Callister Family Reunion

On our way home from Montana, we stopped in Howe, Idaho at my Grandpa's Dairy Farm for the Callister Family Reunion. Howe is a little town, (population: 50) an hour west of Idaho Falls. But we love it there! We all camped in my Grandpa's yard, played games, rode four-wheelers, and visited the cows over and over again. My kids were in heaven on the farm. It was great! My cousin, Karen, and I were in charge of games for the kids, and this game called "Shark" was definitely the favorite. We found it on this Disney website. One shark would call out "fishie, fishie, cross my ocean" and then try to tag the rest of the kids who were the fish, but if the fish ran to one of the dens (hula hoops), then they would be safe. If they were tagged, then they became a shark too. It was a hit! And no one really felt like a loser because it was cool to be a shark or a fish. They kids loved it! And of course the kids wanted to play Red Rover. In the background, you can see a big yellow school bus. After we played games, we all jumped in the school bus and went for a ride up the mountain for a hike and picnic. It was a crazy, bumpy ride taking a bus on those dirt roads, but Emily was just happy to sing "The Wheels on the Bus" again and again.

Each child adopted their own baby calf for the weekend. Emily named her calf, "moo, moo." I thought it was pretty cute for my two-year old to think of that name! :)
Here are all the cousins playing in the water. When Emily sees this picture, she has to point out Ethan and Hailey every time. Isn't it fun that our kids remember each other?
In the program that night, my sister, Ruthanne had a cute idea that we could spell out my grandpa's name, RULON, with our bodies and that each letter could represent one of his qualities. We even ran up cheering, "Rulon, Rulon, Rulon..." It made my Grandpa smile. :)
Go Emily! Hit that pinata!
The last day of the reunion, we held an open house party to celebrate my Grandpa's 90th birthday. He was quite emotional to have so many of his friends and family come see him. I know he's touched many lives. He's a pretty special person.
I can't help but smile when I see this picture because it brings me so much joy seeing my family and how we have grown. My parents have 6 children, and now there are 28 of us in all. It's not too often we're all together in the same place, so this was a really neat time for all of us.

Reed Family Reunion

We traveled north all the way to Kallispell, Montana for the Reed Family Reunion. Thanks to Tyrell and Rose for letting us stay at their house for a night, so we could divide the 10 hour drive up a bit. When we got to their house, they surprised us with Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner (our favorite)! Thank you so much guys! We arrived in Montana two days before the reunion started so we could spend extra time with Wade's Grandpa. I blogged about him earlier. He's amazing! (see here)

After enjoying church with Wade's aunts, uncles, grandpa, and LOTS of Canadians :) we went for a nature walk as a family. It was a beautiful thing watching my daughter pick daisies.

At the reunion, Emily fell in love with the puppy that belonged to Wade's cousin, Troy. We really made a connection with Troy and his wife, Kim at the reunion. Both of their first spouses passed away quite young, and it's amazing they found each other. What a sweet couple and with 8 kids, they really are an inspiration to me! We were so excited to learn that they only live 20 minutes away from us in Bountiful. We're going to have some awesome game nights together! Just chillin'! Catherine, Wade, Troy, and Kim One happy family at Bitterroot Lake

I couldn't help but laugh when Wade was putting on his wet suit to wake board. He totally looks sexy to me, but I still had to laugh!

I was so proud of my boy flying across the lake on the wake board like he did. Wade's such a dare devil with his jumps and tricks. I love it!

One of the highlights of the reunion for me was my canoe trip across the lake to go catch crawdads. I went with Troy and Kim's son, McKay, and Nancy's kids, Kylie and Seth. I love hanging out with teenagers! Call me crazy, but their enthusiasm is just so contagious. These guys were a blast to be with and much braver than I was at catching crawdads, I might add. ;)

At the horseshoe tournament, I was an embarrassment to the game, so it was lucky for me that Wade saved our family's reputation with his skills!

However when it came to basketball, I'm proud to say I beat Wade for the first time ever playing "horse," and then I lost on purpose when we played "pig" just so I wouldn't hurt his self-esteem. haha

All week long, McKay was the sweetest boy ever playing with little Jonathan. I'm always so grateful when people go out of their way to make my kids happy!

