Darrington Reunion and more

Our last big summer getaway was this past weekend. We headed down to Utah for the Darrington reunion at the Heber Valley Girls Camp.

We stayed at Casey’s parents on Thursday so we could set out early Friday morning and visit the Hogle Zoo before the reunion started. Casey’s parents along with Nicole and her kids joined us for our visit to the zoo. The kids enjoyed the animals. Kendal’s favorite animal was the sea lions because we got to see them dive off of the rocks and swim around in the tank. Peter enjoyed everything, he liked the monkeys most of all. We passed one cage where one monkey was swinging and doing tricks off of the ropes which fascinated Peter. It was fun to visit the zoo. Kendal doesn’t remember when we went three years ago so it was nice to visit again. (Peter has been looking at our pictures with me and making animal noises to them. : )

 After we ate lunch in SLC we headed to the girls camp in Heber. Casey and I look forward to this reunion. He’s got some wonderful family that we enjoy seeing and catching up with every year. Friday afternoon some of the group decided to do a challenge course at the camp. We went and watched parts of it and let the kids play in the sand box that was near. The kids had fun running around the pavilion with their cousins. They found the dolly’s and table carts to roll each other around on and had a blast with those. They also enjoyed going around and playing in the grass nearby. At on point the kids found a bush full of butterflies. One landed and stayed on Kendal’s head so the older kids piled butterflies onto her hair until she had at least a dozen butterflies. Kendal loved every second of it and was chasing / catching butterflies the rest of the reunion. Peter quickly warmed up to our extended family. He became everyone’s buddy (especially if they had food to give him.). He would go up to random family and sit on their lap and pull their finger to lead them somewhere fun. Casey’s cousin brought up a screen / projector for a movie after dinner. We had a group watching the movie, one at a fire pit, and the older kids were playing night games. Peter got grumpy (lack of nap) so we headed to the yurt we were sharing with some family and called it a night.  Kendal enjoyed sleeping on the top bunk. Peter woke up during the night with another scream fit (like Yellowstone). Once I got him to open his eyes and realize where he was and that I had him he calmed down and slept the rest of  the night.

 

 Saturday morning we ate breakfast and the kids played some more in the surrounding woods / pavilion. I joined Casey and his brothers in a horseshoe game. I played a very pathetic game of horseshoe, and lost both times, but no one was injured so I feel good about that.  We joined a bunch of family and went for a hike. The camp missionary we talked to said it was an easy hike. We didn’t consider an uphill hike with kids easy, but we all made it and the kids did well. Kendal made a boon companion with her second cousin Lilly during the reunion. They spent all of our stay Saturday playing together and enjoying each others company. After lunch the kids played musical chairs, just dance and had fun again on the table carts and the surrounding woods.  We cleaned up camp said our goodbyes. (Which for Kendal meant hugging the entire group that was still there, and crying as we headed to the car because she was going to miss her new best friend Lilly.)

After camp we headed towards draper to see my brother Andy, Carly and their sweet kids. They were awesome and took us to the new aquarium. We enjoyed the aquarium and the animals. Kendal loved the otter’s that were wrestling and the sharks. Peter was happy to see everything and wanted to climb and be everywhere. Andy and Carly fed us a delicious dinner and then we went and spent the night at Vanessa’s parents house.

 Sunday morning we went back to Andy’s house. They fed us a yummy breakfast, the kids played and we watched the choir broadcast. Kendal loves temples and we’ve had fun spotting temples on our trips this summer. We decided to visit temple square on our way home. We went to the North visitors center and watched part of a Joseph Smith movie. We showed the kids the art about Jesus’ life and the Christ statue. We walked around the temple and then headed over to the Conference Center for a tour. Peter was being grumpy so we asked the nice missionary to give us a simplified tour. He took us to the roof and  talked about the building and the pioneer connections.  It was a nice visit to the Temple and it made for a good end to a wonderful weekend. After we headed home, visited with Casey’s parents for a bit, stole some of their garden happiness, and finally made it home to our beds and home comforts.
We feel like we’ve been away from home for half of this summer break. (Our plants are definitely stressed out and not loving being watered then neglected for days and even weeks on end.) We’re looking forward to a few more weeks of summer together before Casey starts football and school.