Hanging out with the Conkey Clan

Last April my friend Emily invited me to spend the week-end with her at her in-laws house in Colorado Springs. Em is the kind of friend who just naturally knows what to do and say to make me feel good. It was conference week-end, which is traditionally a family-fun-food-feelgood week-end for me. So it would have been a little depressing to be by myself that day. Instead, thanks to her and her in-laws, I got to drive to one of the prettiest areas of Colorado and spend a day in the forrest with wonderful, welcoming people, while the boys hung out with their favorite friend.

General conference week-end is kinda like the Mormon Super Bowl here. It means hanging out in your PJs all morning while watching prophets and apostles talk on TV, AND eating delicious cinnamon rolls. Sam and Josh know how to enjoy it.

After the morning session we went outside to catch some sun and play a game of Bocce ball. I didn't know this Italian version of French"petanque"but I loved it (though the balls are much heavier!). The way Em and Don play it is way more fun that the way I learned to play. Instead of throwing the Jack (or Snitch in the Conkey family : )) on a leveled, unobstructed surface, they throw it anywhere they want, even on a slope, behind a hill (blind) or behind a fence. It's a lot more fun but it's trickier because you have to take into account the possibility of your ball hitting a rock, a pine cone, a rabbit hole or rolling down the hill. I lost of course (the game, and almost my arm) but I had a lot of fun.

The boys explored the forrest and found themselves sausaged in the hammock.

Then in July, the Conkey Clan was gathering for a family camping reunion and Emily invited me to join. You must know I'm not the biggest fan of camping, but I couldn't pass on a chance to hang out with my friend and I wanted to conjure the bad luck we'd had camping last year. Don and Em are camping pros so I figured this was my chance to get a vision of what good camping is.

Em is always raving about how awesome her sister and brother in-laws are and I found out why. I literally crashed their family reunion but they made me feel included and comfortable the whole time.

We arrived Friday night and stayed until Sunday morning. We got bug bites, rain, hail, and 2 accounts of a dead car-battery, but we ate the best food and had the best of time. 

10min after we arrived, Josh was already making himself comfortable

William is obsessed with dogs and this Rodrigo was undeniably the cutest dog, I don't think I've ever seen William seat still so long... he just sat by the dog calmly stroking him and observing him for long periods of time randomly throughout the day. 

The boys made up games, here they were attempting to throw pine cones past Don to the other side of the road

Chok-Huging Super Sam

Playing Spot-it, we love that game our friend Tina gave to Josh for his birthday

Playing "fire-truck" which I think meant making a long chain and funny sounds

Sammy's face : )  William looked like a twin version of Sammy when he was younger, I still see the resemblance.

William the climber, risk taker, sneaky monkey

 Saturday morning, Em, me and Em's brother in law Brian went for a jog, we ran to a lake close by where the rest of the family joined us driving.

We enjoyed watching people fish and walked around the lake

Brian introduced Josh to fishing, but he didn't catch anything.

 In the afternoon the Dads got the long-boards out and gave the kids rides down the road.

I bet you think it's William sitting on the longboard. Nope it's Arvo, Sam's cousin, funny they all looked like brothers

I need to learn from my kids how you can become best friends in just one day. (Can you tell William had a blast that week-end?)

this boy gives the best cuddles

to Em

to me

to Rodrigo

Silly at the dining table

Listening to Emily sing to calm down after a long exciting day

Just ready for bed.

The adults topped the day with a petanque game (this time with French balls, but the Conkey rules) and a game of Rummy. The next day I made everyone miss church because my car wouldn't start, but with a little bit of faith and persistence it finally started and we headed home happy, tired and stinky.

You'd think I had crashed enough Conkey family reunions, but apparently not. 4 days later on July 4th we headed back to Colorado Springs to spend the Independence Day celebration with the Conkey family again. 

All the cousins and more were there again. 

playing in the newly installed sand box

Josh and Garnet playing with the pop gun

Josh and Isaac jamming to the song "I like to move it" from Madagascar. It was cute the first 3minutes, but quickly became annoying when it was repeated louder and louder for the rest of our stay, haha!

Em is a music teacher and she had planned a singing and dancing party for all of the kids. I was surprised to see them all participate so actively. Em really has a talent with music and fun.

 

After the sing and dance party, the kids got to have a bubble blowing party. They each got a bubble wand and went crazy (especially William, he LOVES bubbles).

