Reunion Time

Kaelyn & Tyler with my in-laws.

July 25, 2009- This is the day that we had the actual "family reunion" that we went out to Colorado for. The reunion was for my father-in-laws mothers side of the family, (okay, so are you totally confused?). Chuck's grandmother passed away just a few months before Kaelyn's first birthday. We were able to meet some of her sisters and brothers. She has one sister that looks exactly like her, if Chuck had not told me about Aunt Elvina, I would have walked in there and seen her and thought that it was Grandma sitting there. As I said in the previous post, Grandma was born in Haigler, Nebraska. She didn't move to Wray, Colorado until she was older, she lived in Wray for about six months to a year before moving to Washington, DC. While in DC she worked for the State Department and met Grandpa during World War II, he was serving in the Army. They married and eventually moved to Pennsylvania before moving to Florida. We had a good time at the reunion, one thing that I can say about this family is they like to have fun. They had a softball game going on, I think the youngest person playing was about 4 and she was just a runner for one of the older ladies. I'm not sure how old the oldest person to play was, but I imagine they were pushing well over the age of 70.

Some of the family

Later that afternoon we drove out to this field that is home to the "three corners". This is where Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska meet. We were able to stand in all three states at once. It was pretty neat, I stood in Kansas while my husband stood in Nebraska and we kissed. How many people can actually say that they have kissed their spouse while in separate states? When we left the three corners it was time to head back to the reunion site, and say our goodbyes. Then we headed back to check out of the Butte Motel or as Kaelyn called it the "BUMO" because of the partially missing sign. We drove to Ft. Morgan where we found a comfortable hotel got a good meal and slept very well.

Standing at the three corners

On Sunday (July 26th) we went back into Denver. Since we could not check into our hotel until 3:00 p.m. we took the kids to BOONDOCKS, where we were able to do mini golf, go-karts and laser tag. So much fun. After we were finished there it was time to go to our hotel (Staybridge Suites) and check in. Chuck's parents had already gone and checked in, they also checked Doug in but our room was not ready so we had to check ourselves in. Anyway, when we got there to check in, you guessed it, our room still was not ready. Apparently the room they were going to give us had a guest that had a medical emergency and had to go to the hospital and the doctor didn't release them until well after check out time. So the next several minutes of conversation between us and the guy at the desk goes something like this:

Me: "They don't have swine flu do they?"
Guy at the front desk : "Oh no" (like he would really know). He assured us that he would put a rush on our room getting cleaned.
Chuck: "What room will we be staying in?"

Guy: "Room 407"

Me: "Okay, so the rest of our family is here on the ground floor, and we are on the 4th floor, is there any way that we can get a room on the ground floor too?"
Guy: "I don't think so, but let me just check for you, well we do have a guest who has not checked in yet that has a ground floor room, let me see if they requested this particular room. No they did not, we can go ahead and put you in room 107 which is a ground floor room."
Me: "Thank you so much"

Good grief, you go on vacation with family and then hotel staff wants to split you up. I just knew I didn't want to walk four flights of steps everyday coming and going to our room as much as I knew we would (I'm not much of an elevator person). We had a very nice room. It was a two room suite. There was a small kitchen equipped with a full size fridge, sink and dishwasher, then a two burner stove top and a microwave. The living room was open to the kitchen and had a sofa that pulled out into a bed (which the kids took turns sleeping on). The bedroom had two queen size beds and then there was a nice bathroom. We were very comfortable in our room.

After settling in our room it was time to go find some dinner in this big city of Denver. We found this excellent BBQ restaurant right down the road from where we were staying at. Sam Taylor's BAR-B-Q, let me just say they know how to make some good ole BBQ. I got the pork plate with baked beans and potato salad, Chuck ordered beef brisket and ribs. I didn't try the ribs, but I did have a taste of that brisket and it was some kind of good. So if you are ever in Denver and want some good BBQ, head on over to Sam Taylor's. One thing that was disappointing is that they do not serve sweet tea in Colorado. So needless to say we were glad to get some sweet tea when we came home.

Here are some random pictures that were taken on our trip.

Standing on the "Butte" overlooking the town of Wray.

This barn sits just past Aunt Elvina's home

Tyler, Kaelyn, and Chuck relaxing. Notice that they all have their own bag of beef jerky.