Memorial Day Weekend 2010

Finally, what you've all been waiting for; THE TRIP recap. We thank you for your patience.
The short version is we went up to The Temperate Zone to see my brother, his wife and their kids. Most especially because my parents hadn't seen his newest daughter, Halo, yet:

Luckily Tarzan had last Friday off from work, so we rented a moving truck, picked ATL up from work, emptied her apartment, drove back to our place, emptied the truck and returned it. Then we headed out to get the rental car which we then packed and went to get my parents and siblings from The Desert who got off work at 9pm. Once we got there, I unloaded the kittens to leave with the sister who was not coming with us and we were on the road around 1am. We were blessed with really great traffic and no accidents. I drove the first few hours and Tarzan slept, then I slept and he drove and we traded off all the way up to my brother's house and we pulled in there at 10:45am.

Tarzan, bless him, looked like this practically the whole trip:

He was unstoppable. Unfortunately I was not as virile. Anytime I sat down - especially Saturday - and wasn't actually speaking, I fell unconscious. This is one picture in which we were not asleep on that couch:

Sunday was much better, after a full night's rest, and when church was over my brother took us on a little trip to show off his town. I had not know the "sundial bridge" was so close to where he worked:

It's very tall and it's hard to get the whole thing in one shot:

My brother and LittleJ:

BabyR:

My brother and sister-in-law:

His whole family:

Me being totally cheesy with the daisies:

ATL and BHB creating optical illusions with the bridge:

Looking up at the spire from underneath by the water:
The Canadian geese who like the water:

BHB and me, and Tarzan sneaking in a smooch:

A bluejay in the tree:

I cannot believe this is the only shot I got of the creepy and very large spider that was hanging around:

It was pretty extreme. ATL and BabyR ignored it however in favor of happier things:

The whole gang in the shade of the bridge:

Then we wandered on over to the lake/dam/mountain spectacle that the whole place is named after:

ATL and BHB creating optical illusions with the dam:

Funny story; LittleJ wanted to walk around the lake and look at something so I went with him and took a picture of the rest of the family from our side with my 18X optical zoom lens. What with LittleJ wanting to stand on the side wall and everything it wasn't until we got home that I actually looked at the peeps I had snapped:

This is the group I really wanted:

And then it was time to go back home, have a BBQ dinner, sleep and hit the road pretty early in the morning so we could get back to The Jungle while it was still Monday.

This is me and the next time I get a new neice/nephew, remind me that it's better for everyone involved if I don't drive all night to get there.