Ryan Reunion

Following the Stone family reunion was the Ryan family Reunion. That's Mike's mom's family. We drove up to Logan after church on Sunday and had a really great time visiting with cousins, aunts, and uncles that we'd not seen in many years. And of coarse Grandma Lou who we all adore. She is such an amazing woman and it was such a blessing that ALL of her children and a whole lot of her grand and great-grand children could be there. It was really neat to be re-united with all of these fun people.

The reunion was held at Uncle Steve and Aunt Carols (Nancy's sister) home. They have a nice house but they have an amazing yard. It is so beautiful and surrounded by big trees and then there is a creek running through the back that the kids had a terrific time swinging over on a rope. It was so fun to see the kids who had never even met each other before, just playing and having a great time together.

Steve and Carol also have this amazing swing set. It's HUGE!!!! The kids all had a terrific time on that.

We're so glad that we got to be there for this event.

Stone Family Reunion

Next came the first annual/bi-annual Stone Family Reunion. We met at Joe and Julie Tripps house in Grantsville Utah. It all began with a tasty dinner BBQ in their beautiful back yard. We ate, played games, visited, made amazing s'mores, and finally went to bed camped out in tents in the back yard. It was oh so much fun

Saturday we woke, had a yummy breakfast and then went to the community pool that had been reserved just for us. It was again great fun. Everyone had a wonderful time. Lucy even got in for a little while. She liked it for about 5 min but then she made sure everyone knew she'd had enough.

Following the pool, we returned to Tripps for lunch of sub sandwiches. Yum, and lots of playing and visiting. The final event was a pizza dinner followed by really yummy, home made ice cream made by Jacob and Amy. Thanx Ewers. The ice cream was definitely a grand finale.

We had a terrific time at the Stone family reunion and are already looking forward to next year!

Cabellas

So the first big event ofthis vacation was our trip to Cabellas. I know that sounds silly cuz it's just a store right? Wrong! It is so much more than a store. There are some amazing animal displays, an aquarium and a little shooting gallery. Then, of course, there is all of the cool merchandise. The best part for me was that Mike FINALLY bought some shoes and some fishing stuff that he's wanted and I've been trying to get him to buy for years. Here are a few of the fun photos.

Summer Vacation

A quick run down of the whole and then I'll do some individual sections.

We left Colorado on Wednesday, June 23rd. We drove to Cheyenne Wyoming where we spent a delightful evening with our friends the Burns and then slept at their home that night. Thursday we had breakfast with the Burns family and then headed across Wyoming to Farmington UT. Thanx so much Burns family. We had a great time there.

We enjoyed a relaxing evening in Farmington and spent the night there at Dad and Mom Redd's home. On Friday we drove to Cabellas for the morning. What a fun place. We took our treasures home and then drove back down south to Grantsville for the Stone family reunion at Joe and Julie's house.

Saturday the Stone family reunion wrapped up at about 7pm and we went back to Farmington for the night. Saturday after church at Dad and Mom Redd's ward, we drove up to Logan for the Ryan family reunion, then slept in Farmington again.

Monday we added Mormon, Crystal, and Spencer to our crew and drove up to Idaho Falls where the kids and I all unloaded at Brigham and Heathers house and added Brigham to the bunch headed up to AFY at BYU Idaho. Mike took Brittany, Krystal, Spencer, Brig and Mormon up to AFY and then returned to IF where we spent the rest of the week. We gathered up the AFY crew on Friday and traded Spencer for Katry and then drove back down to Farmington.

Saturday the 3 of July we went to Orem for a fun Andersen family reunion. We returned to Farmington on Saturday night for the beginning of the Redd family reunion.

On Sunday we blessed baby Lucy and had lots of family both Redds and Stones and even our friends the Burns there to participate in that special occasion. The Redd reunion went until Wednesday morning when we drove up to Logan to spend the day with Gma Lou, Opa and Oma, the Rob Stones, and the Tripps. Fun day. We drove back to Farmington that night and then Mike and Michael drove back up to Logan to spend the night there.

Thursday the 8th Mike, Michael, and Opa spent the day fishing in Logan while the other kids and I spent the day in Farmington. Brittany and Allison went to Lagoon with a bunch of the Stone gang. I and the other 5 kids stayed at Redds and got to just chill!

Friday we did some remodel work at Redds and then after lunch went to Burnetts for a fun visit. Burnetts returned to Redd's with us Friday evening and Dad took us, the Burnetts and the Nephi Redds out to dinner at the Mandarine (adults only) Wow yum but best of all was the company!

EARLY Saturday morning we got up for the Farmington Festival Days run. Mike and Michael ran the 1/2 marathon, Nephi, Melanie, and Allison ran the 10K, Daren, Ivalou, and I ran the 5K. I can't believe I actually did it! The time is nothing to brag about but I didn't walk at all. Michael running the 1/2 is the really impressive bit. Following the run was the parade, kids swimming, men fishing, women cleaning and visiting and all kinds of good fun.

