Well folks, if Allegiant is going to fly to Reno from Bellingham, you better believe I'm gonna be on the first flight possible.
June 6th was the inaugural flight, and we were there for the cookies, goody bags, tiger stuffed animals, and the water cannon.
We arrived to find grandpa's giant loader parked in the front yard, and tons of beautiful horses in the back yard.
And not just horses, but mama horses with their colts.
A guy is "renting" one of their fields for his horses to pasture in. There was one stud and lots of mares, so they all had babies.
It was so fun to hear and see.
Did you know colts take daily naps just like real babies? The mamas stand by and talk while their babies sleep.
The mama and baby pair stay right by each other all the time. It was so neat.
One day they were moving big bales of hay, so Evan rode in a truck with Aaron.
He didn't say much while they were working, but when he got home, he kept jabbering about "truck!"
Then every time he saw Aaron all week long he would point and smile and yell "truck!"
PS Aaron just got called as the bishop of his ward. He's going to be a fantastic bishop.
Evan loves sleeping in the tiny pack and play even though he doesn't quite fit.
Plus he insisted that these giant trucks also be in there to take up half the bed.
Art show! We're all going to the ART SHOW!
(Yo gabba gabba)
We had an art show in the "Hall of Art".
Birch Bay
Anytime you wanted, you could go peruse the art show.
This cracked me up. It's how we could afford our art show: advertising.
Post bath cuddle.
Why does Evan hate taking a bath in Fallon?
Annie put this blanket over Andrew, then handed him the "Connect Four" grid.
When we were little, we painted blocks for a quilt.
This is Aaron's block...an Atari computer. haha
You cannot imagine how much fun Avery had. It was non stop.
At night she would crash, fast asleep, then play all day long the next day.
She had her first sleepover. I wasn't sure she would make it, but apparently they read some books and went right to sleep.
Around 3am, she woke up and said she couldn't sleep, therein falling imediatley back to sleep.
In the morning she told the girls, "I slept so good!"
They were so nice to her and they all played and played and played.
Sundays are always fun. Long story short, I was in and out with Evan, Grandma was out with Andrew.
This is how I finally got Evan to sit quietly. He can't get up if he has smarties on his legs...
(PS originally we came to Fallon sans Jimi so that he could study for his proficiency check, take it in Vegas on Tuesday, then fly up to Fallon for the rest of the time. His PC got cancelled though, so he flew up on Sunday, yay!)
Jimi fed the horses an apple.
We went on a motorcycle ride. That's as close to a date as we got since Evan eventually got sick.
See that loader? It will eventually get thrown up on in the middle of the night.
Best bread ever.
Annie's hair is awesome.
We celebrated Jimi's birthday.
That red frosting made a come back in Evan's throw up.
rainbow
So after Evan got sick, we kind of had to stick around the house.
We did go to Sonic once. I don't think I'm a big fan of drinking a giant drink. I had about a fifth of mine, then it just rotted in the fridge.
I couldn't help but take thousands of pictures of the horses. They are so fun to look at.
All babies in the animal kingdom act the same - they wag their tails, sprint around in circles, sidle up shyly to their mamas...
This mama was pregnant. Poor thing.
This was my favorite colt.
Let me reiterate...Avery had SO much fun with her cousins.
I used to play on this thing. It was my throne and I was the queen.
It was really windy while we were there.
My mom found this egg in the grass. It had most likely blown out of its nest.
This antique egg scale was found in some of the Bendickson's old junk.
Can we talk about the Bendicksons for a minute? How fun are they? If there's ever a lull in the conversation, let's talk about the Bendicksons.
(Back story: they are a mom and her two daughters. They are obesely fat. They are socially inept. They are shut ins. They live down the road from my parent's home. I don't know how they are still living. They don't get out of their beds. The dairy recently bought their "dairy" and has since whipped it into shape. They've had to burn mountains of junk and haul mountains of other junk to the dump. They continue to live in their home and deteriorate in mind and society...not in girth.)
One of the daughters is able to get out of her bed and into her truck wherein she: gets the mail, picks up fast food, etc.
My favorite story of the trip: My dad said he was working one day and came around a stack of hay bales to find Brenda eating some fast food.
He said she looked up at him with the look of a dog protecting her bone.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr
Ha ha. It's sad, I know. It shouldn't be funny, but it is. Poor, strange neighbors of my childhood.
Annie refused to wear her life jacket. She would just crawl around in the water with the waves lapping dangerously close to her mouth and nose. Sometimes she looks so much like Robbie it's crazy. She's the cutest little thing.
The rocket ship.
The girls were at the top pretending to be imprisoned.
There isn't a more fun scenario for Avery.
She just played and played all day. From one cousin to another. From one game to the next. From one scenario to another.
She was so sad when it was time to go home. She moped around the airport saying,
"I don't want to go home!"
The puking and sickness lasted about two days. The last day there, he was feeling better, so I thought, hey, why not put him on the merry go round? That's what I would want to do if I just got done being sick.*
*This was actually his choice of play ground toy. There was lots to choose from, but this was his draw. So, whatever. He didn't puke again.
Allright, so at the airport, we were all checked in ready to go, and there was a maintenance delay with the airplane. They announced that we would be boarding around 9pm.
We decided to take our camp of lunatic tired children over to a secluded area. We set up camp, emptied our backpacks, plugged in phones, released Andrew from the bjorn.
Around 8pm, we hear over the loud speaker: "This is the final boarding call for Allegiant flight to Bellingham".
We were out of visual range of the gate, and I guess out of audio range too. We frantically gathered our stuff and made a run for it.
Evan kept sitting down, crying and whining. I am carrying a baby trying to drag him along. Jimi and Avery are just going for it - trying to get to the gate to let them know we are here.
Evan trips on his blanky, and sits and cries. I beg him to get up. I look around and swear I am in a nightmare.
It really wasn't as close of a call as it seemed, but I can't handle being late for things. Especially for airplanes that leave you stranded.
Please, future self, don't set up camp out of visual range of the gate.
