Last March when we were in Utah for Spencer's wedding, all the siblings sat around one night talking. Our conversation turned to the family reunion and then, out of nowhere, my sister Melissa shouted "I LOVE July!!!" It was very funny. For us. At the time. Really, we couldn't stop laughing. Ok, I guess you had to be there. But Melissa really does love July for all the holidays, no school (she has four kids), swimming, picnics, and everything else that goes along with that middle summer month. We were able to partake in her joy when we flew to Utah on July 2nd. We enjoyed the 4th of July with a morning neighborhood parade, evening bbq and water fight, and finished it off with Sandy City fireworks. The kids did great. Siena thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her cousins (she refused to sit next to us during the fireworks Is she 5 or 15?) and Talia was obsessed with the glow sticks that are my mom's favorite 4th of July tradition.
We spent the next week with family and friends in Salt Lake. We went to the Children's Museum of Utah, went on a breafast picnic up Millcreek Canyon (my dad's favorite spot), out to dinner with friends, a girls' night with my high school girlfriends, and to Liberty Park to let the kids run around the spray park.
We stayed with Mike's parents while we were in town. Siena had a lot of fun watching the Star Wars movies with Mike's dad in the evenings when we would take advantage of the free babysitting and went out with friends. Thank you Duncans!
At the end of our Utah trip we headed east for a Larsen Family reunion to Camelot . The name is cheesey but the location is really great. It was tucked into some sandstone cliffs and formations east of Kamas, Utah. We had a large lodge (each of my seven siblings and their families had their own room/bathroom) and access to a picnic pavillion, tire swing, swing set, hammock, large lawn, and a creek that was perfect for tubing down. The kids all had a great time together running free during the day and the adults played games at night. I had fun teaching my family to play our latest game obsession, Ticket to Ride - Europe. It was nice to get away and enjoy each other's company without the demands of work, church, and every day life to get in the way.
It was a great, month long, vacation. We saw so many friends and family and loved catching up with everyone. Thank you to all who hosted us and made the trip possible. We love you and would love to make seeing you a Duncan family summer tradition.
* My camera battery died half way through the Utah part of the trip so there aren't nearly as many pictures of this leg of the trip as the first two.
1 comment:
You're welcome (for using our house) but I think I might be forever annoyed that we missed your first week in Berkeley. Alaska wasn't worth missing all our friends and the wedding. (don't tell my MIL I said that)
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