July 15-17, 2013
On the fifth day: we had our big zoo day. We went to the
Cincinnati Zoo and we all wore our matching green shirts that Mark and Kris had
designed and embroidered for us. They were awesome, and it made it easier for
us to find each other while we were at the zoo. There were about enough kids
and adults that we were each paired up a kid with an adult. I got to have Elena
with me and Ryan got to have Thomas and Jared most the time. Thomas, Jared, and
Sup had fun taking turns riding on Ryan’s shoulders. Sometimes that was easier
for them to see over the fences and the rows of people.
We had a great time! We saw elephants eating, alligators belching,
giraffes chasing a cat away, lions sleeping, a polar bear swimming, and a tiger
on the prowl. Jared was kind of afraid of the tiger. I thought the manatees
were amazing. We also got to pet a snake. Before leaving the zoo, we got some
stretched pennies from Gramma and Papa. We also went in to the gift store.
Jared picked out an alligator and Fennec Fox for Karl and himself.
We left from the zoo to head all the way to the house in
Clio, MI. We made one main stop on the way, at Cabela’s for a break. Some of us
played soccer and some of us looking around in the store. It was a little late
when we made it to Clio, so we mostly ate, unpacked, and did a couple other
things before getting to bed. Jared got to sleep in the “Empress” bed, I think
it’s called, with all the other grandkids, Gramma, and Papa. He very tired
after such a long, fun day; he was the first to sleep.
On the sixth day: we had our family picture day. We all got
dressed up in our different family colors, ours being orange, and went to JC
Penny to get tons of photos done. It was fun and it was great that we were all
able to be there to get them done together. Jared has been in a phase were he
doesn’t like strangers to address him or even look at him, so it was very
difficult for him to get his pictures done. That afternoon, some of us had an
interesting time getting a Jacuzzi set up. It needed to be moved about 40 or so
feet across the yard to a place Chris and Alisha had set up for it. There’re
plenty of creative minds in the Anderson family so they figured out how to make
a track out of planks and logs and roll the Jacuzzi over with some stops along
the way to readjust. It worked pretty nicely.
That evening, Becky’s mom and sister, Diana and Sarah, were
so kind to come baby-sit the kids for us so all the adults could go to the
temple for Luigi’s endowment session and his family’s sealing ceremony. It
always really neat to be in the temple with so much family and Ryan and I are
glad we were able to be there for that.
On the seventh day: we celebrated Elena’s birthday and we
all got to go to her baptism that morning. It was a wonderful program. Katie,
Elena’s big sister, gave a wonderful talk and Olivia also had her baby
blessing. Elena and Olivia both looked so pretty in their white, hand-made
dresses! The rest of the day, we had a lot of fun, mostly around the house. We
played horses shoes, monkey-in-the-middle, and mafia. Ryan made a contraction
to squeeze the juice and sugar out of our sugar cane. He had tried sugar cane a
couple times on his mission, in Brazil, and knew how good it was, so he was
looking forward to seeing if ours was any good. It turned out, the one we’d
picked wasn’t that good, but it was still fun for him to work on the project.
In the evening, we all got to try Eric and Becky’s different
flavored homemade lemonades. They were so good! Papa Mark told us all the story
of Old Ephraim while were sitting around the campfire. We ended the day by
heading back inside to sit together in the living room to sing happy birthday
to the birthday girl again and give her presents!
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