Last weekend there were some quite exciting times in this neck of the woods. My whole family (and most of my extended family) was here for a little family reunion to celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday. Kara and Ryan and their kids rolled in on Tuesday night and on Wednesday, we hit the new Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point. It is really an awesome museum, especially for kids.
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| Sophie was cracking me up being the cashier at the little market. She will be a leader someday! |
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| Jack in the hurricane simulator. |
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| They have a little theater are where kids and dress up and perform. Here's Iz as a clown. |
It was a lot of fun, and I'm not going to lie, a little overwhelming for me. There were SO many kids all over the place. I don't know how at least 20 kids don't get lost or abducted every single day. It was chaos, but the kids had a ball. I even ran into my sister- and brother-in-law and my cute little niece there. Oh and Elder Perry was walking in as we were walking out. Awesome!
On Thursday morning, James and I got up bright and early and headed up American Fork Canyon to hike Timp Cave. Neither of us had ever done it, so we thought we better go and put another stamp in our National Parks and Monuments passport. It is quite the little hike to get up there, but it was so beautiful!
Caves are just weird and so fascinating. I don't even get it, but it was awesome!
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| There were some tight spots to squeeze through on this tour. |
After our hike, we headed further up the canyon to Mutual Dell where we met up with all the rest of the fam for the first part of our family reunion. We ate lunch and did the zip line.
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| This is special! |
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| I'm so in love with this baby! I could kiss his face all day! |
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| Woo hoo! The harnesses are very flattering! |
Dedo even made a trip down the zip line! She was so awesome! Kara took a video of her coming down, but I can't get it to load. I think it's too big. Yep, my 80-year-old grandma is a rock star!
After zip lining, we played a huge game of kick ball and then a few other outdoor games. It was so great to have most of my aunts and uncles and cousins all together!
After Mutual Dell, we headed over to John and Mary's for dinner and just relaxed.
On Friday, we all got patriotic from head to toe and met up for family pictures. Prepare for picture overload here...
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| Deeds and his girlfriend, Kim |
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| I had to include this picture because of how lopsided Soph's pig tails are. When she was little, so took some clippers to the top of her head and buzzed a chunk off. This is how it grew out. She has since gotten her hair cut and she is always the cutest and my very favorite niece! |
Just some pre family pictures shenanigans...
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| Here's my whole fam! |
Here is the whole crew...not bad for a picture taken with a tripod and me pushing the timer button and then running and sitting in my place!
There she is in all her glory! Love her!
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| Dedo and 5 of her 6 children |
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| With spouses added |
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| Dedo and all her grandkids that were there |
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| With spouses added...remember how I have on of those now?! |
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| Dedo and all the great grandbabies...at least 6 more on the way within the next year! |
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| Allan's family |
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| John's family |
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| Nancy's family |
After the photo shoot, we headed over to Jack and Jill lanes for some bowling. Dedo just barely retired from her bowling league a few weeks ago, so we have bowling in our genes!
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| Check out that form! |
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| My little Avengers...not sure who Jack is...haha! |
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| Teaching the fourth generation the ins and outs of bowling... |
After bowling, we had lunch at John and Mary's and then headed our separate ways to celebrate the 4th of July. My parents had tickets to stadium of fire, but my poor dad had come down with the flu. My mom went by herself and sold her ticket there. Her tickets were by my aunt and uncle, so luckily she wasn't alone the whole time. The rest of us hung out at Amy's and BBQ'd and then did sparklers. The little kids were so funny with the sparklers!
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| They were a little nervous at first, but then they couldn't get enough! |
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| Jack always did his sparklers with a power stance |
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| Isaac's power stance |
Saturday was service project day! We had several projects around Dedo's and John and Mary's house to get done. We repainted the garage door, sanded the rod iron in the front of the house so they could be repainted, replaced a couple of doors, repainted Dedo's bathroom, and several other little jobs. It was awesome to see everyone spread out all over the place getting things done! I somehow got assigned to filling water balloons for playing later. About 500 water balloons later, my job was complete! My job was in the shade, so I can't complain!
Later that evening we all ate dinner together and celebrated Dedo's birthday.
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| I was able to get a few of the pictures we had taken the day before blown up for everyone to see. |
A few months ago, I sent messages out to all my aunts and uncles and
cousins trying to track down at least one picture of every person in our
family. By some miracle, I did exactly that! Then I took all the
pictures and put them into a collage and had a puzzle made out of the
collage. Dedo loves doing puzzles, so I knew she would just love it.
Thanks to everyone who sent pictures to me! It was a huge success!
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| Here is the collage with every child, grandchild, and great grandchild and everyone's spouses. |
It was really such a great weekend and so wonderful to celebrate my grandma's life with all of her posterity. It doesn't happen very often that so many of us are gathered together, so it was truly special! My grandpa (Poppie) and Dedo are such great examples of faith and devotion to the gospel. Happy Birthday, Dedo!! We love you! And a huge amount of gratitude to my mom and her siblings for organizing this whole weekend!