 

Then they ate the delicious homemade patriotic popsicles Wendy made:

And they launched rockets in the forrest (these rockets fly so high!)

While the kids were playing, the Dads were building a fort from all sorts of recycled materials, the result was completely phenomenal especially considering how quickly it was made. The kids played in it for the rest of the day and the following day.

moving the base of the fort into the forrest/backyard

the fort before the slide was attached

Sadly I don't have pictures of the fort after the slide was attached, and according to Sam more cool things were added after we left. I loved it anyhow, and I've already started dropping hints with my Dad to make one for the grand kids at their house.

After putting the kids to bed, the adults played an hilarious version of Pictionary. I found myself giggling like a teenager the entire time we were playing, I think I embarrassed myself but I couldn't help it. The game is the drawing version of "Chinese Whisper" where a message is passed and involuntarily transformed through a line of people. I think it was particularly funny because I had absolutely no idea what kind of messages we were supposed to convey. The Conkeys are all serious artists, it was impressive how detailed the drawings turned out to be. I tried to capture them in picture but it doesn't do justice.

"Flying mushroom are very smelly" became "Outgassing mushrooms! Flying! So stinky! and they have ladders! Run away!" which in turn became "The stinky mushrooms launched, then the scary ladder people came" and finally "The three stair stick people get the stinky giant mushroom and they are all scared"

This one went from "Garnet says, Josh Lake, I yike Daddy! while running to the window as a car drives up, Daddy home!, to "Garnet is so glad to see scruffy Dad come home", to "Garnet loves when Josh comes home from work", to "my Daddy is home from work I'm so excited!"

This one from "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to "The star is brighter than the Diamond" to "A big bright star plus the very small sun is smaller than a Diamond?"

And this one from "These popsicles are so grooooss" to "Grant was thinking about a popsicle and then he got one so he was happy" to "Grant is thinking about a popsicle and then he gets one" to "Grant thinks popsicles taste great"

This one started as "Skid a ma rinky dink, skid a ma rinky doo, I love you", then became "It's a small world after all", and "3 humans: 1adult, 2 children make their way towards a floating earth, down below 2 canoe like boat carry 3 seated humans apiece on an unknown mission" and finally "Hawaians holding hands and sailing unto the unknown"

This one started as "May the force be with you" then became "I'm a muscle man and not even Yoda can defeat me!" then "A cheetah tried to attack a body builder with a light saber but the body builder defended him and he died", and finally "The cheetah attempts to destroy man, Man destroys Cheetah!"

And this one went from "Cheetahs eat gazelles" to "The cheetah attacks the antelope and bites his haunches in Africa", to "Running wild in the Savanah" to finally "Cheetahs chase one man running, preferring the human flesh to that of the large banana-horned gazelle floating above the 3 chasing cheetahs"

I'm snorting a little reading these, haha! I'm sorry if it doesn't make any sense to anybody other than me!

We also played another game but I fell asleep in the middle of it and can't remember what it was called, a strategy game the guys picked out... haha.

The following day was spent playing outside mostly. William very thoroughly helped Garnet put on her sunscreen before playing in the fort.

The parents played another game of Bocce ball.

Thank you Emily for this superwoman action shot of my attempt at getting that ball passed the fence!

While we were playing Bocce, the boys took a mud bath. I can not say whose idea it was, but they were all going along with it.

And here comes the mandatory  butt-crack shot

Apparently the boys thought it would be a good idea to all pee in the bucket... I'm glad April convinced them otherwise. 

Well that's it, at least what I captured of it. I can't give enough thanks to Emily and Don and their family for inviting me and making me feel like family. I've got so much to learn from you guys! You are the best.

So, you know how some people keep crossing paths in their lives without even trying? Well it's a little early in life to tell but I think that describes Emily and I.

Our paths first crossed in 2006 at BYU when I happened to do a summer research project with Don. Then I moved to France and they moved to Texas. 3 years later, we found each other again in Colorado, this time with kids, boys, about the same age, and this time Emily and I were the ones working together. Now I'm moving back to France in August, and they're planning on moving to Lausanne in January...

Again it's early in life to tell, but I seriously hope wherever life takes us, we'll continue to find ways to connect and I'm glad we'll have these pictures (and more) to remember the fun times.