Redd Visit: Day 1

The boys had Friday off of school and I'm sure were hoping for a day full of screen time, but Hyrum had been grounded from show watching and Abraham had been grounded from video games so I figured I'd make them clean their rooms on their day off so they'd be free to play however they liked on Saturday when their groundings lifted. Matthew worked a bit on getting the back yard cleaned up and I did general chores around the house. It was a good thing I felt the need to tidy up because we got a call around 3:00 pm from Matthew's Uncle Ryan in Oklahoma wondering if we were in town this weekend and if they could come visit. They have a small private plane and had planed to fly to Missouri for a spring break vacation. When they got to the airport, however, they found that it was snowing in Missouri and they'd need to reroute. They wanted someplace warm within a reasonable distance, and thought of us in Albuquerque. We immediately invited them to stay with us and went into hyper drive to get guest rooms ready. I ran to the store for last minute supplies and because of our earlier work were all ready for them when they arrived around 9:00 pm.  

Ryan is Grandma Naomi's youngest brother by 14 years. He and his wife Kristine have six kids. Josh is just home from his mission, Aaron is on a mission, and Daniel (who is mission age) is working. They brought the younger three with them: Abraham is 13, John is 8, and Esther is 6. We put Ryan and Kristine in the guest bedroom downstairs and set up our three twin air mattresses in Abraham's room for the kids. We unlocked the attached bathroom for them so they could have some privacy and to avoid over crowding the hall bathroom. 

We got up on Saturday morning and I served breakfast burritos and fruit. It was fun to have our big table living up to it's potential and easily seating ten people. Our morning adventure was a hike around the volcanoes. We all started out together, but our group quickly spread out with Kristine and the boys up front, the dad's and Esther in the middle, and Mercy and I bringing up the rear. 

It wasn't a whole mile up to the top of the first volcano, where we stopped for a big snack and a rest. Mercy was a trooper and hiked well, but she's still pretty small and it definitely didn't help that she tripped and face planted about five feet after we started walking again. We ended up calling it a morning and turned around rather than continuing on to complete the loop. It wasn't perhaps the adventurous hike the Redd's were looking for, but it was something a little new for them and at the very least everyone had a great time just being together.  

Ryan and Kristine stopped at the store on the way home for supplies to make lunch. They served tuna sandwiches and we hung out at the house for an hour. Kristine volunteered to stay home with her kids and Mercy while Ryan took the rest of our family up in his airplane. There was some sort of exhibition going on at the airport and we got to see some cool aircraft. We talked for a bit with some Air Force guys in their chopper, and they showed us this sweet 48 year old helicopter that flew in Vietnam and is still in use today. We also saw this huge plane that we think might be one that lands on water. There were lots of medical evacuation planes, as well as several commercial and private ones. It was really neat. 

This is Ryan's plane. The boys were a little antsy as he checked the oil, filled the gas tanks (which are in the wings), and got everything ready for our flight. The plane seats four with seat belts, but they figure if the plane crashes, a seat belt isn't probably going to save you, so we went along with their logic and the boys and I fit fine in the back seats. It was all very exciting until we took off and then Hyrum and I discovered that we do not much care for small planes. We were in the air less than an hour and he and I were sick every minute of it. Abraham and Matthew, on the other hand, thought it was just about the most awesome thing ever and really enjoyed themselves. Though I was terrified and nauseous the entire time, I have admit, the aerial view of our neighborhood, city, and the surrounding area was pretty impressive.

We picked up Dion's pizza and salad for dinner and when we arrived back at the house we discovered Esther had gotten sick. Kristine spent the rest of the evening tending to her feverish, vomiting girl, while the rest of the kids had a great time having Nerf wars upstairs and playing on the trampoline outside. The Redd kids were also quite obsessed with Alexa and spent every minute they could asking questions and requesting songs. We called it an early night so Matthew and I could write our Sacrament meeting talks for the next morning.