Memorial Day

Establishing this day as our family history celebration is quickly making this my favorite weekend of the year. Brandon and Brittany and family drove out and surprised us and we couldn't have been happier! Highlights included:

-tons of cousin play time (Vivian invented some game called "stinky banana" that appears to be some form of tag)

-swimming at the rec center which was delightfully less crowded than normal due to COVID fears... we decided to risk it

-going on a DATE thanks to Lucy for babysitting and we tried a local restaurant Ti Amo that nearly made me cry it was so good... could it just be due to coming out of quarantine? Perhaps.

-The brisket competition dinner on Sunday. Brandon bought a brisket for Evan and one for Christian and had them to compete to see who could smoke the best meat. Evan had to get up multiple times throughout the night to get the meat to room temp, get the smoker to the right temp, and put the meat on the smoker- it is such a labor of love. They both turned out delicious but Evan's was the winner. The whole dinner was amazing and I in my opinion it was better than Thanksgiving. I made a family history game on Kahoot using stories about all the Fox/Martell ancestors and it was so fun! I learned a lot and can't wait to make another one for the ancestors on my side of the family. We also used our snow cone machine for dessert, it will be a popular item this summer. Who has a favorite snow cone flavor/topping you want to share with us?

-Monday we hiked Ensign Peak before the cousins had to take off back to California- this was my first hike in my entire life wearing actual hiking boots and I was stunned at what I have been missing out on the past 10 years.

The whole weekend felt like a vacation for me, it is so fun to have family around and for my kids to get to play with cousins.It is a weird summer ahead with no camps or anything but I will admit I'm excited about all the time it leaves for simple family bonding. This was the perfect kick off!