Sunday July 11, after Sacrament Mtg., we were on our way back home to Colorado.

IT'S FAMILY HOME EVENING TONIGHT!!!

We have had some really fun FHE's recently. On April 26th for our activity and lesson, we played a few minute to win it games. We did the M&M's transferred to and balanced on the end of straws by sucking them to the end of a straw in ones mouth, and we did the swinging yo-yo from the back of the waist to knock down cups arranged at different heights. It was so fun and the lesson was about cheering for and supporting family members in their activities no matter how good they really are.:)

Then on May 17th we had a family baseball game. Wow are we talented (NOT) but we sure did have a good time. It was a laugh a minute and such good times.

And finally for Memorial Day, we headed for the hills. We drove up into the mountains and hiked and played in the fire and roasted hotdogs and made smores. We played in the stream (it was stinking cold water!) and so so enjoyed being with our good friends the Higbees.

Makes ya wana have FHE doesn't it!

Hello stranger

Well, I guess I blog about as often as the moon turns blue. No wait, I don't even do it that often. Anyway, my cute sister Charity is trying to help me get better about this so here's a little quicky. Big things in our life of late: In March, my mom came out and stayed with us for 10 days. Oh Heavenly! I was so thankful to have her here. In April I had a so way cute baby. Lucy is wonderful. She is really such a good baby. In May we celebrated Mothers day. I Love mothers day. I just love being a mom. I've said it before, but that is what I always wanted to be "when I grew up" and that is what I am even if I haven't ever really grown up. I have the most amazing husband on earth. He is so so good to me. I have the best kids. Everyone says so. I love my life. Also in May, the big girls are participating in a dance festival put on by our stake. It has been MANY months in the works and we got the go see the final product last night. The kids all did great and it was really quite fun to watch.

So there you go folks, a very brief update. Now I'm going to do several more posts with more detail so if you want to just skip the rest, it's my journaling effort for the day.

April in a Blog shell

This is the month we'd waited for, always a treat we have in store, we wanted Lucy more and more, to come join our family. This was the time we'd been holding out for and here it finally was. The first week of April was all about waiting for Lucy. As I told in her birth story, I was very ready for her. In addition to Lucy waiting, we had some soccer games for both Michael and Hans, General conference, and as always, dance classes and ball practices, youth activities and school, piano and all. To add to it, my little sister, Merica, was getting married. We knew we wouldn't be able to go but I was so so sad to miss her wedding.

The day before Lucy came, we went to the zoo for a Home School Academy field trip. The school kids all got to do really fun extra stuff besides just seeing the animals. Catherine got to go into the Elephant cage (while they weren't in it) and hide little elephant treats for them to come find and then watched (from outside the pen) while the Elephants came back in and found the treats the kids had left for them.

Aunnika's class got to go the "underground bird training center" to see how they work with the birds and care for the new ones. Michael's class --- and finally Allison's class ---.

The most amazing thing that happened while we were there was that while Mike and I were with the little boys looking at the Snow Leopards, Daniel stood on the cement ledge right up against the glass. He was watching one leopard and a second one began to stalk him. It was fascinating to watch. Mike told Daniel to turn around so that his back was to the leopard and suddenly it pounced "SMACK" against the glass. It was trying to eat my son! Thankfully there was glass there and we just got the see the very exciting event of a leopard on the hunt.

This is Lucy (still hiding) Hans, and Daniel in the reptile house.

Here is Catherine hiding her treat for the elephants.

We still had pizza parties every Friday night of coarse.

This is the cutest soccer player in town!

Here are the boys at Michael's pack meeting. Daddy took all the kids and they had a super fun time eating dirt and worms. They also all planted beans in a cup and guess what, they all grew and we later planted them in our garden where they continued to grow and we even harvested beans from those plants.

And so that was what we did unusual for the month. It was enough though. Having a new baby is always enough. Lucy is such a delight. I don't think I've enjoyed a baby so much ever before. It's not because she better than any of the other kids, she's not, but with Brittany I was just alway worried about everything. I've definitely gotten better at caring for babies since then. Since baby one, it's been really hard to keep up with everything and everyone. So what makes it more fun is that I have big kids to cover for me with all of my other responsibilities so I don't worry about everything all the time. And to top it all off, she's a perfectly healthy little girl.

Holly Smack-a-rolly! I can't believe I almost forgot easter! We did celebrate easter this year and it was, as always great fun. I was so impressed with all of the kids and how they knew what easter is really all about and loved telling the story of Christ's atonement, death and resurrection. What amazing and wonderful kids I have. I am so thankful for them and for the atonement that allows me to repent so that all the mistakes I make don't totally mess my wonderful children up.

Happy April everybody!