandma said she would (and boy did they do a lot while we were gone!)
Our original plan was to drive from Price to Dillon but we decided to stay in Blackfoot so we could wake up earlier the next day and get an easier start the next day. So, we left around 7:30 on Thursday and didn't even stop in Magrath where Becky lived (the original plan was to get to Becky's wednesday night and then the next afternoon drive to the campsite) but just went straight to the campsite (about 11 hours after having only 6 hours out of the car inbetween the five hours to Blackfoot the night before). We finally arrived around 9:00 after detouring Calgary and driving through tons of rain. Luckily, Becky had had problems getting the fried chicken so the pizza was still warm when we got there (if you want to hear the story of how it got changed from chicken to pizza, ask becky) . We set up our tents and soon went to bed.
The next morning I with the help of Alyssa organized Happy Land and we had some extra Happy Landers. We played all kinds of games and everyone enjoyed it. Lots of extended cousins wanted to join Happy Land! After a while we had lunch and then most of us Pretes (my mom's siblings) headed to the Callicut Center in Red Deer, AB. The bigger kids were dissapointed we didn't get to go to the waterslides at Sylvan Lake because of this big huge thing... but we enjoyed the Callicut Center once we got there. The little kids especially loved it because it had its own "Toddler Land" as I call it. For the rest of us it had a full-size waterslide and a wave pool. We had fun. Once we got back, we had to cook dinner. We finished and had it. That night we had the auction. How to explain the auction! There were definately some interesting bids there, but my favorite three were probably
Austin getting a porcupine Webkinz (bought by Grandpa Prete for letting him stay in his room where they were before the reunion) for a spankin' $40.00 (Canadian)
Sarah, buying cows (a Canadian candy) for a spankin $25.00
Kent, buying our Happy Land CD for a spankin' $20.00
And me, buying a BYU pin for a spankin $17.00 that rob kept trying to outbid me!

I know, that was more than three, but who really cares!
Anyways, after the auction the kids went to bed while they adults talked until I fell asleep (and after-that's really saying alot!) The next morning me and Becky had been on the agenda to organize kids games but a lot of bigger kids drifted away when they started with little kids games and did the other two events going on that time; a scrapbooking class with Renata (what they made was really cool) and a bracelet-making craft with Samantha where me and Alyssa made matching necklaces and bracelets. Eventually we had lunch and after lunch we did a really fun thing called "Mini Farm Olympics". It was extremely creative. We had to do things like "stacking hay" with shredded wheats (the big kind) and scooping poop out of the barn (removing mini chocolate chips from an oatmeal-chocolate chip mixture in a cardboard box.) After the Olympics, everyone was so tired out and hot (mainly hot) half of us jumped in the car and half of us walked to the river and just jumped in. I loved floating down it but unfortunately after we had been there for an hour, the burning sun turned into freezing rain with lightning and thunder. We all ran back to camp and hung around until dinner. The storm calmed once we got back. It was all calm for a little while when all of a sudden HUGE, HUGE gusts of wind came in and our strong canopies almost blew away. Luckily, Rob, the smart one (he even just finished his master's!) and some others drove there trucks up and attached the canopies with fasteners to the trucks to keep them secure. A few people got hit in the head with a plate of spaghetti. We felt humbled and blessed when we learned after we got back that there had been tons of tornado watches in Red Deer and that nearby area. Some people ate through the storm (Me and Alyssa did after a while) while others held up the canopy for dear life! We were all grateful to be going to the Innisfail chapel for the talent show!
The talent show was very fun and interesting. Alyssa and I performed a last-minute duet of "I lived in Heaven". Then, the Happy Landers danced to a slideshow I made. If you were there, you probably remember how that went. Tons of little kids came up right as we were starting that were all of a sudden in our skit, but it all worked out well. The parents enjoyed it and enjoyed learning about Happy Land. After the talent show we came back and went to bed.

The next day was Sunday, and the reunion had technically ended the night before. Since the tents were wet from the rain, my dad and Rob and the twins stayed behind to dry out the tents and then head to Magrath while the rest of us just left. We got to Magrath in time for church. After church we hung out together somewhat, but mostly my parents and grandparents packed.

On Monday, my parents left with the twins, Ali, James, and grandpa and grandma Prete. They dropped off my grandparents in Blackfoot,Id where my grandma's father, sister, and brother, all reside. They are going to be coming to our house sometime tonight!

As for the rest of us, (me and Paul) we stayed in Magrath with our aunt Sarah until Friday morning when we left. We enjoyed all the extra time with our cousins but missed home as well. My mom picked up my registration things for junior high while I was gone. While we were there, it rained every day and everyone (Alyssa the most) was very dissapointed that we couldn't take the Doig's boat out, but we did other fun things such as playing Pounce, Pit and having LOTS of humorous girl conversations. Good times, good times. On Wednesday we went shopping in Lethbridge for matching out fits for me and Alyssa. To see more pictures of us, click here . On the last day, when I woke up, I realized I was home sick, but that I was also going to miss these guys. I wish we could've had more time!
So, yesterday, Sarah drove us home. That was about the most interesting ride I'd been on, especially since the boys wanted to hang things out the sun roof on the lonely roads of Montana (unfortunately for them, sunroof hanging WASN'T allowed! Imagine that!) We came up with our own remix of "We are the champions". It goes something like
We are the travelers, my friends
And we'll keep on travelin' till we're dead
We are the travelers, we are the trav'lers
No time for bathrooms cause we are the trav'lers
Of the west
It was prett funny. Then, we did what we like to call the Matt and Leticia trick since they will clearly remember. For time's sake I won't put what we did to them but what we did to my mom.
We told her on the phone that we were going to stay in Salt Lake where Sarah lived because the boys were too restless and were driving Sarah nuts (the nuts part WAS true!) . She told us we should go to temple Square and look around. Later, around 9:40, when we were five minutes from our house, we called her again to make sure she knew we were staying in Salt Lake and told her we walked around Temple Square and watched the Joseph Smith video. In the background, Sarah, Sam, and I had a conversation as if we were getting for bed that had something to do with Sam needing to brush his teeth, needing the keys for the car, and not knowing where he could charge his DSi.. (don't ask what that is). Then, James wanted to talk on the phone and we were on the doorstep when James got on the phone. We completely suprised them, and it was a fun "prank". Also, FYI, Sam's parents did not come out but he has been traveling with grandpa and grandma prete. He stayed in Canada longer too to have more time with Austin and Paul there. That's why we were bringing him back. And I do realize I have just taken ten hours and my parentheses that said "don't ask" probably took longer to read then an actaul description. Now, for the pictures! I'll try to upload some soon! Then I'll tell you the plans for what's happening this week and what has actually happened today- I have an interesting story!


Posted by Anna