A quick weekend "home"

My quiet child trying to calm down before bed. It's a good thing we don't have 2 beds in his room, or he would be doing flips between them all the time!
Dad, Frank Baughman and Bishop Grant Gunnell

The Crowd at Pleasant Hill Park

A few months ago I got word that my old ward in Pleasant Hill was having a 50 year jubilee and inviting all who have ever lived there to return for the Memorial Day weekend for a 3 day reunion. I tried to get the rest of my siblings to come, but my sisters had other obilgations and so I brought my family and brother, Eric and met my dad and little brother there.

The drive out was a long one - leaving Thursday evening and staying in Elko for the night and then driving on to Roseville to let the boys have a break and play with cousins for an hour or too and then on to Concord to stay at the Comfort Inn (a popular place for us to stay when visiting my parents). We had enough time to unload the car before heading to the church house for the icecream social.

It was packed!!! They had several areas in the building set up for visiting, but no one wanted to leave the cultural hall. Tons of food and rootbeer floats and people. They offered a DVD of all the pictures and videos of the weekend for $10 and since I had such a hard time keeping track of my kids, I opted to buy one of them and not spend my time snapping pictures. I'll probably regret it, but I'm not so stressed out and I wouldn't know how to scrapbook them anyway.

They used the Primary room to entertain kids with cartoons and snacks which is where is Daniel decided to plant himself for most the evening - when he wasn't skating around the church with his dad chasing after him.

Saturday, we had breakfast in the lobby and then went shopping for our assigned dessert for the picnic and checked out the changes in my old stomping grounds. The Montgomery Wards is now a Kohls and there is a strip mall to the north of it. They are also remodeling the entire mall. It actually looks really new - except for the theatres. We drove past my old house. They have put siding up in front, torn out the bushes and ivy, put in new windows and doors and it really looks nice. I'll get a picture tomorrow on our way to church. Eric had a gift card for Boston Market he hasn't been able to use in Utah, so he was excited to spend it all here and bought us lunch. It was nice to have a hot meal on a cold day. We all took a nap, except for Daniel, who played on the computer and then we headed off to the park for another round of visits. Dan was forced to eat a hot dog and then he played on the playground for the whole 3 hours we were there. I did a little visiting, but I realized that being shy in my teenage years meant I really didn't have a of memories to share with others. I did talk to all my former bishops and friends of my parents and my sisters' friends and .... (I had plenty of people to talk to - I did not feel left out) My brother, Eric, loved visiting and was very happy to see lots of people too.

We left and came back to the hotel - after going to the Mexican Burrito place to get burritos for another day. All Daniel wanted to do was go swimming and the weather was too cold and rainy, but Vince finally let him go Saturday night - to appease his begging. He lasted about 15 minutes and now he's clean and quieted down. Haha!