swimming

On the Tuesday after the reunion we hung out with everyone in my family before Nathan and Stacy and their kids headed to another reunion and before Mara and Jade headed home to Arizona.  It was plenty hot so we decided to check out the Lindon pool for the afternoon.  This was Tatum's first pool experience.  She seemed to enjoy it. She certainly never complained as long as she was in the water.  They kicked everyone out of the pool for a few minutes for a safety check and she got grumpy so I put her in her car seat and she fell right asleep.  It was a nice pool and it was fun to play with all the kids and see all of Jade's sweet swimming skills.

All decked out and ready to go in her super cute swimsuit.

I think she was starting to get sleepy...

Jaren cheesing for the camera.

Tatum was a little worried about the waterfall.

 Utah is having a lot of wildfires this year and one started the day we were at the pool.  We didn't see anything before we left and then while we were at the pool we noticed this big plume of smoke.

Jaren and Jade enjoyed watching curious George together and copying each other.

Tatum with Mia, looking happy.

 Tatum with Claire, looking slightly drugged.

I have to share my favorite story from our day at the pool.  Brennan and I were doing the lazy river with a bunch of the kids and Gavin (7) "dunked" Brennan.  But then Brennan just stayed under sort of doing the dead man's float for quite awhile.  This clearly freaked Gavin out and he shouts "he's drowning!" and then hooks his arm around Brennan's neck and pulls his head above water.  Then with relief he continues playing along the lazy river.  It was the funniest and cutest thing.  I still laugh every time I think about how serious he was when he shouted "he's drowning!".  Kids are the best.

It was a fun extra couple of days spent with the family.

family reunion part 2

The reunion continued with a more laid back day on Saturday.  The day began with some quick family photos.  I haven't seen any of the whole group but here is one of all the grand kids and then a couple of our little family.

There were lots of treasure hunts, games, and crafts on Saturday. And lots of trying to rest and be lazy for the adults.  :) Rich took us up to Darby Girls Camp where he knew of a giant slide he thought the kids would enjoy.  Unfortunately there was a family there having a family reunion and even though they weren't using the slide and most of the family told us it was okay to use it for a little while, there was man who was not happy about it and made it quite uncomfortable for us. Needless to say we didn't stay long.  I didn't even get to try out the slide. :( But Brennan and Tatum did, and all of the other grand kids too, and they thought it was awesome.  On the way back down we stopped to dip our feet in the water and throw rocks in the river.  Tatum was sleeping so I stayed in the car.

Saturday night was the now-annual family auction.  Everyone is supposed to bring a homemade item to sell at the auction.  The talent in this family never ceases to amaze me.  It is always hard to decide what to spend my money on because I want it all!

The goods.

After dropping the ball last year, I managed to produce a few crocheted creatures for the auction this year. My goal was to have enough for each niece or nephew, but I only ended up with 9. Sorry Kelbie, Jade, and Jaren!

At the start of our day at Yellowstone Brennan told the kids he would give them a million bucks if they found a jackalope.  The kids were amazed and tried their best to find one. Then Saturday night, all of the siblings and spouses went out for some world famous shakes and there on the wall was a jackalope.  He had to take a picture for the kids.

My mom gave all the kids little bug catchers and sent them on a bug hunt.  Apparently my husband is one of the kids. :) He was pretty proud of his catch.

Tatum loved all the attention from her cousins. I'm certain she is bored now that it's back to just me and her at home.

Tatum started to take baths in a real bath at the reunion! In the past when we haven't had access to an infant tub it has been pure torture because she would just scream if you laid her down in the tub.  But now that she can sit up she loves it!

And let me tell you, I would just love to take Claire home with me.  She is the best little helper you could ask for! She always wanted to help give Tatum baths, and play with her and hold her.  And she would always offer to put things away for me or go find things.  I could get used to that. :)

The weather Saturday evening was beautiful and grandma, papa and the kids took full advantage of it, playing fishy fishy come into my ocean, no bears are out tonight and tag until it was dark.

