Cousin Camp

Long story short.  Ross Grandpa Tupper passed away in North Dakota a couple of weeks ago.  He was 95 years old, led a great life, and was honored by his family.  Ross made the trip up north to pay his respects but the boys and I stayed home.  This fat, swollen mama wasn't prepared mentally or physically to do a whirlwind adventure in 48 hours.  And flying the four of us, renting a car, traveling in that car for hours and hours....it just wasn't going to work.  I wanted to be there for Ross and felt terrible for staying home, but I guess those are some of the sacrifices you have to make.

Anyway, Ross' brothers whole family went to the funeral and his parents brought my nephew Isaac home with them.  They are on their way back to Arizona to drip him off with his family as I write this, but we've had some grand adventures while Isaac was here.  He's only a little squirt, 3.5 years old, and was with Grandma and Grandpa for almost 12 days.  That's a long time and we did our best to fill that time with fun.

The three musketeers ran through the sprinklers and chased soccer balls.  Grandma Connie and I took them to the zoo where we saw the amazing polar bear in action and chowed down on churros and diet cokes and stood in front of the misting fans until our faces were sparkly with water..  The boys ate lots of kids meals, built lots of trains, and ran around like wild men.  

Isaac came to t-ball and Uncle Ross tried to teach him (albeit unsuccessfully) to swing a bat and hit a pitch.  He did okay hitting off the tee, but I'm not sure anyone has ever pitched a ball to him before.  He did however do alright fielding and throwing.  Why is it that boys all know how to throw?

But then, our adventures took a downturn.  After a pretty traumatic attempt at getting Isaac home after a family dinner at our house, and a crazy rough night at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Isaac was taken to the emergency room in the morning and was told that he'd have to get his appendix taken out.  A whirlwind of phone calls, the decision of his parents to stay in Arizona, and transport to another hospital later, that cute little boy had his appendix out, was discharged early from the hosptial and grandma and grandpa have been taking good care of him since, with a movie and some drawing at our house as part of his recuperation.  Which has been pretty speedy and miraculous.  He's lucky that Grandma and Grandpa caught it so early.

Isaac will be back to Utah in August an the boys cannot wait.  They will both be in school and our summer will be "over" by the time he gets back, but we'll still have the evenings to play and be wild....which is just what little boys need to do with their cousins.