Reunion fun

The first week of August my side of the family, parents down, had our first annual family reunion. We all traveled to Wolf Creek in Eden, Utah were we stayed in 3 separate 2-bedroom condos. There are 24 of us in age from my dad down to one year old. We had a fun week with lots of time to visit and play together and we had a blast! Here are some of the things that we did. (Most of the pictures are in these three slide shows. But there are so many that if you want to see all of them you will have to click on "view all".)

The first day that we were there, we weren't able to check in until 4 so we went swimming and tried to entertain the kids as best as we could and then when we got in to our condos we basically unloaded the food, made dinner and went to bed.

The next day was Sunday and we enjoyed a calm and quiet (as much as possible) day. We had a small church service and then just played games and went for a walk with the kids.

Monday we hung around the condos and played tennis, and racket ball. Some went swimming but Jessi had a fever on Sunday so I wanted her to take it a little easy for the day. Here are some pictures:


Tanner liked to chase his ball, but golfed at it more than swung.

Jessi swung a lot but I don't think she ever connected.

Zach, Joe, Kirsten, Dad, Caleb and Kathryn, then Nathan.

David, Melissa, and Chris.

Top: Mike with Caleb and Zach. Bottom: Nathan with Caleb, Zach, Jessi and Tanner.

Jessi connected a little better with this ball.

MJ took the little boys into the play room for a little while and had a tea party.

Then on Tuesday we went to the Reservoir with my brother's wave runners. We ended up having a great time, even though one of the machines was broken and we rented another one. The weather was perfect and only my dad got sunburned. We went back again on Thursday after the wave runner was fixed but it was pretty windy and we only stayed about 3-4 hours.

If you want to see the pictures bigger just click on view all.

The second day Jessi and MJ weren't as thrilled about another day at the beach. They were Beach bums.

Wednesday we were supposed to be up early riding horses but it didn't work out so we took the kids and anyone who wanted to go on a little hike. The kids loved catching grasshoppers and some said they saw a snake, but over all we had a good hike with not too much whining. After lunch we went to the pool with everyone so the cousins to all swim together. We had great weather for the most part. Only having wind in the evenings and some rain one morning before everyone got up and going.

Jessi has a grass hopper on her shirt just below her hat. Then she is holding it and showing it to me and cousin Kiera.

Grandpa loved to give the kids rides on his shoulders. We just had to watch for low branches.

Here is the group of us that went hiking. And a group of the kids that went. This is all the cousins minus Ethan, who was napping and my brother Joe.

Thursday we were able to meet a woman with an amazing horse and all the 10 grand kids were able to have a ride for only $40! And each ride was between 7-10 minutes. Unfortunately we decided to go in order for age and so Tanner and Jessi were at the end and Tanner was about asleep by the time his ride was over but luckily we were at a little park so we could distract them a little while they waited. The lady was really great. She let them all "steer" the horse themselves, even Tanner. The boys had gone target shooting that morning so they met us at the horses then we went back to the condos to eat. Then went to the beach.

Jessi loved every minute of her ride on the horse. Tanner just sat there with his hands comfortably set on the saddle horn like he was a pro.

Friday we just kind of hung out again. The 5 siblings that are married went to the timeshare presentation so that ate up the morning, but we ended up trying to plan for next year and then after lunch we had some relay races and played with water balloons before dinner. I have a ton of these pictures, sorry. There are some cute cousin shots at the very end but I think you have to click on "view all" to see those since only 100 pictures will show on the slide show.

These were Jessi's best bubbles from the contest.

Saturday we all checked out and headed home. Most of us had a whole day of driving ahead of us, but it was well worth it to see everyone and spend time together. I am looking forward to next year and Jessi is already asking when she will be able to see her cousins again.