Epic Family Weekend

What happens when you take this:

And one of these:

Throw in some of these:

A faithful geyser and it’s cousins:

After a very, very, very long drive filled with joy and love (and 5 freaking pee breaks!!!):

(This is what happens to a man after a 5 hour drive filled with joyous children in the backseat)

You get-

 The Epic Semi-Often Thomas Trip of Awesomeness!

This is the 3rd time my family has done something like this but it was the first time all my siblings were there. This was our second time in Yellowstone and then we did a trip to Moab, too. We don’t believe in going to kid-friendly places with dancing dolls and roller coasters. Oh no, we like to make them work for their entertainment! With 20+ cousins and a giant cabin, it doesn’t take much work. I hardly saw my children after we got there. We were sadly missing my sister-in-law and 2 of her kids but everyone else was there.

I was a little worried as the trip began since my kids threw a fit any time we asked them to help us with something and when we hadn’t even left the Salt Lake Valley and they were asking if we were there yet or the fact that we hadn’t been driving a half an hour before they needed to pee-that continued every hour, no joke! That crazy astronaut lady and her adult diapers is sounding less and less crazy to me…

Now I have driven to Calgary, Alberta at the end of a terrible stomach bug stuffed in an Astro Van with 5 brothers, I’ve driven to Mount Rushmore stuffed in the same van, Illinois, the middle of Baja Mexico in a short bus full of uncomfortable and exhausted college students and I’ve even driven through the entire Yellowstone park ‘on the way home’ (which ended up being about 10 hours long) 7 months pregnant with my first child resulting in thiankles that were numb and useless by the time we got home. All of these drives do not compare to the delightful drive with my sweet children this past weekend. It was the longest 5 hours of my life! I think at one point I even turned around to my children and said “You have made this one of the worst days of my life! And I’ve been in labor and given birth to 3 children!” It was my finest hour.

Each morning we awoke to a herd of buffalo running through the house the pitter pat of little feet running circles through the house. By the end of the day my ears were ringing from all the joyous squeals and laughter coming from so many happy, playful children! They really do all get along really well and have a lot of fun together.

Just a fraction of the children.

Only a few regrets. 1-Not one freaking bear. I even put my kids out in a field covered in honey to coax one out but all I got was some sobbing kids. Lame. 2- I wanted to explore the park more. We saw the barest minimum but it took all day, and I think that was all the kids could take. 3-More than half of us came home with a death cold. I know we were all living in the same house but it’s not like we were licking each other’s cups or anything! SHEESH!!