A wagon ride and lots of family time

I've spent the weekend relaxing and enjoying time with family in Eastern WA. Our President's Day get together has become a bit of a tradition.

This year, my aunt and uncle hosted, since they've come to our side of the state the past couple years.

My uncle is a farmer/rancher and coming to visit provides a great chance to unplug, recharge, and enjoy the outdoors (at least when the weather is nice).

Saturday morning was about as perfect as you can get. Even though my Uncle David and I didn't get in until well after midnight Friday, I still made sure to be up early enough to head down to the river.

My high school friend happens to live in the area now, so she tagged along.

Along the Snake River canyons, my uncle, his brothers, and my cousin have cattle. It's steep and provides really breathtaking views.

I (sort of) helped feed cattle, and I definitely managed to grab a few pictures with my fancy camera.

It was also great to catch up with my friend. We've only seen each other a time or two since we graduated from high school, but she's one of the few people I've stayed in touch with.

There was more to the weekend than just "ranching" for me. I got to see my college's basketball team lose a close one in overtime.

And, because it's my family, we ate a lot of really delicious food. Saturday night featured an appetizer dinner. Everyone picked their favorite to share with the family. There was veggie pizza, stuffed mushroom, spinach artichoke dip, guacamole and pico de gallo, chili cheese dip, and much more. 

Today was a little more laidback, but we still managed to have a lot of fun. My aunt and I made a yummy lasagna for lunch. The cousins took a trip into to town to bowl, but when the bowling alley had a one-hour wait, we settled for a little bar time. Then we ended the evening with a movie.

One of my favorite things about my family is that we have a blast we each other, even though we have very different lives. A good portion of our time was spent answering questions, ridiculous, funny, and just plain interesting questions made our time together that much better (and sometimes a little in appropriate).

Even though I don't leave until tomorrow, I'm still already looking forward to next year.

Did you do anything fun with your weekend?