Callister Family Reunion

Every other year, we have a huge Callister Reunion with my mom's cousins and my second cousins. It's always a blast, and this year it was held at the LDS stake park in Groveland, Idaho. Wade and I love camping, especially when it's on a nice grassy area like it was this weekend. It's my FAVORITE way to camp! I really don't mind sleeping on the ground, sharing a tent as a whole family, or missing a day or two without a shower (come on, that happens sometimes even when I'm not camping. I'm a mom for crying out loud!) It's just so much nicer that the kids aren't quite as filthy when we camp on the grass.Emily and Jon helping daddy. Sorry about the behind shot Waders! After a long drive in the car, Jonny takes a minute to rest. Ahh, so comfy.

The first night, after my Uncle Seth and the band entertained us, he invited anyone else up on stage that wanted to sing or play an instrument. Emily asked me if she could go up and sing and was the first one up there! I was super surprised, but definitely proud of my little girl. She sang every word of "I Lived in Heaven" without missing a beat. It's funny because although she talks and sings all day long at home, she is usually as shy as can be in front of people. my two boys with their crazy morning hair-do

We slept in our tent like this without the covering and could see every star possible that night. It was gorgeous!

Wade and my dad helping Jonny during craft time

Cute girls: Emma, Emily, and Lucy

Lucy and Emily with their hula hoops during the relay race

For some reason, they always ask me to be in charge of the kids games at every reunion. ;) Marne and I teamed up and created a fun relay course and some other games for the kids. It was awesome watching the cousins get to know each other better. playing tag

Little Gwyn and me
These older boys were crazy about Jonny all weekend. If he was sad because his mean mommy was making him actually eat his dinner, they would come up to us and say, "Jonny, don't be sad. What's wrong buddy?" And of course they invited Wade and Jon to join them in playing water baseball. Later I begged them if I could play too, but mostly just so I could go down the slip and slide at home base...like 50 times. I was loving that thing. It's kind of ridiculous what a big kid I am really. They almost kicked me out of the game because I kept stealing bases so I could slide into home base again.

One of the best parts of the weekend was tubing down the rapids of the canal. We used to do this at every reunion when I was a kid, and I loved it. Still do. Thanks to my mom for watching Jon and Emily while we were gone.

Awe-some
The crazier the waves the better!

Trying to get back to shore before the current took us too far down the canal

Our favorite redneck joke used to be: "You might be a redneck if you go to a family reunion looking for a date!" Well, we're not true red necks in that sense. Thank goodness! But we do dance together and love every minute of it. When I was 10, I used to think it was so cool to dance with Tommy, Eric, or Zane because they were the cutest cousins my age. And I felt so lucky if Uncle Lee danced with me because he was such a good dancer. Now that I'm older and married, I'm more than happy to dance with my husband on the slow songs (which is a good thing!), but we all still line-dance, swing dance, square dance, and do the hokey-pokey together. Anyone want to join our family? I love being a Callister!

Oh, also BIG thanks to Kristen, Melody, Kelly, Marne, Nikki, and Kim for being my buddies at the reunion! I feel like I have the coolest cousins ever and genuinely enjoy spending time with them. It's great!

Here's a few fun pics of Emily and Jon on the swings on our last day there. They couldn't get enough of the swings the whole weekend. They asked us to push them several times a day everyday.

The biggest reason we attend the family reunion is so we can spend more time with this guy. My Grandpa Callister is pretty special.

After the reunion, we spent the rest of the day and night with Wade's cousins, Tyrell & Rose and Dallas & Cecilia in Ucon, Idaho, near Idaho Falls. I love small towns! These guys still irrigate their lawn, just we did when I was growing up. So we went skimboarding across their lawn and just talked and laughed the rest of the evening.

Sunday morning, we went to church with Wade's cousin, Nancy and her family, and had a good visit with them before getting back on the road.

On our way home, we stopped in Logan for few hours so we could BBQ with Wade's best high school buddies, Tyler & Heather, Craig & Aubrey, and Caleb & Paige. We're pretty excited about Tyler's new teaching job at Tooele High School because it means we'll get to see him and Heather more. Yea!

We had been looking forward to this weekend all summer, and it was exactly what we needed! I didn't expect, however, for this to change our plans for where we want to raise our family. I still don't know if Wade is convinced yet, but honestly, I feel like I could live in rural Idaho forever!

Lang Family Reunion

Last year, all of my siblings and their little families were able to attend the Callister Reunion, on my mom's side. We're rarely all together at the same time since we're all so spread out where we live, so it was really special. It was then that my dad decided it was time we start having our own family reunion. So July 16-18 of this year, we had our first official Nick and Lois Lang Family Reunion at Duck Creek on Cedar Mountain. It was awesome!

Every night, Steve and Nick would have a sweet jamming session on their guitars for us all to enjoy.
On Friday morning, after Wade and I made pancakes, scrambled eggs, and fruit for everyone, he went hiking to the caves with most of the family. Stacie and I went on our own little hike because we had the youngest kids, and we knew they wouldn't last long on a the big hike.
We "hiked" for 2 minutes and then found a perfect spot near a stream. It was just gorgeous, and the girls loved picking flowers for us.
Here's Jon filling up the watering can and then pouring it back into the stream, on the rocks, and on the plants.