Pioneer Day

On our way to a family party on Pioneer Day, we stopped by Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, and on the way out, we let the kids play on the Bob the Builder riding toy. We never put a quarter in the machine because Emily and Jon are as happy as can be just sitting on it! Sweet, eh? Who said kids are expensive? Not me. Mine are pretty easy to please! :) I love it!

This is a picture my Aunt Grace took at the family party because I was having too much fun and totally forgot to even get my camera out. My cousin, Julie, was smart and brought balloons, and the kids had a blast just filling them up with water and throwing them around. Emily isn't wearing her skirt in this picture because she wanted to jump in the puddle and told me, "I don't want it to get wet." What a funny girl!
Afterwards, we headed to Wade's mom's house and lit some fireworks with his family. Here's Emily with her Uncle Jeff and cousin, Caleb.
Here's Wade, Tyler, and Jeff lighting the fireworks. They were having too much fun, I think, but boys will be boys!

Cute Hair

Before we left for our big family reunion trip, I tried a new hairstyle on Emily because I knew it would work great as a camping hairstyle, out of her face, but still looking cute. What do you think?

Bathroom Remodel

We love our cute little home in Sugarhouse, but since it was built in 1920, there are always projects we're working on to improve it. We're proud to say the bathroom is now remodeled and looking great! This is the before shot.

We have had pink tile that was the same color of Pepto Bismol. I'm serious! Emily's friend, Etta, thought it must be a princess bathroom and called it pretty :) but we called it pretty ugly! We did our best to decorate around the old, cracking tile.

The tub used to be the same color as the tile, but then someone did a poor job trying to resurface it this gray color, so the pink was still showing in parts. And since the hot water faucet broke off last December, we have been using a wrench to get hot water. Crazy, huh? :)

total demolition!

The "after" tub and shower.

The "after" bathroom.

The new tile is awesome. Everything just looks bigger and cleaner. We are really excited!

Girl's Lunch and Ice-Cream

After the Radio Disney Event, I met up with my sisters at Pizza Factory for lunch to celebrate Ruthanne's birthday. It's kind of "our place" and we always look for opportunities to go there together. I love my sisters! I especially love how they make fun of me when I take forever ordering my food. haha ;)
And here's the happy cousins, Hailey and Emily. They're always hugging each other. It's so cute! Margaret and I are just glad that they play so well together because they keep each other entertained, especially when we get together to scrapbook.
The next day, I went to Coldstone Creamery to enjoy some ice-cream with one of my good friends, Becky Bruso. She's the personal assistant to Governor Huntsman, so she's a little busy to say the least. She just had a baby on June 5 (doesn't she look great?), so while she's on a quick maternity leave, we thought it would be a good time to get together. Becky and I first met at a Leadership Conference as sophomores in high school and found an instant connection. She's one of the most amazing individuals I have ever met. She's fun, dynamic, intelligent and just a genius when it comes to politics. She'll likely be the Governor someday (or even the President of the U.S.)! I love ya Becky!

Radio Disney

Before I post about our big family reunion trip, I wanted to post these fun pictures from a few weeks ago. I met up with my friend, Traci, at the Gallivan Center downtown because Radio Disney was sponsoring a fun little carnival with musical performances, games, and activities for kids of all ages.

Here's a very happy Emily posing next to Mickey Mouse.

Emily and Etta could NOT stop giggling as they jumped around in the bounce house. And they really enjoyed participating in the science experiments, too.

Gibson and Jonathan were just happy to be there and watch their cool older sisters.

So this picture makes me laugh because everyone else is doing the Macarena dance, except my daughter. I tried to show her the moves, but she refused to do it. She just kept looking at everyone else thinking they were crazy! Maybe she didn't get the memo that the 90's rocked! Okay, so the 80's may have been cooler, but come on Emily, it's the Macarena, you gotta do it!

Here's a family photo that I didn't expect would happen. Just minutes before, I was quite alarmed when a man came from behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I turned around and saw that it was my husband! To say that I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement. I was thrilled to see him! Wade has been doing a summer internship with Commerce CRG, a commercial real estate company. And since he was working so close to the Gallivan Center, he searched us out among the hundreds of people there to surprise us. What a sweet guy!
After Wade returned to work, Traci and I took the kids to a nice grassy area where a fireman was hosing down the kids. It was hilarious to watch Emily and Etta try to run away from the fireman, but really wanting to get wet!
We ended the morning by playing in the water fountains. Happy kids? Yup! They sure were!