Family Reunion aka Our Visalia Vacation

Every year the McBurney side of my family has a reunion. It's always an afternoon of food and catching up with each other. This year it was held at a camp in the Sequoias run by some family members. We were excited to get together for more than a few hours to have some fun together! We decided to borrow David's parents' extra car, since it was roomier than ours for traveling. We started out on Friday morning, and met up with my sister and her husband for lunch in Bakersfield.

We both stopped for gas in Visalia, the last big town on our way up the mountain. As soon as we pulled off the freeway, we heard a NOISE. A bad noise. The kind of noise that tells you, you're not going much farther. There was also a SMELL. A terrible one. The gas station we pulled in at had a man going car to car begging for money. He totally skipped ours. He must have figured we had our own troubles. LOL We called AAA and they directed us to a mechanic there in Visalia. He looked at the car and determined that he wouldn't be able to fix it till the following day since he didn't have the parts in stock. Up until this point, I had been very positive. David had been getting grumpy, and I had just been looking at the bright side, and enjoying the scenic route our journey had given us. But when I found out that we would be stuck there in town overnight, and miss half of the reunion, I was not happy. Luckily, my good friend called at that moment to ask me a question, and reminded me to find the silver lining and still enjoy our trip. It was just what I needed.

Thank goodness for good friends!

The mechanic directed us to a hotel in town. We were very fortunate to have my sister and BIL with us to transport us and our stuff to the hotel.

We walked around the town and checked out the locals.

There were cute trollies...

Historic buildings...

Beautiful flowers everywhere!

Jeremy's really into murals right now, and he loved this one! We grabbed some dinner and crashed into our super comfy beds.

Cute Clean Kids!

The next morning we enjoyed the wonderful FREE breakfast that the hotel put out. It was so yummy, and just what we needed to start our day. Since our car wouldn't be ready till late afternoon, we wandered around town. I found a really yummy fabric store, and had a hard time leaving all that cute fabric there. It was a treasure trove of the cutest fabrics you'll ever lay eyes on, some that I have featured on my quilt blog in the past.

There was this little water play area that Kelsey couldn't wait to dip herself into.

Soon Jeremy joined her and then I did too!
It felt so nice on such a warm day!

We walked a little further and found a children's museum.

They had this great antique fire engine outside.

We were pretty thirsty then and Jeremy was getting tired of walking, so we found a Carl's Jr. with a playland.

We got drinks...

rested in the shade...

and watched the kids play.

 Finally we got the call that our car was almost ready, so we walked to the mechanic's.

There's this old car wash on the way there called Woobie's. I thought it was so funny that I started calling Cherish, Woobie!

Kelsey and I waited there on the mechanic's front lawn while David and Jeremy went to get the car seat and luggage from the hotel, where they were gracious enough to hold it for us.

We did a mini-photoshoot to pass the time.

We sang some songs like Popcorn Popping.

We were really exited when Daddy came back to get us. At this point we weren't sure if we wanted to go up to the reunion.
We were tired from our adventure, and disappointed at missing such a big part of the reunion.

We asked Jeremy, and he wanted to go see his cousins.

I ate a cupcake for courage, and up the mountain we went!

It was really beautiful and green!

 We got there in time for dinner and the talent show.
We were so glad we had come.

There were so many family members there that we love and don't get to see often.

The kids had so much fun playing with their younger cousins.

I loved getting to spend time with Cherish, who I rarely get to see. We sang together in the talent show in our matching jammies and feather boas. SO FUN!!! The talent show was a great chance for the kids especially to show everyone what they've been learning and to get some courage! Jeremy sang and showed off his kempo moves. Kelsey just stood there and chickened out on her song.

We missed out on the zip line the day before, which I was SO SAD about, but Jeremy got to go in this giant swing, and we had lots of fun in the gym climbing the rock wall and playing.

Jeremy got halfway up before he decided it was too high.

Kelsey wanted to climb as well.

I was surprised how fast I climbed the first wall. I haven't climbed in 14 years, since my mission. I even made it up the second wall, which David couldn't do. And in my slippers! Amazing! SO FUN!

My cousin Katy swung these guys around the floor while holding her baby. She's amazing!

It was so beautiful up there with everything in bloom! 
The food was yummy, the company was great, and we were sad to leave so soon. Can't wait to see everyone again!