Vacation 2014

This summer we flew to Utah for two back-to-back family reunions.  It was lots of food, lots of fun, and lots of family.

We started by spending a week with the Petruckas.  We had fun with all the cousins at Trafalga, where Brandon beat Mark up the rock climbing wall (twice) and we had some epic laser tag battles.

We suffered through family pictures, had a picnic, ate at all of our favorite Utah places, watched the 4th of July fireworks, and were able to join in seeing Isaac (our oldest cousin) ordained to the office of elder.

A friend had told us that there was an outfit where you could rent inner tubes and float down the Provo river.  It sounded like a lot of fun, so we made arrangements for Mark, me, Uncle David and Aunt Page to take a bunch of the kids down the river.  The experience ended up being, shall we say, memorable? Having been river rafting last summer we knew the importance of listening to our guide so, for the first part of the float, we desperately tried to follow the instructions we had been given to keep the tubes together and in the middle of the river. The problem was that with our lifejackets on, most of us could hardly reach the water from inside the 4ft wide inner tubes, so it was almost impossible to steer.  We lost Aunt Page about 5 minutes in when one of the tubes went flat (she ended up having to knock on doors and call for a ride back to the takeout) and most of the kids scraped up their arms and had panic attacks trying to control the huge, unwieldy tubes.  About halfway down the river, we realized that the rental company, probably for insurance reasons, had greatly overstated the danger on the river and you didn't really have to do anything other than just lay back in the tubes and let them float.  Once we made that realization, the we had more fun, but we were all glad when we finally reached the takeout.  

In anticipation of Natalie starting school in September, one day we went over to the BYU campus and checked out her future home.  We went to see the Cannon Center and Helaman Halls as well as taking a peek in the Harris Fine Arts Center.  Natalie was able to get her student ID card while we were on campus and Mark spent a small fortune buying everyone BYU gear at the bookstore.  

After a week of having fun with the Petruckas, we drove up to Heber for our Fife reunion.  This year home-base was in a beautiful log cabin complete with all the amenities, including an open log staircase that our little cousin Jonathan fell down at least twice.  

On Sunday, we were able to go to church with Heather and see our newest cousin be blessed and then gather at the Rees's for a picnic lunch. We all loved snuggling with little one-week-old Layna all week long.  

Our favorite activity during Fifevergnugen 2014 was going horseback riding.  Grandpa arranged for the whole family to take an hour long trail ride and we loved it.  Emily even decided that she would like to be a cow-girl when she grows up.  

In the evening, after our ride, we went back to the stables for a cowboy chuck-wagon dinner.  We got to experience even more of the trail life than we bargained for when it started to rain just as we were scooping up our grub.  Some of us tried to stay dry by crawling under trees, others just toughed it out and got wet, and the smallest cousins took refuge under the picnic tables.  The rain didn't last too long though and, by the time we were enjoying our yummy peach cobbler, the sun was already back out.  We learned how to rope, took a wagon ride, sang a few songs and played some horseshoes.  It was a fun evening.

 Some of our other activities with the Fifes were going for a swim in the Homestead Crater, visiting Temple Square and finding our ancestors in the Salt Lake City Cemetery, and spending an afternoon at Jordanelle Reservoir.

It was a wonderful two weeks.  We were sad to return home because as soon as we got home, summer was basically over.  The day after we arrived home, Natalie and Emily left for a week of Girls' Camp (Natalie's last) and Brandon was off to band camp.  Now it's choreography week for the cheerleaders and orientation and next week it's back to school.