oh, blessed blog fodder raining down on me like manna from heaven.

There was just no end to it this weekend. We went two hours north to Lava Hot Springs for my family reunion. Do you see where the problems arise already? We have two problems with that last sentence, don't we? One, any driving in a northern direction over an hour will put us in Idaho; and two, family reunion. So yeah, it was an.... let's just say....interesting weekend. My darling sister Kristy was wonderful enough to take time out from having nine, count 'em, NINE kids as well as being a 4.0 student at BYU Idaho, to plan our family reunion. It was really fun to see everyone and she did a great job picking the place & activities, but I made the mistake of thinking that given the option of camping or staying in a motel, my family would probably enjoy the motel more. Under normal circumstances, that would probably be true, and I hope I don't offend Kristy here, but this motel was the single most loathsome place that I have ever, EVER been, let alone slept in, in my entire life.

Let me interrupt myself here and remind you that I am a complete spoiled brat. The epitome of the "youngest" of the family and I was really not at my best this weekend, bratty-wise.

Bless my poor husband's heart for putting up with me. The Ranch Inn Motel & Campground is one of those places that doesn't have an Internet presence. For a reason. I have thought about making a website for them, one that would provide unsuspecting travelers with more information to make their Lava lodging decisions. I will have to preface this website with a warning that the following information does not apply to the campsites, which looked to be just fine, as far as camping goes. But the motel portion of the property was absolutely laughable. Which is what we did when we first pulled up and entered our room. It was the stuff of movies; just as disgusting and tasteless as a motel room can be. All of the "linens" were either saved from the 1970s or purchased at DI, and there was not a matching set to be had in the joint. (There were joints to be had in the joint, but that's a post for another day.)

I seriously regret that I didn't take detailed pictures of our rooms for examples because it was pretty unbelievable that someone would have the gall to charge people to stay in this ramshackle place. Literally everything that could have been was homemade or old as the hills and patched up. Our only shelving in the bathroom- made out of two by fours and screwed into the cinder block wall. The towel rack in the bathroom- two coat hooks with a cut off broomstick laid across them. My sister's room had a second room off the back, that was completely made of MDF and all the wiring was just tucked into the cracks between the ceiling and the wall. Oh, and all the window coverings were old towels just hung on curtain rods. Freaking rad. But they did have DishNetwork, so that's at least better than I would have expected by the looks of the place. That and VCRS, so we were all set.

But you know what? As fun as it is to bag on the motel, the weekend was really about getting together with my family and that part got an A+. The pools there are awesome, Sawyer had such a great time with her cousins, completely snubbing me in favor of Marianne, Shari, Lizzy, Rachel, or the ever-enteratining Robert & Spencer. I do regret letting myself get so bratty about the room that I didn't spend as much time enjoying my family as I should have. Pretty embarrassed about that part. I just got so anxious to get out of there that I wasn't really living in the moment. It was totally my fault and just shows me how much I have to work on. My sisters are all so stinking humble and kind and they just go with the flow and are so much less self-involved than I am, so I think sometimes when I'm with them it becomes glaringly apparent that I am the brat/baby/youngest. I'd like to break out of that role. In the meantime I'll enjoy the pleasures of the Marriott, thank you very much. At anyrate, here are some pics. It is scary to me how gorgeous this girl is going to be.
Sawyer enjoying her lolly outside our deluxe suite at the Ranch Inn Motel. (Note the sweet window air conditioning unit that not only made a racket, but also froze over and dripped all over the carpet.)
duh duh duh duh.
Sawyer preferred sleeping on Charlie's dog bed to the sketchy bed. She said the bed made her think of Ocean's 13 where the hotel reviewer checks the bed sheets for mites and..... um, other things. Oh, wait that was me.