Sunday morning we went to Church and then packed up and headed down to Utah so we could get to my the visitation for my grandpa's funeral that evening. As I mentioned we saw him on Wednesday afternoon when we first got into town and he passed away at 12:30 the next morning.  Certainly he will be missed and we were sad to see him go.  But I know he is with my grandma again, which is all he has wanted for the last 6 years, so it was hard to be too sad at his passing.  Most of all I am grateful for the opportunity I had to live in his house for a year a half while I was in college.  I was so blessed to be able to form a relationship with him before it was too late. He was a great man and I believe I am a better person for having known him.

family reunion part 1

Our family reunion was in Victor, Idaho this year.  Never heard of it? That wouldn't be too shocking, it's not a huge place.  But it is pretty close to Jackson Hole, Wyoming if that helps.  I haven't been to many parts of Idaho or Wyoming and I must admit that I don't really think of them as a beautiful part of this country.  But I think this reunion changed my way of thinking.  There really are beautiful parts of Idaho and Wyoming! :)

We started the reunion by rafting down a portion of the Snake River.  Rich's brother, Darrell, was nice enough to take us down on his rafts.  It was a lot of fun! It was really more of a float down the river so we were able to take Tatum with us.  She ended up being really tired and didn't appreciate the splashes from the other raft so I probably ruined the fun for everyone by choosing to bring her, but there's no changing that decision now. It was a beautiful day and beautiful scenery.  There was a waterfall we were hoping to stop at and explore a little but our raft wasn't able to make the turn to get there.  Darrell was in our boat and tried really hard to get us there.  He even jumped in the river and tried to pull us while we were basically smacking him in the head with our oars, but to no avail.  Most of the kids were on the other raft and they made it so they were able to see and play in the waterfall.

That night we just hung around the nice house we were staying in and we did the cousin gift exchange.  Every year at the reunion each cousin gets a gift for one of the other cousins.  I believe it is supposed to be in place of getting birthday gifts for all of the cousins throughout the year.  It cuts back on the number of gifts you need to buy and it allows the kids to be around each other when they are giving and receiving.

 Tatum got a sweet Little People truck.  It's even the girl version! Thanks Gavin! (or Henry or Wyatt, it was unclear :))

On Friday we woke up bright and early and got back in the cars to head to Yellowstone which is a few hours from Victor.  It was a long day with lots of time in the car but it was neat to see some of the things at Yellowstone since I have never been before.

I think this was Jackson Lake and I think this is when we were in the Grand Teton National Park but not in Yellowstone yet.

Our first stop inside Yellowstone was Old Faithful.  We got there with around 45 minutes to kill until the next eruption.  So we took the opportunity to walk around all of the other hot spots nearby.  They sure were stinky but pretty neat looking.

I think Tatum was more of an attraction than Old Faithful for some of the tourists there from Asia.  Lots of them stopped to take her picture and take video of her.  Kind of weird. And awkward.

 Macy and Mia found this all quite fascinating.  They basically pretended they were on a field trip and walked around with Papa asking him all sorts of questions.

 Look how clear that is.  So neat.

 Claire's even cute when she squints. :)

Finally it was time to wait for Old Faithful.  It sort of started a couple of times but it never really progressed to anything and we started to worry that was all it was going to do for us. But it finally gave us the show.  Luckily Claire was by me while we waited because she was Tatum's entertainment.  She would just look up at her, jump a little, and say "boo" and Tatum would just laugh and laugh. It was pretty cute.

Trying to pull Claire's hair.                                                                  Laughing at Claire's antics.

The progression of Old Faithful's eruption.

                                             

 We stopped a few more places, had a yummy lunch, saw lots of bison, and one bear from a distance. We ended the day with pizza at a park.  It was long and we were all exhausted but it was a great opportunity to see Yellowstone.

This was the Midway Basin or something like that. I had to feed Tatum so I didn't walk up to see it, and boy am I disappointed now.  The pictures look awesome and I'm sure it is even cooler in person.

See that picture of me? I told you it was a long day. ;) Thanks for taking us to Yellowstone mom and dad!