Of Family and Marshmallows
Greetings to everyone.
After stopping by to say bye-bye to Xavier's newest friends, his cousins John, Joey, Maggie and Gracie—and of course, Aunt Jen—we headed off to Electric City for the Braaten Reunion. Taking the trip back into Idaho to farewell the Lockwoods gave Xavier more time to nap in the car; we did this intentionally; we did not know how the night would go, nor how late we would be up.
As a side note, I will point out that upon Xavier's first entry into the state of Idaho, he has officially visited thirteen states. I counted how many states I've visited, only 30 so far. No wonder Xavier goes crazy when he travels—he does it so much!
We arrived at our campsite in the late afternoon. Checking in, we met Xavier's great aunt, Mary Jo (whom he met a few years back). We also made plans to have breakfast with Rebecca's father, Xavier's Grandpa Danny.
It was an added bonus that another of Xavier's great aunts ate with us at breakfast, Aunt Kate. This was Xavier's first time to meet her.
After breakfast, Xavier got to know Grandpa Danny again (it's been two and a half years since they last saw one another). Grandpa Danny took many photos.
During the course of the day, Xavier met more of his extended family. He scored big points by sharing his Party Poppers and Snap Caps with several of his older cousins!
Xavier met a couple of cousins closer to his age. They played together for a while. Then Xavier saw some of the older children waving around willow branches.
That seemed a lot of fun to him, and so off he ran to find his own branch and join the crowd! Most of the kids took little notice of his joining in. They ran here, then ran there. Xavier lagged behind most of the time, arriving with the group just in time for them to set off in some other direction.
At some point, Xavier returned to the shady, grassy area and found an inner tube to play in. Soon, his cousin Molly joined him. She was the youngest cousin there, her years numbering almost two.
There came a little contention between the two as they both wanted to play with the same flotation tube (there were two). They ended up sharing one.
After the big family dinner, several cousins obtained permission to roast marshmallows—if they could find enough sticks to fuel a small fire and to poke marshmallows on.
The search was on, and Xavier fell right in, though he had no idea what all the running around meant. Camille, one of the older cousins, took to keeping a partial eye on Xavier while they ranged around the campground (Daddy followed behind to keep both eyes on him!). Camille took Xavier under her wing for a while, at least through the making of the Shmores.
With much effort, enough sticks got collected. Camille tried for some time to get a fire to start, but it took some adult assistance to get it to kindle and stay burning.
The fire problem now solved, the roasting/burning of marshmallows commenced! Xavier watched his cousins, then grabbed a stick for himself. With some help, he pierced a marshmallow and set it over a flame. He did not know quite what to do with it after it cooked. When it cooled, he did enjoy it enough to roast another.