Long in Coming!

Never fear! We are alive and well, though our lack of blogging might indicate otherwise. We have been traveling to and fro across the country and having a great time. Be prepared for a few mighty posts in the next few days documenting our fun. First, we went to Island Park, Idaho for a family reunion for my dad's side of the family. I think anyone who misses these things is crazy, cause they are always full of fun and good times catching up with family members. Then, Devin and I packed up and left early from the reunion and went to spend the weekend with his sister Shawna and her husband Slava as well as their two boys in Missoula, Montana. They also jammed the weekend full of fun (more on that later). Upon returning from there, we spent a day in Idaho with my mom for her reunion as well, where we went swimming at a natural spring place we lovingly call "the pee pee palace". I was then home for one day before hitting the road again, this time leaving Devin home to start some home improvement projects. I went to Philadelphia and DC with my sister, cousin Cortney, and all of our babies to see our beloved Che'Lyn. Of course, whether you want to hear about all these adventures or not, they will be coming right up!!

This post will only be about the family reunion though since that was first and this post would break records if I put up everything from all the trips.

My grandma is the most generous person ever and she just loves for the family to get together, so every year, she foots the bill for our lodging. This year, she rented an entire ranch so we could each have our own cabin. We stayed in a big cabin with Jen and Sadie. The only down side of our cabin was the mice! I am not kidding. Devin saw one run across the floor our first night there and then thought it better for me not to know until the next day. Rude! I slept with a mouse. Sick. This picture is of Hals taking her nightly bath, though the sink had to do because the cabins only had showers. She is ridiculously cute though, no? First activity: Rafting. It was meant to be a family friendly rafting trip and let me just say it might have been a little too family friendly. And by that I mean, even the kids got bored by the end because it was so slow. Here is our raft attached to our car. Poor car is drowning!Jennifer and I had to hold it down while we drove. Good thing we are buff. Never doubt that.
Once we got there, we had some waiting time while the men drove the cars to where we would end. Look at these cute little munchkins! Alia, Addy, and Jackson. While we wish Jackson belonged in the family, he doesn't yet. He is my best friend Haylee's little boy and he will one day marry Hallie. I was so happy to have Hay there since she lives in Tennessee. She is spending the summer in Jackson, WY with her parents so she made the trip to see us. I am so glad she did because I love her to death and I don't get to see her nearly often enough.

Here are the three of us: Me, Haylee, and Anneka. We were all best friends in high school so it was awesome to have the time to catch up on the 4 hour float ride. Ha ha!
Getting ready to go! The first round we had 5 rafts go out, so everyone was divided amongst them. Due to Justin (Haylee's husband) and Devin's lack of rowing skills, we were unable to make first place in the race to the finish. Just kidding men, it wasn't even a competition.Jennifer and I on the raft. Do you think we look alike?
Our whole amazing raft. We had a grand old time floating, pulling ourselves out from the 2 inch water, looking for fish, swimming, and telling stories. Activity Number Two: Horse back riding! Although I was not about to go on a trail ride after listening to everyone that had been's woes about their soreness, we did take Jackson and Hallie down to ride this pony called "Boots." Jackson LOVED it. It was the cutest thing. He repeatedly said, "Boots! Boots! Boots!". We got a cute picture of the couple on the horse. Too soon it was time for Haylee to depart. Here is our parting shot. I am so glad to she got to come and spend some time with us. It made the reunion for me.

Later, we got around to having a good old barbecue dinner and smore's roasting. Here is Grandpa with Hallie and Sadie. This must have been right before I sat on a cooked marshmallow. Just lovely.

Activity Three: Good old canoeing. Well, that was fun the whole 2 minutes it lasted for us. Hallie wasn't having any of the life jacket thing. She was ticked, as you can see. Oh well. We will try again another time.

We also had hot tubs on each of our decks, so it was nice to just sit there and catch up with cousins after the kids had gone to bed. Nothing better than Dutch oven cooking, campfires, stories, relaxing, and fun in the sun for a family reunion. Can't wait till next year!