Grant Family Reunion

Every year since I was little my Mom's side of the family holds a reunion up at the Reid Ranch. Last year I was too pregnant to go (good thing too because I'm positive I would have had a baby on the dirt road!). This year Cody had to work, but I took the kids up by myself . We had a fun time visiting with family and playing in the great outdoors. This is our huge family picture we get taken every year. There are probably 10 people missing from the photo too. I love looking back seeing how the family has changed and grown.

 This pics are in backwards order of when they happened, but you'll get the gist. We went paddle boating down at the lake.

 Dan taught Tucker and McKenna some chant about if the pirates get you, hit the deck, steal the treasure, and get to shore. It was pretty cute to hear them sing it.

 I personally have not ridden a horse at the ranch in years - maybe 12 years. They keep coming up with new rules for safety that I guess I don't want to adhere to, so I just don't go riding anymore. Everyone has to sport life jackets and helmets to ride the horses. Luckily the kids don't mind and had fun riding Lady and/or Tramp, the miniature ponies.

 I snuck a quick picture of the little boys on the pony without the gear on. My brother Spencer works at the ranch and he was in charge of horses when we went up to the corral.

 M:y uncle built some kind of rocket launcher that we all had fun using. We made rockets, place them on the PVC pipe, pressed the red button and they shot up into the air.

 My other brother, Kevin, is a rocket scientist and so he brought along his rocket too.

 The kids had fun eating sno cones and playing with their cousins.

 It rained every day we were there, but we had an awesome sky our last night. The colors were amazing!

 The kids and their second cousins had a dance party on the stage. They were all shaking their booties.

 Tucker loved going to do archery. He's sort of strong enough to pull the bow back and he had fun trying over and over.

 Cole decided throwing rocks into the water wasn't good enough. He then stood in the water, finally knelt down and eventually was lying in the water and kept putting his face in it. I'm such a great Mom that of course I let him. What's a little water going to do to a boy? He had fun until it actually starting raining and was getting him wet that way. You gotta love that cute redheaded dimpled boy!

Circle of 4th Fun!

We had so much fun on the 4th of July. We blocked off our circle and our entire neighborhood came together for a circle BBQ, fireworks and fun. We live in the greatest place and have such fun friends. This first picture isn't actually of neighbor friends, but of our good friends Hannah and Jeremy Skinner. We lived in Maryland together while the guys went to dental school. Hannah's sister lives 2 streets away so we get to see them whenever they're in town.

 Maree headed up the fireworks with the kids. She's a grandma to 12 I think and was our pyro for the evening.

 Aubrey and Kali lighting their sparklers.

 We had the party in front of our house because we're at the back of the circle, the closest to Memorial Hill (where they shoot off city fireworks) and we actually have grass to sit on.

Unfortunately it began raining as the fireworks started going off, but we all braved the weather and watched anyway.

Cabin/Rodeo

We headed to the cabin on July 2nd for some horsin around and rodeo fun. Tucker and Mckenna played in the ditch and thankfully didn't get wet. My kids have a habit of "accidentally" falling in water. : )

 

Blake loves the water so much that we let him dangle!

Halle and Aubrey riding one of our 3 horses. I'm not a horsewoman, and sadly I don't even know which horse is which. All I know is one is named Duchess, one Lexie and one named Beau.

Blake LOVED the horse. He couldn't get enough and wanted to climb all over it.

The kids love the gator and tractor rides that Grandpa gives them. Last year I rode the gator and horses and was 9 months pregnant. Now Blake gets to enjoy it all.

My Grandpa Foster and cute Aubrey.

Cole was in heaven on the horses. You would think that living in a mountain valley where farmland is all around us that we'd get use to seeing horses, deer, cows, etc. But no, this kid points every one out - every time.

The rodeo was great. I personally thought it was one of the better one's I'd seen (and I've seen a lot over my 29 year lifespan.) The only event that didn't do too well was team roping. Those calves knew how to play the riders this year.

First Ken Foster Family Reunion (and hopefully not the last!)

My immediate family went on our first ever Ken Foster Family Reunion last weekend. Cody and I have been trying to plan a trip like this for a couple years and last winter we made everyone put it on their calendars that we were going somewhere. At first we were hoping for a Lake Powell trip, but we didn't end up buying a boat and that's a ton of money to spend when you don't have any of the toys. My Mom has a good friend with a home in Hurricane, UT and she let us rent it out while we were down there. We all arrived around lunchtime last Thursday, so we ate and then headed to these awesome waterfalls by Gunlock Reservoir.

