Bear Lake Reunion

A couple weeks ago we drove (yes, drove) the 20+ hours to Utah for my family’s Haws Reunion. It took us about 23 hours because we may or may not have accidentally took a 2 hour detour into Missouri! Oops! But we made it. The kids did pretty good. Yes, Lily was fussy at times, but that was expected.

We drove straight to Bear Lake and met my whole family there. They went to my brother Jordan’s BYU Graduation and then headed up north. We weren’t able to make the graduation but were glad to be there for the reunion with everyone together. This is the house we drove up to:

Amazing, right? 9 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, tube slides between each level of the house, a movie theatre, an indoor gym with a basketball court, in-ground trampoline, and playground. And a lot of other cool features. It was built recently so everything was super nice quality with double ovens, double dishwashers, etc. It also had a spectacular view of Bear Lake.

We were in heaven, especially being surrounded by our loved ones. Our family has really grown the past few years and now there are 18 of us – 11 adults and 7 grandkids ages 7 months to almost 8 years old! Here’s Camryn on one of the kids favorite spots – a little climbing wall with a fun kid sized cave.

My mom is amazing and made sure we went all out. We picked a theme – the Olympics (since they were just finishing up while we were there), got our own Haws Reunion T-shirts, had fun crafts and activities for the kids (including a fabulous Harry Potter initiation by my sister Katie!), and had such great food and fun together. The first full day we drove to the north shore of Bear Lake where there was a huge beach. We borrowed a jet ski from Merrick’s family and rented another and a boat for the day. The kids had a blast playing together on the beach and the grown ups were thrilled to be out on the water. It was a gorgeous day.

The next day was Sunday so we went to Sacrament Meeting at the PACKED Bear Lake chapel. The whole overflow was full to the back and every room around the perimeter was full. Crazy. It was pretty funny when they asked to sustain some people though because virtually no one raised their hands (we were all visitors!). In the evening my mom’s cousin came and took our family pictures at a lovely rocky beach. I can’t wait to see them!! I could tell they are going to be really good.

Monday we did a Kids Olympic activity, a few people went out jet skiing again, there were Bear Lake Raspberry Shakes eaten here and there, and we had some visitors come hang out in the afternoon – my aunt and cousins. In keeping with the Olympics theme, I painted a different country’s flag on the cheeks of each cousin. So cute.

My mom made these awesome Olympic cupcakes with the grandkids. They were in heaven cooking in the kitchen with Grandma!

One of the highlights of the reunion was the Tournament my brother Jordanput on. This was for the adults! We had several events and were scored according to how well we did. There was a basketball round, a billiards round, a ping-pong round, and a really cool race. For the race we started outside on the bottom floor. We had to run inside, up two flights of stairs, go down two tube slides back down to the basement, run up one flight of stairs to the middle level of the house, run out to the deck and slide down the yellow twisty slide to land back where we started. Intense! It was hilarious to watch and the competition was fierce. My brother-in-law Jeremy eventually won first place overall.

We did a bunch of other fun things – a great FHE where we made a time capsule to open at my parents’ 50th Wedding Anniversary, a hilarious game of Telestrations that brought us all to tears we were laughing so hard, etc. etc. It was fun to make all these memories with people we love. Here are a few more pictures of the fun.

Thanks to my parents for organizing this wonderful vacation for us. We had a great time. We finished up the reunion on the morning of Merrick and my 8th Anniversary and drove to Bountiful to spend a few days with Merrick’s family. More on that part of the trip next time…

Let her eat cake!

Lily had a nice birthday. It was a Sunday and Merrick and I were actually pretty busy with our callings that day but I still tried to make it her day. I made crepes for breakfast, which she loves. Mac n cheese for lunch – always a winner. And lasagna and garlic cheesy bread swirls for dinner. We had lasagna with her once and she loved it and this time she did too! Ate it right up!

For the festivities, we decorated the dining room table as usual.

And since she doesn’t really sit with us at the table yet I made her high chair a little extra special too.

I made two cakes – a cute little smash cake for Lily specially decorated with rosettes, and a big cake for the rest of us. I made a little stencil in the shape of a 1 and sprinkled it with sprinkles. It turned out pretty good. :)

Lily was excited to see all the decorations and cakes when she woke up in the morning!

We staggered the presents throughout the day – opened some in the morning (I knew one of her grandmas would come through with a new dress for her to wear to church! Thanks Mom!), and finished the rest up after church.

After dinner we took her outside and let her go crazy with her little smash cake. Of course I had to put her little tutu on with a big old headband. :)

At first she just kept trying to rub the frosting off her fingers – too sticky! But then we finally got her to taste it and she started eating it more. She much preferred having a fork in hand though. So refined, already!

We sure love this girl. Thanks to everyone who sent cards, gifts, and greetings our way! Now we’ve got a 1 year old in the house! It’s sure fun!