Ear-popping, Out in the Country, Family FUN!!

This is a photo of the amazing retreat we stay at here in Meadow Vista, California- just one hour north of Sacramento! Even though it's "California," being here is really being out in the country.  And staying in the country is concurrent with most of the stereotypes, like:

• having to drive many miles just to get anywhere where people are
• having friends complain about coming over because it's too far up the hill
• going to your neighbor's farmer's market on Saturday
• Not being able to see at night when the lights are off because there are no street lights from outside, so you bump your forehead into the doorway on your way back from the bathroom
• And, having your ears pop every time you drive over ten minutes away from "the city"

Having your Ears pop is a million times more fun when you've just been sick and your ears and sinuses are already having problems of their own.  I was sick when I first got here two weeks ago and then I got Ivan sick..oops.. So we both experiences terror while driving down the hill into Sacramento:

ears open, pop, freedom, another pop, ow..i can't hear..ow..Fireworks, ouch, a popcorn just came out of my ear, ow, etc. 

However, after my two weeks here i have successfully gotten used to the altitude.  There has also been fires on the California/Nevada border and we have been privy to the smoke, ash and all the bad smells that come with it.  For the first week, I was waking up with a sore throat every morning.  Ivan got over his "cold" but now has bad coughs and I will break the "Mormon perfection" glass that anyone thought covered our life (really, you thought that?) and tell you the coughing was so bad I asked Ivan to sleep downstairs last night.  He woke up and came back into the room around 5am and has been silent as wee babe, still sleeping at 11:15am this very minute!

Amongst the complications, Living in the country does have many benefits like:

Peace and Quiet

Seeing beautiful Wildlife, like deer eating my in-laws lawn

we can go kayaking...

look how happy we look...

we drive to the driver within 30 minutes...

Yuba River, we loved it!

And the best benefit is time with your family!  

Last week, my mother-in-law hosted a family reunion!  

Many family reunion's end up being complicated just be the invitees.  You find yourself walking around your own home asking your guests, "How do I know you?"

Plus, as you know, the family is Mormon and there are lots of siblings, cousins, and cousins that have lots of siblings and now, lots of their own children.  This led to a splash fit in the pool with 14 children in the pool! Yep, 14 KIDS, baby!

There was so much food, so many desserts, and so many bees!  

It was chaos and a large amount of fun, but here's the kicker:

Somebody Pooped in the Pool!!

Yep, This family reunion came to an abrupt finish when a non-Babyruth was discovered in the swimming pool... My bet is the culprit was a ten-year old named Carlos, who was my Step mother-in-law's Brother's wife's sister's son!

Yeah, have fun figuring out that relation.. it's just some kid who thought he was invited I guess, and was just having to much fun to get out and do his business..

They even had one of these signs posted.. but I guess they'll have to change it to an OOP!!!

Signed, Your Country Girl with a bruised forehead