 If we hadn't seen other people jumping I don't think we would have felt safe, but these pools were deep! The diving space wasn't very big, but it was a blast! All of us adults, except for pregnant Lisa and my cameraman Dad jumped in multiple times. The day was hot and the water felt great!

 We slid down the rocks with the kids into more shallow areas for them to play.

 Cole didn't want to miss out on the jumping fun and so Cody jumped in with him from a shorter distance. Cole was actually mad at first that Cody wasn't jumping from the higher ledge. Silly boy!

 Aubrey, Cole and Halle watching the cliff jumpers.

 Friday morning Cody and I, and my brothers woke up at 5:30 to be on the lake at 6:00am. Sand Hollow Reservoir was less than 5 minutes from our house. Kevin has a friend that owns 4 boat dealerships in the St. George area, and he let us take out his demo boat for the day. Cody started the morning out with a little slalom skiing and then switched to wakeboarding. He bought this wakeboard last fall and has been dying to try it out.

 Me and my typical slalom pose. I do cross out of the wake, but I'm not a very aggressive skier, so I look like this most of the time.

 After the 4 of us got some runs in we headed back to the house to eat breakfast and help get the kids ready for a day at the lake. Blake is our little water baby and constantly splashed the whole time he was in or near water. He'd make Ethan cry because he kept getting him wet.

 Contrary to what this looks like, Tucker DID NOT like his tube ride. We're not quite sure why, I think he wanted to be wearing his goggles in case he went under the water. He's got some idea in his head that he can only swim with them. At least we did get him out on the water.

 Blake was loving being flag baby and was quite ticked off when someone bigger came along to take over flag duty.

 Shade tarps and pack n plays are wonderful things.

 I tried wakeboarding later in the day. The water conditions weren't great, it was windy and choppy, but I still popped right up every time. My problem is staying up. I faced planted a couple times and decided my head didn't need a beating anymore.

 Cousins playing on the massive swim deck.

 Saturday morning we went into Zion National Park. It was the one park in Utah that Cody had never been too. This makes me feel really old, but it had been 20 years since I've been there last. Cody and I decided we were going to hike Angel's Landing (named because people used to think only angels could land there because of how precarious it is at the top) and my parents and rest of the family took the kids to hike to the entrance to the Narrows and the Weeping Rock.

 Cody put Blake in the backpack and we trekked up the mountain. It's a pretty steep climb and Cody had done a 10 mile hike with the scouts Wednesday night, cliff jumped Thursday, skied/wakeboarded Friday and hiked Saturday. He was tired, but of course made it and didn't give up.

 The last half mile you follow chains and straight drop offs to make it to the end of the hike. It's pretty treacherous and I would NEVER let my other kids do this hike yet. I did it when I was 9, but I'm pretty sure my Dad never let go of my hand.

 Wouldn't want to fall back down.

 We made it to the peak and got an Asian to take a quick picture for us.

 Beautiful cactus rose at the top.

 Blake was great the whole hike up, but coming down the chain part freaked him out. He doesn't love to be thrown in the air like our other kids and I think he had that falling sensation that made him cry. He was also super tired, but didn't sleep a wink. We took a bottle break to help him out - he still cried until we got off the scary part.

 Saturday night all of us but Heather, Dan and Ethan went into St. George to see Cars 2. It was a cute movie from what I saw. I had to take Cole and Blake out a couple times, but other than that - the movie went well. We don't take our kids to the movies very often, so Tucker and Aubrey loved it.

Sunday we went to the St. George Temple. We walked around the grounds and then went into the visitor center. This is our whole group minus Cody and Blake who was taking a nap in the truck.

 The kids were so captivated listening to the missionaries talk about Jesus.

 That afternoon my Dad, Spencer and Kevin's family returned home for work the next day. My Mom, Heather's family and us drove back to Zion to drive through the mile long tunnel.

We came home Monday morning after we'd packed and cleaned up. It was a great trip and even though the temps were in the 100's we love it. I was in Maryland 3 weeks before where the heat index was 105, but that humidity makes it so much worse. 105 and dry was a nice change.