Hailey, Emily, and Amanda

Aspen is also their age, and these 4 girls were inseparable the whole weekend!

The kids watching with excitement as Grandpa makes kool-aid for lunch

I promise Alex was excited, he was just pulling a silly face for me!

I brought my parachute for the younger kid's games. This has been one of the best investments I've ever made. It can provide hours of entertainment!

Margaret and Ruthanne were in charge of the older kid's games.

My mom somehow got roped into playing along and is screaming like a little girl as Alex throws a wet sponge her way. haha

Water break

The cool smore pinata that Margaret made

You're killing me smalls!

My mom had challenged each family member to memorize and recite a poem, just like my Grandma Callister used to. It was really neat that even the younger ones wanted to participate. Here's Jonny reciting the ABC's. Emily recited "The First Article of Faith," "Jack and Jill," and "The Grand Old Duke of York." The last two are her favorite poems....don't ask me why!

Even filthy dirty while camping, Emily's still a little lady ;)

Searching for surprises in the saw dust pile

My dad rented ATV's for the whole weekend. SA-WEET! Ali watched our kids while Wade and I rode up a steep, rocky mountain and then some other fun trails. Later, we took the kids on a simple trail. They loved it, of course! Thanks again Dad!

After the reunion, we spent the rest of the weekend at my mom's house in Santa Clara. It was dang hot in Southern Utah, so the kids spent a lot of time playing in the water. Check out Emily's face as Jon pours cold water on her. What a nice brother!

Lagoon!!!

That's right, I used 3 explanation marks on my title. That's because Wade and I spent a whole day at Lagoon without kids! Honestly, it would have been sweet to see how excited they got riding some of the rides, but it was less expensive and more relaxing to be there with just the two of us. It was awesome! We felt like newlyweds again.

Our favorite ride by far was Wicked. Anyone else agree? We rode it like 4 times. We just couldn't get enough. Enjoying the beautiful view on the Sky Ride Lagoon a Beach was a lot more fun once the crowds died down. Between 6pm-8pm is the perfect time to go because of a lot of people have left to go eat dinner and ride regular rides. Since there were NO lines at all after 7pm, Wade and I were like little kids running with our tubes to go down the water slides again and again. :) While we were there, it was cool to bump into some friends from our neighborhood as well as my cousin, Sunny, and her family who live in Idaho. I had to do a double take because I wasn't expecting her to be in Utah. It was fun to visit with them for a little while.

We ended the day in the arcade where Wade showed me his mad skateboarding moves. ;) Good times!

Splash Time: Water Week

I lost count of how many times Regan went down the slide into the pool. Let's just say there was constant laughing and giggling, and I was immensely pleased that THIS was how I chose to end out Summer Camp!

They were all excited when I turned on the sprinkler. Brock, Kenzo, and Jonny would jump over the water and then try to catch it or hit it.
By the end of the day, Emily was exhausted by all that playing in the sun that she decided to put her feet up and just relax. :)

On day 2, after stories and water experiments, I brought out some fresh watermelon for the children to enjoy. Here's Ollie, Jonny, Brock, Juliet, and Kenzo.

My 3-4 year old class was a little crazier than the 2 year olds. ;) They were teaming up and trying to get my helpers wet. It was hilarious! Miss Jazel and Miss Melanie had joined us for the day and after two hours, they were more wet than anybody!
Best buddies, Emily and Nicole!
After playing in the water for a while, they would wrap up in their towels to warm up...

...and then go right back to playing and splashing each other!

a very happy (and very wet) JonnyReading books together in the sun to warm up

For the water experiments, they chose which combination of colors they wanted to use to create a new color in their bowl.

For the next water experiment, I gave them fresh water and a dab of a secret ingredient, and they had to figure out what it was. After stirring it around, getting slimy hands, and making lots of bubbles, they figured out that dish soap was my secret ingredient. ;) After I rinsed their hands off with the hose, we got into a water fight and everyone was soaking wet, including me! Man, I love my job!

Scientists Explore: Science Week

Sink or Float? Each child took a turn putting something in the water to test whether it would sink to the bottom or float on top.

Our next experiment: What will happen to popcorn kernels once they get hot? EVERYONE knew the answer to this one, but they were still fascinated by my popcorn popper. Here we are cheering for the popcorn kernels to finally POP, POP, POP!

And of course they ate the popcorn for Snack Time once it was popped!

"More popcorn please!"
Monday after quiet time, I pulled out some huge moving boxes for Jon and Emily. They had a blast using them to make their own fort. And then I left them out all week long so my students could explore in them during Science Week, too.

Another science experiment:
How many children can we fit inside the sandbox crab? :)

We had a few more experiments, but this one was our last one, and one of the favorites: What will happen if you put a pinwheel in front of a fan? Nicole and Jonny are having fun finding out the answer!