My trip started with a long flight to Utah and then the long drive with Bearded Brother, Married Sister, and Niece. Who, by the way, is adorable.
Bearded Brother decided to rock the 50, which is a long, lonely, twisty, slow road. We enjoyed it, but it took pretty much all day. Totally worth it for the chance to see Nephew for the first time since he was three months old:
We took vacation slow. I was up early several days and went out for morning runs, which metaphorically killed me between the altitude and the hills. Breakfast was usually around 10 or 11 am breakfasts and short early afternoon activities. On Friday we went on a bit of a hike, found a pond and sat around for a while:
Saturday we went to a mansion called Vikingsholm in Emerald Bay. Used to belong to rich old lady who thought the bay looked like Scandanavian fjords and went on a trip to Norway for design inspiration. Any pieces that she couldn't buy, she had replicated down to the last scratch. It was pretty cool, actually.
We are going to take a moment here and talk about the yummy, yummy food that we ate. The AAA's (Boat Brother, Sister-in-law, and Nephew) made a fantastic butter-garlic pizza with loads of squash and chicken and onion. I made my very favorite kale and sweet potato enchiladas. Bearded Brother grilled up some yummy tri-tip with homemade barbeque sauce. There were swedish pancakes and ice cream and milk and oreos, and chicken and waffles. If there's one thing the Lindgren's know how to do, it's eat well.
Anyway, then on Sunday we hung around the cabin, walked around down town, and took family pictures. It was lovely and relaxing.
On Sunday night we had a Celebrate Everybody's Birthday party with white elephant gifts, cake, and cookies. In a fun, weird how things turn out turn of events, the gifts all ended up with the person the gift giver thought would appreciate them the most.
It was really nice to get everyone together. I think it's been a good 4 years since all six siblings were in the same room, and I'm happy to say that those four years worked wonders on family dynamics, if you know what I mean. ;-)
Monday we said goodbye to Nephew, Boat Brother and Sister-in-Law, and the rest of us headed back to Utah for Family Vacation Part 2.
The lady with the clock face disturbs me. Seriously. If that were in my house, it would take me about 15 minutes until I couldn't stand it any longer, then yanked it off the wall and burned it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I like your hair!