FAMILY REUNIONS RULE!!!

We had SUCH a good time!!! I just love that family of mine!!!!! Mom and Dad picked us up at the airport and...well...what can I say...I LOVE them!!! It's always soooo good to see them! I'm always surprised by how rejuvinated I feel by just being near family, and in the mountains!!! I LOVE it!!

This is the view off my parent's balcony...I love the mountains...I miss them...I love the sunsets and the cool mountain air...I love being able to roll around in the grass if I want to, or really just walk across it without hating my life for the next week becuase the Chiggers got me...LOVE it!!!
Friday was a day of happy reunions:) Everyone (except Kev) got in Friday sometime and we hung out and played games and ran around and ate...it was beautiful! I can't believe how big all the nieces and nephews are getting!

Kev was working back east and he and his wife and boys have been separated for 5 weeks...our immediate family haven't all been together at the same place at the same time for almost 2 years...so we decided that Kev needed to be there...so we found a KILLER deal on flights and arranged for a secret arrival and got to be a part of SUCH a fun surprise reunion of Kev/Brit and boys...precious...
Saturday a photographer friend of the family agreed to do some family portraits on exchange with Mom and Dad so we had a lot of fun with that...I'm excited to see how they turn out. Below you see how we got 29 people to stay happy and "perform" well for the pictures:) Uncle Jas came through with the goods:)


When some of the families were doing their individual family shots some of the kids were chasing me around like monsters...I was trying to shoot pictures as I ran away from them, but most of them didn't turn out...I had to have them pause in their "attack" to get a good shot:)



Sunday we sang "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" with everyone in the Univeristy Branch...The kids sang the first verse, the adults the second, and then all together on the third...talk about a sweet experience! Hearing those kids sing is...incredible...how else can we put it?
On Monday we went and hiked the "M" with Dad, Jas and Katy and the kids, Dale G., Alan, me and Jake and Cahlin. It was really a pretty good hike...probably a little intense for my prego bootie's first REAL physical activity, but it felt great and it was beautiful! I hiked a lot of the way with Cahlin (almost 3) and it was soooo cute! He really wanted to have me carry him, but then Dad reminded him about the little train and what the little train said..."I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..." So he got kind of quiet and I started hiking with him again and started saying it...he joined right in with me and as soon as we were done he looked up at me and said, "maybe we should say it again" :) We we "thought" we could almost all the way up the mountain and he did awesome! I know it should diminish the intensity of a hike that a 2 year old did it with me, but it really was intense! Ask anyone! So at the top of the hill I had Cahlin show me his huge muscles so we could tell his dad about it (since Kev had already left to return to work).


This was the first time the latest set of "triplets" were together....SO cute! Jake is the oldest, then Sienna, and then Eyan brining up the rear...