Memories of My Family!

I remember going on lots of camping trips with my family growing up. Most of the places we went to were around 3 hours away. (at least) Mom would always find cool games for us to play to make the trip more exciting. I remember going to Yellowstone Park and playing "Licence Plate Bingo." We had a list of all 50 states and we'd mark each state off as we saw a licence plate from that state. We found all 50 states plus most of the Canadian Provinces! We'd also play a different kind of Bingo. We'd have a Bingo card with pictures of things we might see on our trip and we got to mark them off as we saw them. (for example- when we went to Yellowstone the Bingo card had pictures of Old Faithful, a bison, a waterfall, etc.) Mom would have little prizes for whoever got a Bingo first!
Matthew has kept life interesting! On the drive back to Aunt Janet's from the Manti Pageant when he was 17, he was driving and Brooke and I were sitting in the front with him. He was saying things like, "How do they get the deer to cross the street at those little yellow signs?" or "If you adopt a highway, how much does it eat?" It had been raining most of the day, but it was finally clearing up. Mom looked out the window and said, "Look! Stars!" Matthew started teasing her about it. He said, "Stars at night? Are you sure Mom?" After that, when things got too quiet, Matthew would say, "Look! Stars!" and get us all laughing again! He still teases Mom about it! That was just one of many times that he had us laughing so hard we were crying!
I love watching Andrew with his kids! I went to the hospital after Zeke and Ethan were born. I thought the poor nurses were going to smack Andrew! Both times he kept following the nurses around, never taking his eyes off his boys! He was also cute with Heather. If the nurse took the baby out of the room, Andrew would go over to Heather and rub her back and go on and on about how good she did and how proud he was of her! I'm sure he did the same thing when Kya was born, but we weren't able to make it to the hospital that time!
My friends loved Edward! The first time my best friend, Lori, came over to our house, Edward was sitting on the couch, watching TV. Lori sat right next to him and put her arm around him. He scooted over and Lori scooted closer. He kept trying to get away from her, but she kept scooting closer until he was pinned at the edge of the couch! There were several times that I would be watching Edward and my friends would want to go somewhere. We'd just take Edward with us! (he was between 10 and 12)
We've started a tradition of going camping as an extended family every year. When my brothers get together, I know I'm going to be picked on. I'd like to say that my wonderful husband comes to my rescue, but most of the time he joins in on the "fun"! Most of the "jokes" are about my height or lack of height! It's not fun having all of your younger siblings taller than you!
Last year we went camping by Stanley Lake in Central Idaho. One of the days we went over to Redfish Lake (about 10 minutes from Stanley Lake) and rented a boat. Andrew and Matthew's families weren't able to come, but we had Mom and Randy, my family and Edward. We went all over the lake and really had a good time!
I could put a lot more memories, but I'll save them for later!
You're next Pearsons!