Family Time - Wyoming

Well I think it is about time that I finish writing about what happened this summer and all the fun that we had with family and friends so that I can move on to all of the fun things that we are doing now a days. I never said that checking my blog was a way to keep up to date with what I am doing.

I had a great time with my family, and finally I did get my husband back but then he wisked me away to Wyoming to spend some time with his family.

When we first got to Wyoming we had a big family reunion that his mom and uncles were in charge of putting on. We got to help out with a treasure hunt around the playground of the school. Here are some kids looking for the clues.

After the other families had gone the kids had a great time in the gym bouncing on these little balls. Yes, all of those kids belonged to our family.

Here are some more of us while the menfolk were playing games in the park.

We again tried to convince the kids that four wheelers were fun, and this time it worked. Even Lizzie like it!!!

Being on a hay farm a hay ride was in order.

And what would a trip to wyoming be without a trip to Jackson Lake. We convinced Grandpa to drive the boat slowly and the kids didn't scream the whole time.

They must have liked it some, because they agreed to go again.

They also enjoyed the water much more then I have ever seen them before.

I even went swimming. It was a little cold.

That night we celebrated Brian's Birthday!!!!! He says he turned 29. Oh good, that means that I am still in my early 20's.

And what would a Hunter Family Reunion be without a family race.

The Beginning

And the end.

With all of the winners!!!

Here is my baby with her two cousins that are within a month older then her. She turned out the be the runt of the group.

We actually had eight of the nine siblings there at some point during the week. Here are most of them with at least some of their families though some had to leave before the picture was taken.

Here are a few shots of out cute family with our reunion shirts on.

Do babies get any cuter them this!!!

Thanks all for the great time.

It was fun, though crazy at times, to have so much family around and to be able to enjoy being together. I hope someday we will be able to do it again with so many of us together!!!

Friend Time - Price, Utah

While in Utah, without Brian, I tried to see my old friends that still live in Utah. One of which is Jill who lives in Price (two hours away) and is a little more difficult to see because of the distance. While talking to her and figuring out how we could get together for dinner, she got a call from her mother-in-law saying that her and her step daughters wanted to come visit. Jill figured that while she would be entertaining people for a few days why not add to the party, and invited me to come play with them also. I gladly took her up on the offer as a couple of days to play with good friends is always better then a couple of hours. I am very happy that I did. We had a great time playing and visiting.

We drove down in the evening and spent the night. The next morning while deciding what we should do, we got word, from Jill's sister-in-law, that the fire department was going to be hosing down the dome, so we decided to go watch and get a little wet in the process. How many places can say that there government offices are located in a dome.

Here is the fire truck.

And here is the dome. I wonder if they found the leek after soaking it with water.

After lunch we decided to hike up to the C cave. It was a pretty steep hike, but the kids did very well on it. We started by going up this steep sandy part.

After hiking up the side of the dirt they got lifted up into the cave, which is just above where Jill is.

Here they are waiting in the cave for me to finally get up. This is about how big the cave is, just a small passage through the mountain.

Then, we climbed up another steep part with lots of rocks to reach the top of the mountain.

And when we got on top this is what there was to see. Just about all of Price was laid out in front of us. And look they are still smiling.

Thankfully, Jill drove up and picked us up. I don't know how the kids could have gotten back down from that hike.

Later that night we went swimming at the local wave pool. The kids got really scared the first time the waves came on. After a while they got used to it and loved running in and out of the water, waves or no waves.

The next morning we went to the dinosaur museum. Here is a picture of all of us (minus Jill) in front of some bones.

Here is Jamie standing on a dinosaurs foot, thankfully it isn't the other way around. We heard about a man being killed after being stepped on by a dinosaur, well running his head into a foot print in the ceiling of a mining cave.

They even had cool rocks that glowed in the dark. Who knew that rocks could glow in the dark.

Here is my little family hanging out with the cave men of old.

And the kids playing in a teepee.

They even had a place for the kids to dig in the sand and find some bones and some other activities in the little play area. I think that kids really enjoyed the museum and learning about dinosaurs.

Here is Jill and family with us. Again in front of some bones.

Sadly, after the museum we had to start the long drive home, to my parents house. We had such a good trip and I enjoyed spending some time with a good friend. It made me realize that dinner with friends is just not enough time to truly catch up with them. Thank you Jill for the great couple of days and for all of the fun.

As I drove home through the canyon I could finally see the beauty of the desert and thought that maybe living in Utah again some day wouldn't be to bad.

Family Time - Utah!!!

We got to spend the end of June and most of July with family in the west. We started at Grandma Neff's house, with the kids favorite toy!!!

On the first Sunday we blessed Chloe.

Here is the beautiful girl in her dress.

It was great to have some much family there. Both sets of grandparents were there, as well as, my brothers Steve, John and Dave and sister Sandy with their families and Brian's brother David and his sisters Wendy and Christa with there families.

Afterwards we had a dinner at my parents house. It was fun to have our two families together, many of them had never met before.

Chloe also got to meet her cousin Emma who is almost a month older then her.

They next day, my brother from California showed up. We had fun playing with them.

And they had fun playing with us! It was fun staying in the same house as them. We also got to go to the zoo together, even though I have no pictures of that.

They had recently gotten a new little sister. She is only about 3 weeks old when we met her. This little baby got to go see "Eclipse" with many of the older girls in the family and some friends.

Sadly, after a few days they had to return home, they had been gone for a while and we just got to see them for the last few days of their trip.

We also went on a tour of the 'Sweets' factory. It was fun to see where the candy was made even though many of the stations were closing up for that shift so we couldn't see much action, and get to try some freshly made candy. Next year we will have to do the tour earlier in the day. They even made us wear hair nets since we were on the actual production floor.

My brother Steve and some of his family was able to come with us on the tour!!

Another day we went to visit Brian's sister Christa and see her new house. On the way home we got to see my niece march with her school marching band in a 4th of July parade. She is the first one in the second row carrying her flute.

On the 3rd of July we went to the This Is The Place State Park for an extended Johnson family reunion. It was a lot of fun. There was much family there both that I knew and that I didn't know as this family went all the way back to pioneer days. The kids had fun in a watermelon eating contest. Some of my brothers and others of the kids gave it a try as well. I think this picture was taken at the end of the contest. They ate lots as you can see.

They also got to go on a train ride.

Mine for gold which they then traded in for candy.

We also did some crafts. Saw the saddlery of one of the Johnson sons, and many other fun places. I wish that we had more time there. There was lots to see so we will have to do it again some day!!!

The next day we had to say goodbye to daddy and I was left alone with the kids. Thankfully, I still had lots of family around to do fun things with. We went to a fun wild west themed park.

Had story time with cousins.

And played in the sandbox and slide in the back yard.

I know that we did many more things but I wasn't always the best about taking pictures. I did get to help my dad put together a Grandfather clock for my sister, and enjoyed being able to work on a project with him again. It did seem like we stayed busy and got to see lots of family, I just can't think of what we did. It was great to be so close to everyone and reminded me why it would be great to live in Utah, maybe someday.