My mom's side of the family does a family reunion every other year, it was suppose to happen last summer (2010) but with a few health issues with my Grandpa and Aunt we moved it until this summer and instead of camping we made it to where everyone just went up to Utah and stayed with relatives that live there (too hard for my grandparents to camp).
I wasn't going to go, G didn't want to take time off work, Brittney had summer school, so I wasn't going to just take myself and the boys. I didn't want to go on vacation without G.
Reunion was the week of July 24th. My sisters, brother and mom were all going. My brothers wife couldn't get off work so she wasn't going, my dad wasn't going and my sisters husband wasn't going. They were all caravan-ing up Tuesday early morning. Saturday I was thinking and thought, why am I going to let G slow me down? He never wants to go anywhere unless its for hockey, I need to make memories with my kids. So i text messaged my sister and said "were going".
I got everything ready and off we went Tuesday morning at 5:30! It took us 13 hours to get there with the stops we needed to make, gas, food, potty, diaper changes etc. Traveling with 9 kids isn't always easy!
It started raining before State Line (Nevada) and didn't stop until about an hour to my Grandparents house. We were on the freeway at one point and it was only one lane (rd construction) and it started lighting, thundering and hailing, the hail was so big and strong as soon as we got out of the construction zone everyone pulled over to wait it out, I truly thought the hail was denting the car! It was insane!
Every time when we drive to Utah my sisters and I always freak about the Arizona part, its about 13 miles in a canyon. We all hate it and dread that part of the dry!
 |
| Grandparents live in Pleasant Grove about 30 miles before Salt Lake |
 |
| My sister behind me |
 |
| Mt sister passing me (I had my cruise control set) she couldn't seem to keep a steady speed |
This makes it feel like we are so close- HA my grandparents live about another 6 hours!
We got to my Grandparents house (after 13 hours) around 7:45 p.m.
No one knew I was coming, I had told everyone no that we wouldn't be there, the weekend I decided to go I was getting text and messages on facebook telling me to come! I decided to keep it a secret! We pulled in and everyone was shocked to see me! Grandma had dinner waiting for us (she is so amazing). Uncle Greg and Aunt Mary were all ready there and a few cousins. Later Aunt Terri Ann came over to see us!
Wednesday we went to a children museum. Jason and Kyle weren't exactly loving it when we got there, but after time they started really enjoying themselves.
After the museum we let the kids play in the splash pad area, it was so hot and humid!
Thursday- It was our night to make dinner for everyone (about 50 people) so we headed to Costco and Wal-Mart to get stuff to make Chicken fettuccine Alfredo. Then we went and got the kids to take them to float down this river/stream. We dropped them off at one spot and then waited for them a ways down. They loved it, Luke wouldn't do it because it was too cold (I think its a run off from the mountains, so the water is melting snow). Kyle, Jason, Denton, Jace and Kenna did it 3 or 4 times.
Friday we had lunch at one our cousins work (Philly Steaks), then we went and got our movie tickets for later that night. They have the coolest movie theaters, $3.00 a ticket and you pick and reserve your seat! After we did that we went to JCW's to get yummy milkshakes, Luke didn't want one he wanted a shaved ice so when we were done with our shakes we went and found him a shaved ice stand (they are everywhere during the summer), he was happy! Dinner that night was at Shakey's pizza. The boys had a lot of fun playing all the games, Blake only lasted maybe 10 minutes before he knocked out.
Shakey's it was movie time, Blake went home with Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Karl and their girls, they went and got shaved ice and went to the wood park (everything is wooden). It was so nice of them to watch him while I went to the movies. Some of us went to see Larry Crown, some went to see Kong Fu Panda 2 and some saw Thor. My boys saw Thor with my brother and Uncle. We all went back to my grandparents afterwards and played games!
Saturday morning my Uncle Greg and Aunt Mary came over and made a huge breakfast for everyone. After breakfast it was time for Grandpa's store. Grandpa's store is where adults hide rocks that have been spray painted gold and the kids find them and then turn them in for toys and candy! The little kids went first and each had a older helper. Luke was Emmalynn's helper and Denton was Blake's helper.
Blake got a sucker with some of his rocks!
Mindy, Kaylee and the back of Clayton
After Grandpa's store it was time to head over to Evergreen park for the giant slip n slide!
This thing was so fun! We all loved it (minus Blake and Emmalynn) We played on this for 3 or more hours, then moved on to water balloon tosses and fights!
After all of the fun in the sun we headed over to Uncle David and Aunt Mary Ann's for a BBQ and games! Oh fun fun games. My aunt that was in charge of the reunion is amazing at the things she puts together! She got a lot of game ideas from that TV show minute to win it, she made up teams with about 10 people each and we had to assign each player to a certain game. Kyle (for his team) and I (for my team) did "Match Maker" where there were a bunch of red party cups upside down with one skittle under each one, I had to life one cup at a time and go drop it into the cup with the same color skittle in it! There were 3 colors, we went one at a time and which ever one go the best time won that game. It was a point system, we got a certain amount of points for each game we won. We played probably 10 different games! Luke did the "flaming hot Cheetos" for his team, he had to wear a trash bag and they suran wrapped his head, put shaving cream all over it and then tossed Cheetos onto it, how ever many stuck was the amount of points your team got for that round.
Another few we played we each got a piece of sidewalk caulk and had to use as much as we could in a certain amount of time, the team that had the smallest pieces won that round. There was a round where you had to try to stack as many dice on a Popsicle sticks and for how many you got on it that was the number of points. Grandma was on the same team as I was and she played this and won it for our team!
Sticky To It was another one of the games, you had 2 team member's one to throw the ping pong balls and the other to catch them with lent rollers, how ever many balls you got to stick was your points.
Our very last game was the candy walk! We would walk and then when the music stopped we would wait to get our number called, mine only got called 2 times and Uncle Brian (he was my team leader)only got called once at the very last round he was so proud of his candy he finally got! We had to add all of our pieces together and that was our team total for that round!
Kyle and Luke loved all of the cousins up there and bonded very well!
It stormed almost everyday while we were up there, we had to cut our games short due to the thundering, lighting and heavy rain.
Sundays are always dinner at Grandma's house! Everyone who lives up there goes over for dinner! It is so much fun! This week of course their were us and my Aunt and Uncle from San Diego. This was our last day there in Utah! Very sad! We had a lot of fun just hanging out!
I am very blessed to call these sweet people Grandma and Grandpa! I couldn't love them anymore!
Sunday night we got all packed up and said Good bye to Grandpa (he doesn't get up until about 9) we had aimed to leave at 7:00 a.m. and pulled away at 8:45. Not bad! Hahahahaha For the record I was ready with my car loaded at 7:15! I caravan home with my sister Jennifer, her husband, their 3 little girls and my mom was riding with them.
It only took us 12 hours to get home!
During the drive I let the boys take turns taking pictures, it kind of helped pass the time. The drive up we had one of my nephews with us the entire trip so that was entertaining for my boys, they stayed a week longer then we did so my kids were pretty bored on the drive home!
These were just some of the pictures the boys took during our drive home! We got home around 8p.m. It was nice to be home but more sad. We all had such a great time and wished it would have lasted longer! It was nice to see G and Brittney!
0 comments:
Post a Comment