July Fun and Family Reunions

As I am looking at the title of the post, "July Fun and Family Reunion," It makes it sound like they are very separate- like we had fun in July and then went to a family reunions that weren't fun. Because family reunions are never fun, right? Wrong. They were. We have had too much fun this summer which I why I am so behind and haven't posted anything. Too much fun. Too often. No time to blog because we are re cooperating from having too much fun. I am glad to have lots of fun memories and not enough time to post them... so here we go.  In July, we had our great friends from Austin come  to visit for a morning. Lucky for us, they have family here and this is the second summer that we have been able to see them. And we remembered to get a picture this time. Here are the Derderian kids with ours:

L to R: Bri holding Afton, Meredith, Brooke, Bridger, Myah, Carter and Sam. 

All the kids were horribly bored while Rochelle and I talked and talked. My boys don't know how to entertain 5 girls who are older than they are and not into cowboys at all. Luckily, the sandbox is a pretty good toy for most kids of various ages. 

 This is me looking drunk with Beautiful Rochelle. I really like this girl. We have a lot of similar interests. She has great ideas and is so organized. After her visit in the summer of 2011, she inspired me into doing P90X workouts (she has done the entire series  4 or 5 times) and I am thankful to her that after 30 years I discovered that I really was born with triceps. Like many of my closest friends, I wish we lived closer so her great traits rubbed off on me more. It was a short but very sweet visit. 

 Random picture of my sweetie in her cute little swim outfit. I love her!

 She is Miss Independent. Likes to stand in her chair and get herself out. She can't get down herself and luckily she hasn't fallen yet.  And she insists on feeding herself now. She wants to do it all. by. herself. 

 Sometimes she gets yogurt in her mouth. She likes to lick it off the spoon.

 Healthy finger paint I guess. 

Sissy's First time in the tube

 A picture really is worth a thousand words!

I love this picture:

 So I went boating once a week on average this summer. The rest of  the family went often. I decided if we had our own boat, we wouldn't have gone any more than we did this summer. We have lots of friends who have boats who claim they can't find anyone to go with. They know we are up for it any day, so we got to go a lot.  We have lots of fun. I can't think of a better family activity than being stuck on a boat together, encouraging and cheering each other on, seeing your kids learn and be able to do things that are scary and hard AND getting a good tan while you're at it. :) It's the best. Someday when our student loans are paid, we will get our own boat and then we'll return the favor and take everyone who has taken us. 

Ok- Family reunion Numero Uno.

Lewiston, Utah. Yeah- I know, killer place for a reunion. We got to have cousin time- so it was fun. 

Two of my sisters live here. Within walking distance of each other. They share food and meals, they share clothes, their kids sleep at who ever's house they end up at at the end of the night (maybe I'm exaggerating on the last one...) It's something this Type-A girl couldn't handle, but it works for them and they are still relatively normal :)

The kids ran around like hooligans all day- rode four wheelers everywhere, played cowboys, pirates, spies and just had a blast.

 We went boating to Lamont reservoir- they call it the Toilet Bowl. 

NOT because the water is like a toilet bowl, but because it is so small that you basically go in a big circle around and around and around.  The kids had fun playing in the water, they could jump off the dock and we could ski and wake board. 

 Ben and Carter on the tube.

We celebrated Carter's birthday and then went to Oneida reservoir the next day. It was kind of cloudy and rained on and off, but we still had lots of rounds of water skiing and plenty of tubing. We had a big barbecue that night and then went to Wyoming the next day for our next reunion.

Reunion Number Two: Bridger Valley Wyoming and then onto a 4H camp in the mountains. 

I know... I keep making you jealous that we went to all these hot destinations for vacation. 

Ben loves to go home. He loves to go fishing in the canal down the hill. He likes to drive around and see if anything has changed- usually it hasn't... but when it does, it is BIG news.  He loves to catch up on how everyone in the Valley is doing. And when you are from a small valley, you know how everyone is doing. The crazy thing is, my uncle lives in this valley and Ben grew up with my cousins. I have a few cousins who live there now, so sometimes I care to hear about what is going on too. I think Ben really loves not thinking or worrying about anything at home or work when he is here. It is great R&R for him that he really deserves. 

 He brought the boys fishing with him and they caught these little fish. 

They wouldn't eat a bite for lunch, but they had a great time fishing. 

 This is Carter's first fish ever.

We also went to JR's to ride horses. This will have to be it's own post because we have too many pictures. 

We went up to a 4H camp for Ben's mothers side reunion- Reunion Number 3. They were celebrating her father's would be 100th birthday. Lots and lots of cousins to meet and lots of cousins we knew to see and play with. We were only there one day, so we filled it up with fun things. 

Like playing in the water and more fishing

 Afton and Stella

 This is very typical. Ben (only adult) with ALL the kids. 

He likes to say, "Kids just know a good pediatrician when they see one."

I like to say, "You are too patient and too nice." What great qualities. Man, I love that guy. 

 Ben's Dad bought this pinball machine when they were kids. They all have so many memories with this thing. He sold it to a friend when the kids left home.. or when Ben's mom couldn't handle it anymore- the story is still unclear, but then borrowed it for this reunion. I will admit, it was fun to play and can tell why they all got addicted and spent hours playing it. Now we are on the search for the pinball machine game "The Six Million Dollar Man." If you see it, let us know immediately. Ben will pay top dollar. :)