There is Just News. There is no Good or Bad.

Drek and I spent the week at his family's reunion. We are back now. The best news: Acouchi is also back!! When we got back into cell phone range there was a message from her doctor telling us that her levels were fantastic and we could come and get her!! Hooray!! Even though I can't touch her it's good to see her prowling around the house.

We started our trip at 10am on Monday. Drek's family had left at 5:30 that same morning. We arrived 10 minutes after them. No, we were not speeding. Drek was driving so you know we were going the exact posted speed limit. Drek does not approve of my driving (he has massive heart-attacks when I am the driver and he is the passenger) so I didn't even try to drive. In fact, I left my driver's licence at home.

We arrived and looked around; It was such a gorgeous place.





Monday night I was in "the grown-ups circle" (Every family has one. You know, where the kids are off playing, the teenagers are doing their thing and the adults are in a group talking about adult things and when the kids come by they roll their eyes and complain about how boring adults are and how they never want to grow up because all adults do is sit in a circle and talk about boring things but somehow when you're an adult these conversations are riveting and you wouldn't trade it to go traipsing about the trees or to go down the zip-line. Yeah. That.) I realized that sitting in on Drek's family's grown-ups circle is more frustrating than my family's grown-ups circle, simply because in circles like these there are always references to past events. In my family I understand all of these allusions, since I was there for some of them, remember the shock waves from others and heard the family gossip about the rest. In Drek's family, I have no idea what they are talking about. So I miss a lot of the conversations, but it is still fun to be part of the group. During this time it was mentioned that Dreks parents have five grandchildren and one on the way. "Two on the way." Drek's mom corrected. Two? I became very excited. Who was the other one? Alas, no more information could be given. My mind raced through the possibilities. Hooray! Would my baby have a cousin it's own age after all? I guessed who I thought was expecting and waited.

We had a very nice devotional followed by family announcements. It was here that the revelation was finally given. My guess was wrong but my baby will have a cousin it's own age to play with. Well, maybe. There are a lot more variables than in the optimal circumstance, but still (Now this is a perfect example of the conversations I was talking about earlier. If you know to what I am referring, it makes sense, if you don't then you have no idea what I'm talking about).

The next day Drek and I decided to go on the teenage camping trip. What amazing sights! I got to go on a hike by myself and I couldn't believe how gorgeous the sights were; breathtaking canyons, incredible rock formations, hawks flying overhead, tiny lizards willing to let you touch them if you were quiet. It was an amazing hike!
Does this last picture look familiar? There are similar pictures posted on this blog from three years ago. Same place, whole different experience.

Wednesday the whole family went into town to visit the local rec center. The place had an indoor swimming pool and what a pool it was! An "adults only" pool, a lap pool, diving boards, a HUGE hot tub, a water slide, a lazy river, a vortex of swirling doom, and a whole area for kids. And also showers. I was very fond of the showers.

Thursday night Drek and I decided it was time to head home. We had had a wonderful time, played some fun games, learned new things, gotten chipmunk pee on our bed, but it was time to be getting back. Drek drove until we need to stop for gas and food. As we headed back to the car he offered to let me drive. GASP!! So I did. Hooray for me driving! Drek read out load as I drove and we had a very pleasant (no heart attacks) time. It was uneventful until traffic came to a stop on a two-lane highway out in the middle of no where. Drek put the book down and looked around to figure out why were were stopped. That's when we saw the sign: Sobriety checkpoint. How exciting!! My first encounter with cops wanting to know if I'm drunk! I was very excited. After a very long wait a deputy came up to our window, looked in and introduced himself. We smiled and said hello. He asked to see my driver's licence.

Oh. Um... it's not here. We just got done camping...

He asked if I had had anything to drink that day. I smiled, shook my head no and patted my tummy. The deputy smiled, congratulated me, finished looking at the interior of the car and sniffing the air and waved us through. He was actually really nice. Drek said if he had been driving and he didn't have a driver's licence we would have been in trouble, it was only because I was pregnant that we got through. We spent the next few miles discussing the rights of stops like that, the legality of asking for a driver's licence, and the merits of having sobriety checkpoints.

All in all, we had a good drive home.