A Fun Family Reunion

With all the constant work we have been doing on our new house, we were in serious need of a vacation. Even though we ventured to the scorching hot desert of Arizona, we loved every minute of our time away from home and with Neil's family.

 Our drive down was fantastic because we broke it up into two days. We stopped for the night in Page, AZ where we went swimming and relaxed in our hotel room.  James and Shawnne hosted us for our first night in Mesa. We ate a yummy dinner with them and our old friends, the Andersons down the street. The kids also got a kick out of meeting their cousins new Labrador puppy, "Jimmer".

On Sunday, we went to the Vineyard ward and had a blast catching up with so many dear friends there.
By Monday morning, we were off to the cabin with our car packed full to the brim and Uncle Spencer joining the kids in the back. We stopped in Payson at Alfonso's for some Mexican food which turned out to be a mistake. Spencer and Neil were completely miserable on the rest of the drive after having both eaten an 18 inch burrito.
Arriving at the cabin, we learned that a new swing set and zip line had just been installed between the two cabins. What a blast we had playing on those all week long!!

 On our first full day, Mom Andersen hosted a "scavenger hunt" for all the grandkids. The treasure at the end was 19 ukuleles: one for each grandchild to start learning on. My kids were so excited to start playing them. For the rest of the week, the cabin was filled with little fingers strumming "geetars" as Grace likes to call hers.

 We got to celebrate Independence Day in the mountains again. It is the best place to be on our Country's birthday, enjoying natures beauty. We did many of the same things as last year: a 4th of July devotional, horse painting and horse parade at the lodge, and lots of good food. Neil and I made grilled pizzas for everyone for lunch and at dinner we had a traditional 4th of July BBQ with burgers and dogs, watermelon and potato salad. There's nothing better! It rained during the games, so instead we lounged around the cabin and the kids did crafts. See how Grace and her cousin found a creative use for the foam sticker letters?

 Our night-time activity was a family dance-off. I admit, neither Neil nor I were too excited when we heard about this one. However, we were surprised by how much fun we had waltzing around the cabin with our nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters. Afterwards, we had to have America's favorite, old-time dessert: apple pie a la mode. What a perfect day.

 Neil and I were also in charge of family Olympics this year. We started off with an opening ceremony of passing the "torch"

Then we had a rousing game of towel volleyball with water balloons, Everyone had a partner and went at it passing and popping water balloons.

 Next was a bike "tour-de-cabin" for the kids. They raced their plastic bikes around the cabins until their little hearts could handle no more.

Then came the relay races. We divided up into four teams and took turns racing against each other, passing the torches as our batons. It's so fun watching Grandma, her kids, and her grand kids team up and have fun playing games. We did a lot of laughing and cheering.

 We ended the Olympic games taking turns on the zip line. It turned out to be a bit of a water fight as we threw balloons at the adults as they zipped by.

On our last night there, Grace got inspired to jump into the gross, mossy pond. Poor Neil had to support her in her wish and had to swim in that mucky water too. I wasn't there, but my nephews reported that she got all geared up to jump off the dock and then she turned around and said, "Um, wait, I just have to make sure my towel is ready..." She made several excuses to delay jumping in, but once she did she swam around and didn't complain one bit about the freezing cold water. Thanks to my sister for snapping these precious photos to capture the moment.

All geared up and gaining some gumption...

Kade and his cousin still waiting for Grace to get her gumption...

And she is in!

More highlights of the reunion were late night chats with all the adults, hiking up "Breakfast Null," daily rain storms, morning walks, poetry night, and family testimony meeting.

We spent one more week in Arizona after the cabin trip to get some extra play time in with cousins. Unfortunately, we shared a few too many germs and came home with a sick bug. However, we would have rather spent time with family and come home sick than not spend time together at all.

We learned a lot on our two week get-away. But the greatest thing we learned was that Utah is our new home. Even though we had been feeling homesick for Arizona and missing our old friends and family there, we came back from our vacation realizing just how beautiful our new home is and how much we love it here.