It has been two years since the Nash family got together, so it was definitely time for another reunion this summer! I will be the first to admit: I am not the greatest correspondent with my family these days. Life is flying by so fast, and our lives are so busy, that I don't keep in touch with my siblings (or even my parents) nearly as much as I should. But I still greatly love my family, and I wish we could be closer (both geographically and emotionally) than we are. So I really cherish the reunions we have, even if they are crowded & crazy. As each year goes by, these reunions get harder to schedule. Our kids are getting older; our lives are getting busier; some of us aren't as healthy as we used to be. I am so happy for any opportunity I have to reconnect with my family and draw strength from their presence. Hopefully my presence was also pleasant for them, too!
Because our last family reunion in Aurora was a little cramped (we all managed to squeeze into Grandma & Grandpa's house, but barely!), my parents decided that this year, we would hold our family reunion in Vernal, UT, with my grandparent's old house being the base of operations. This idea made me both excited and a little nervous. I was excited because the farm house is the site of some of my happiest childhood memories; we traveled there at least once a year every year. We worked on the farm; played in the fields; drove the tractor or the four-wheeler; ate breakfast at Grandma's table; chased the cows; played in the abandoned school bus; and snuck up to the top of the barn (where Grandpa kept his work papers; he was an attorney by day, and a farmer at every other time). And that was just the beginning!
I was nervous about going to Vernal because I hadn't been there in over ten years. The last time I visited Vernal was to attend my Grandma Nash's funeral. The house was still there, along with the barn, the dog pen, the garden, the irrigation ditch, the food storage shed, and all the farmland. I knew that when I returned, all that would be gone. In the last decade, my father and his brothers have been slowly converting the farm into a subdivision filled with charming custom homes. The fields I ran through as a child wouldn't be there any more, and I was dreading seeing that part of my life gone forever. I was worried about how empty Vernal would feel to me (at one point, most of my dad's brothers lived there with their kids; now, almost all my extended family has moved elsewhere).
My last (minor) hang-up with going to Vernal was the lengthy drive it would take to get there...we'd have to drive all the way through Colorado and then into northeastern Utah after that. My parents, thankfully, helped us shorten our travel time for this family reunion; they helped us pay for airline tickets! We decided to fly into Denver and drive to Vernal from there; that way, we wouldn't have to be on the road so long, eating up precious vacation days. We also wanted to spend a couple of extra days in Denver to see some of Nathan's siblings, too...it had been a while since the kids went, and they were anxious to see Colorado again, even if it was only for a few days.
We spent three days in Colorado and ended up being very efficient with our time! Our flight was smooth and uneventful; we were happy to see the famous "Blucifer" statue welcoming us to Colorado! It is a creepy giant sculpture of a blue horse with blazing red eyes. It fills me with both terror and with warm fuzzies. It reminds me of my beloved Denver Broncos (if they were all Satanic monsters)!
One of our goals was to pay a visit to as many of Nathan's siblings as we could. We connected with the first sibling that night; we ate dinner with Blake (and my parents) at Beau Jo's, a delicious local pizza chain. We even had our wedding luncheon there way back in the day.
The next day was a busy one! Our morning began with a little dip in Grandma Nash's clubhouse pool.
Later that morning, we traveled south to see Uncle Evan Barrett in Castle Rock; he recently got a job running a Brazilian ju-jitsu gym. We spent a little time there, learning some moves and playing some games (thankfully, nobody else was in the gym at the time; we were quite loud and embarrassing!).
We multi-tasked pretty well that day; we also visited Grant & Molly Barrett in their trophy shop for a brief time (sadly, we weren't able to visit with any of their kids this trip, as they'd just come home from a long trip themselves).
And on the way to Castle Rock, we also visited Rocket Fizz, a specialty soda store that also had a ton of candy available for sale.
We couldn't resist buying a bunch of the weirder flavors, and taking them down to Colorado Springs with us for a special "tasting" with our good friends the Perrys.
Brad, Amber, & Kent Perry moved to Colorado a few years ago, but we had them as neighbors for several years in both Tucson and Sahuarita. We still miss them, and every time we're in Colorado, we like to drive down and visit them, if only for a little while. We went out to lunch together at Crave Real Burgers, and then went to their house for a few hours to visit, relax, and play some games.
And then we taste-tested all our sodas! We universally agreed that the "ranch dressing"-flavored soda was one of the worst things we'd ever had. Some of the others were actually decent, though! Overall, it was a fun evening with friends...
...but our day still wasn't over yet! We had to rush all the way back to Aurora to see Uncle Ryan, Aunt Judy, and cousin Cameron, who was finishing up hockey practice.
The girls had fun watching all the hockey action (we really need to take them to see an actual hockey game some day). After that, we went out to dinner with the whole gang at a nearby Irish pub. It was great to see everyone.
And that was all in one day! Whew. The next day was a little more mellow. We finished off a slow morning by eating at Pupusas Paradise, a Salvadoran restaurant in Aurora that was probably my favorite dining experience of our whole trip. We all inhaled pupusas (basically stuffed corn tortillas), fried yucca, and fried plantains. I am drooling right now just thinking about that restaurant...it didn't look like anything special, but the food was amazing!
After lunch, we headed to downtown Denver to pay a quick visit to one of our favorite places: the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
We didn't have a lot of time that afternoon, but we thought it would be a good way to spend a couple of hours until we could meet up with Nathan's sister Kelli.
There was an exhibit there about animal bodies, and the many different ways in which they work; it was interesting to see how animal's bodies are "engineered" to do amazing things. There were a lot of hands-on experiments for the kids to try.
Like pumping blood through a giraffe's heart!
They especially loved moving themselves by flapping their "wings," and figuring out the different aerodynamics of each different wing shape.
The museum also had a traveling exhibit on Vikings there, but we didn't have time to see it. The girls couldn't pass up this photo op, though:
Finally, as we left, the girls got to play in a small splash pad behind the museum, while Nathan and I enjoyed the view.
The girls also rolled down a grassy hill...something they don't get to do very often.
That evening, we met up with Kelli, her boyfriend Taryn, and their four boys for a quick dinner at a Greek restaurant. I sadly didn't get pictures of the event, because it is going to be harder to see this family in the near future! In late August, Kelli and the family moved up to the Bozeman, Montana area, thanks to Taryn's new job. Now we aren't the only Barrett siblings living outside of Colorado (it has been a while since that were the case)! We were glad we had the opportunity to see them before they moved away, and we wish them the very best of luck.
As you can see, our days in Colorado were few, but our events were many! We were pretty proud that we managed to see all five of Nathan's siblings in just three days...and fit in a lot of other fun activities, too. I am always a little sad to leave Colorado; I really love it there. But I can't say we wasted our time there; we did have a lot of fun. And more fun awaited us in Vernal.
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