esto perpetua

We just returned from a fun weekend in Idaho, yes I said Idaho... yes,I said fun. Merrilyn flew in from Seattle for a quick visit and a bunch of the Nelson's headed to Idaho Falls to watch our little Sarah's last ballet performance before heading to college and to harrass Griffen (her breakdancing date to the graduation formal dance). Both events were equally entertaining and enjoyable.

But, lets not start with that. I must recap the car ride to Idaho Falls, because we impressively crammed 8 people and their crap in our Tahoe for the 3 hour drive (which was more like 5 hours as we had to stop for caffienated beverages 2 or three times and for food at Cafe Rio and for Mrs. Cavannah's chocolates, of course, and to check the air pressure in the tires, and then to pee). Why we stopped for Mexican food before a long drive with a car load of Nelsons I will never know. Needless to say, I was glad to be stuck far away from everyone in the back seat with the toddlers even though my knees were smushed aganist my face. You can imagine why. Merri and Annie giggled, texted boys and picked each other's split ends like they had never been separated. It was sweet.

At Uncle Lee's, we said hello and then ran for the local Zoo, which is awesome because it is cheap and little. And who wants to be at the Zoo more than a few hours anyway. The kids had fun but seemed to enjoy looking for animal poop more than actual animals. I blame the Nelson genes. One highlight...the camels were behind a fence with a sign that said to avoid injury, not to stick your hands or faces inside the camel enclosure. Right below the sign, were cute little red boxed openings, at all different heights so that kids of all sizes could easily reach inside the enclosure. What? Whoever, goes back to the Tautphaus Zoo next, has to take a picture of this for me. I realize I might be waiting several years. If we were lucky enough to have a Zoo in Price, I'm sure we would have some similarly confusing directions.

At the Coppelia performance, Sarah wowed us all and made us feel like the clumsy oafs that we indeed are. She is awesome and looks much better in a tutu than her Aunt Merri (sorry Merri but you know why that didn't work and it's not because your hot bod can't pull it off). A lady in a Zebra coat shushed Jacob really rudely which made me mad. I knew if I told a few Nelsons about the shushing they would take revenge and I was right. Let's just say, she left the theatre with a little more spit in her purse than was there when she arrived. We are classy ballet folk. Also, Jacob informed me that he wanted to dance too. I told him, go ahead, but he said "No..up there" and pointed to the stage. Maybe all of his athleticism is being wasted on baseball and soccer. Only time will tell.

Dave and Lee celebrated their upcoming 36th and 44th birthdays (wow). Mom and Dad let Lee pick the place to eat out again this year so they had a nice dinner at McDonalds. Elaine was busy and flitted in and out of the house leaving meals and bedding for the invading army in her wake. She was an awesome hostess. Jeremy and Mikey ventured from the basement and Warcraft games a few times for food, they have to hurry back downstairs because sunlight could kill them. And Camilla kept us all laughing with her satirical outlook on the weekend and her eye rolling and sassy outbursts. She reminds me of a young me, only with cuter hair.

It was great to see all our family, especially Merri who is not around much anymore. We came home tired but still managed to squeeze in a little shopping and a Cinci De Mayo party with all the cousins and aunts and uncles before heading home. If you want to know how much fun the party was, just take a look at this picture...

In the end, it turns out we really needed to hang out with our family and get out of Price, and sadly, Idaho Falls offered all the excitement and culture we needed to feel normal again. Let it be perpetual.