Reunion at the Ranch

My wonderful aunt & uncle, Nancy & Brent, have a ranch in Fountain Green, Utah.  They invited all of the family down for a reunion over the 4th of July.  It was an amazing weekend and we had about 90 family members come for it!

We arrived Thursday night and the first thing my kids did was run see the horses.

Then we went and checked out the playground.

Tom was great at setting up the tent.  I’m glad he likes doing things like that :)

 

Jeff found his second cousins, all around his age, and they had fun exploring and spying on everyone.

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That night some watched the movie “The Man From Snowy River”.

The kids didn’t settle down and go to sleep until 11:00.  Lily made it to the end of the movie and was the last one to bed in our tent at midnight!

I’d forgotten to pack the kids toothbrushes.  After all the candy Jeff ate during the movie, he still had a blue tongue the next morning.  Gross!

It was a rough night sleep.  The noises of other kids, animals, vehicles, neighbor’s music made it for an early morning.  The kids started stirring around 6am.  

I felt like I’d gotten about four hours of very choppy sleep.  Nevertheless, I got up with the kids, because camping is the only time I am a morning person (why torture myself lying in an uncomfortable sleeping bag wishing I was asleep).

I tried to keep the kids quiet with iPads in the pavilion since some where still sleeping (ie: Tom).

 

My Uncle Brent had gone out for an early ride on his horse and Lily and Jeff where lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time when he got back and got a short ride on Little Bar.

 

Sophie played with the ranch manager’s dogs, then her and Cedric got a turn to ride.  Nothing like riding horses in your pajamas!

Lily had been counting down the days until Fountain Green, checking horse books out from the library and couldn’t stop talking about riding horses.  Her dream came true!

 

By about 8:00 everyone was up and we had breakfast. 

 

Lily started singing “Happy Birthday” and soon everyone joined in to wish Tom a happy birthday!  I love that his birthday is on  the 4th and we always get to do fun things as a family.

After breakfast all the kids got flags and red, white & blue body paint and did a little march around the pavilion.

We then did the Pledge of Allegiance and sang “The Star Spangled Banner”.

 

Decked out in our red, white and blue.  It was so fun to be together as a family.

We then drove into Moroni to watch the parade.  It was the perfect parade… shade, candy and short.

Cedric loves his cousin, Adair and is often found holding her hand and sucking his tongue.

 

There are so many toddler girl cousins!  We tried to get a picture, but as you can see, it didn’t go over too well.

Some of the adults where finding ways to entertain the kids until the parade started.  Here they are doing push-ups.

 

Then the parade started!  Sophie loved seeing all the pretty princesses.

The kids showed off all the candy they collected.

When we got back Tom and my brother, Isaac took the boys on the ATVs.

 

Although it was only late morning, Sophie was begging to go nigh-night.  She spent most of the day, off and on, in her pack-n-play in the shade, but didn’t fall asleep.

Tom and some of the cousins played some mean volleyball. 

 

Jeff, Lily and Cedric got to ride in the six-seater and go for a ride with my Uncle, Brent (I have no idea what it’s really called).

 

I put together a little splash park for the kids.  It was such a hot day!

 

Then we had lunch.  Lily and her second cousin, Gwen are great buddies.

 

Cedric came up to me and said “look at my pet fly, mom”.  I tried to shoo the fly away and he said, “No!  I ripped his wings off so he can’t fly, so now he’s my pet”.  So gross!  I took a picture and then made him let the fly go.

One of the big hits at the reunion was the candy store.  The kids had fun buying candy or helping to man the cash register.  I think they ate more candy over the weekend than healthy food.

 

That afternoon I tried again to get Sophie to take a nap, but the only one who fell asleep for a few minutes was me.

I then took Lily for a turn on the ATV.  It was fun, but my arms got sunburned.

Tom, Jeff and I played some games in the pavilion for a bit.

It was so fun to have my Grandma there with us!  She said she has somewhere around 170 posterity!  I love all my relatives and it was so fun to sit around and visit and get to know each other better.

 

So about 6pm, Sophie FINALLY fell asleep.  She had about a half hour nap, which was just enough to get through the rest of the night.

 

Then it was dinner. 

My only sibling that came was Isaac & Candalyn’s family, but Friday night Aimee & Matt’s family came down for the rest of the time. (we missed Dad, Suzy, Caleb, Natalie, Travis and Mike & Karyn’s family).

 

We didn’t sing again, but we did have cake for dessert.  I think the birthday boy was grateful.

Lily worked really hard all day to help Uncle Brent so she could ride the horses again.  She even wore long pants the whole day, despite the heat, just so she’d be ready.  Finally, at about 8pm she got to take Shorty for a ride.

 

Meanwhile, Tom and some of the other adults were playing ultimate Frisbee when my cousin, Clay landed wrong and broke his ankle!  It drew quite the crowd.

Some went into Moroni again to watch the fireworks, but after such a long day and early morning, we decided to stay back.  We saw a couple of fireworks from the ranch.

Then the kids watched “The Lego Movie” on the pavilion screen.  Cedric didn’t make it very long.

 

We again got to bed late, but all slept much better!  The kids didn’t get up until 7/7:30.  Sophie was the first one asleep and last one up in our tent.

Then we had another yummy breakfast.

Some of my younger cousins had put together a scavenger hunt for the kids.  It was a long, hard hunt, but they had fun!

Cedric looking around the wagon for a clue.

Sophie couldn’t keep up and kept saying “hurry, mommy!”

 

One of the hardest clues was on the basketball hoop.  The kids were trying all sorts of ways to get the clue down.

 

They finally finished the hunt and the prize was a piñata. Unfortunately, it broke pretty quickly and since the kids took turns youngest to oldest to hit it, none of my kids got a turn.  Cedric was pretty upset since he was one of the next ones to try.  I could tell the lack of sleep was catching up to my kids that day.

 

Sophie, again, spent a lot of time in her bed.  She pretty much complained the whole day of being tired.  Tom is showing her a grasshopper he found.

They got the horses out again and all my kids got to ride.  I even had fun taking Sophie around.

 

Lily got to ride, Bobby this time, whom she says was her favorite.  She learned a lot about horseback riding this weekend and says she wants to be a horse breeder when she grows up.

 

I took the little kids for a ride on the ATV around the back of the ranch. Sophie loved it!

Tom was great to get our tent and everything packed up.  While we were waiting for lunch, Sophie started throwing a fit about wanting a nap.  I really wanted to wait until after lunch, when she could nap on the drive home, but she would not give it up!

Finally, I gave in and let her fall asleep.  Unfortunately, it was only about a half hour nap again.

We had a yummy lunch and said “Thanks” to Brent and Nancy.

The kids played one last time with their second cousins that they’d grown so close to.  It was hard to see the weekend end.

 

Surprisingly, I was the only one that fell asleep on the way home, but we were all exhausted.  We bathed, unpacked, did laundry, got some pizza and watched a movie, then everyone went to bed early.

I love summer!