Family Reunion -Part 1

I feel like from July 24 until now, my life has been one series of family gatherings and reunions after another.  I did the math and realized that I have been gone three of the last four weeks.  It's been such a party!
The first of August brought on the Sainsbury Reunion.  With Seth and Julie returning from New York where Seth had his internship, and with Matt & Jaime's family in from Texas, we finally had the whole family together!  It doesn't happen very often, so when it does, it is reason to celebrate.  We started off the week by taking family photos.

This isn't one of the actual professional photos, but I was one of those moms who was snapping pictures behind the camera man:)  Here are the proud grandparents of six beautiful little kids.

Then we headed up to Kamas cabin where we had a week of fun that included playing Rook, watching movies, swimming, taking ATV's through the Uintas, visiting Salt Lake's Museum of Natural History, and enjoying each other's company.

 The three England men tolerated the pool quite well.  Mckay is actually starting to LIKE the swimming pool!  Logan loved the water, and would sit contentedly for hours at a time. . . which is good, because we probably swam 2+ hours every day.

 Grandma Sainsbury took the grandkids on a little hike up in the Uintahs.  It was such a beautiful area that I had to snap a photo.  Just don't look too closely at Avenlea in the background.  Apparently, she had to go to the bathroom and I did not notice.

 Mckay loved ATV-ing up at Soapstone Pass.  It is such a breathtakingly beautiful place, and while all the rest of Utah is a sweltering 90+ degrees, we enjoyed a beautiful day in the mid-70's zipping around in the mountains.

Logan loves his "little" cousin Walter.  These two were never far apart, usually playing with the same toys and smiling at each other.

The 5 days we were up in Kamas zipped by so quickly.  I was so happy that we got to spend time together and that Mckay and Logan got to know their cousins better.

28 Years Old

Twenty-eight years old. . . .

. . . and I have been greatly blessed.   I have had 28 years of loving family, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and a lifetime of tender mercies and good experiences.  I am grateful for my sweet husband, my two wonderful children, my family, and my friends.  I am so filled with awe and gratitude for all of my many blessings.

24th of July

Ever since I was a little girl my family has made the annual trek to Manassa, Colorado, to visit my grandma, have an Anderson family reunion, and celebrate the 24th of July festivities.  I haven't been there now for three years, and was excited to be able to go back there, this time with Mckay and Logan.  We left Chase behind for a week and journeyed to Colorado with Grandma and Grandpa Sainsbury and Anne.

One of my favorite things to do over the 24th is run the Manassa 5k.  Here we are just before the race starts.  I have run many a 5k in my time, but none are as hard as this one!  Maybe it has to do with the fact that Manassa's elevation is very close to 8,000 about sea level.  Either way, it was exhausting, but I was proud of myself.  Mckay and Logan cheered me on at the finish line.

Right after the 5k the Pioneer Day Parade starts.  Mckay loved the "horsies" most of all.

Logan was a good sport at the parade.  Next year you can get some candy too buddy!

What would an Anderson family reunion be without lots of pictures?  Here we are Sunday afternoon.

Monday was such an adventure!  We road a "choo-choo train" up Cumbre's pass.  This train was super cool.  It was one of those old-fashioned steam engines, and mountain pass we headed up was just breathtakingly gorgeous.

Mckay loooovvvveeed the train. . . almost as much as he loved his Grandpa!

The next day we went to Zapata Falls.  It kind of reminded me of the Grotto up Payson Canyon, or Calf Creek Falls down in Escalante, Utah.  It was a nice, cool place to spend an afternoon.  The water was freezing, so I couldn't convince myself to hike through the river to the falls, but it was fun to wait by the river and watch Mckay throw rocks in it, and let little Logan kick on the ground.

I am so grateful I decided to come to this reunion.  Preserving family relationships is very important, and I am grateful that my kids got exposed to a big part of their heritage, and that they got to know some of their extended family so much better.

4th of July

This 4th of July was a pretty laid-back affair.  We spent our holiday in the beautiful town of Woodland.    While there, we ate together, watched Sherlock Holmes, went ATV-ing in the Uintahs, and went swimming.

 Logan was there to supervise the rest of us as we swam.

 Mckay's favorite place in the entire area was the top step of the hot tub.  It was only after a lot of persuading that we could get him from here. . . .

. . . to here.

It was a wonderful way to spend time together and keep cool.  

Disneyland!

About a week ago, Chase and I went with our England side of the family to "The Happiest Place on Earth". . . Disneyland!  Chase likes to tease me about my Disneyland fettish, saying that I think Disneyland is just one step below Heaven, and while I wouldn't go THAT far, I do really love this place.  I was especially excited to take Mckay with us this year, as he is finally old enough to get some of it.

 Here we are all together as a family (Jeannette is taking the picture).  As you can see, there are more people doing Disney on wheels then on their two feet.  This was fabulous for us, because we got to get in the "wheelchair lines" which (with the exception of Pirates of the Caribbean), was a much quicker way to do Disney.

 Mckay's favorite ride was the Merry-Go-Round.  He kept wanting to go ride the "horsies", and just loved being able to ride with his Dad.

 Here we are at the end of the day.  We were just heading out of the park when we stumbled upon this great photo-op.  Since Mckay LOVES Donald Duck, we just had to get a picture.

Even though we left Disneyland completely exhausted, I think it was a really fun trip.  It was unlike most trips I've ever taken to Disneyland.  This time it was all about the kids, but you know, seeing Mckay get so excited made me love Dumbo and the Teacups just as much as Indiana Jones and Space Mountain.

Razors, Soapstone, and Bubbles

If you read the title of this blog, you may think I am blogging about taking a shower.  Oddly enough, the words in the title in no way refer to hygiene.  Rather, they sum up what we've been doing since the beautiful month of June has arrived.

Mckay's Uncle Cole has a bubble machine that is, hands down, the COOLEST toy ever!  Mckay will spend hours outside with Cole chasing the bubbles.  One day I caught him just staring, awe-struck, at this amazing toy.

Last weekend we went up to Kamas to visit the England cabin.  This cabin (courtesy of the fantastic imaginations of Todd & Jeannette) has been under construction now for about 2 years, but, as you can see from the picture, the vision is falling into place.  It is almost done!

Adorable.  Enough said.

While in Kamas, we decided to try out this nice new Razor.  We have wanted to explore some of the ATV trails near the cabin for awhile now, but it is kind of hard with two kids.  This is the perfect vehicle.

We had such a blast going up Soapstone Canyon (a canyon about 15 miles from the cabin somewhere up in the Uintahs).  It was so beautiful, and the trails were pretty smooth, which made for a great ride for us.  Mckay's words of, "Oh!  So fast!", pretty much sums up the entire experience.
All in all, I would say our summer has got off to a great start.

England Family 2012

Last April we took a trip to California with our England side of the family.  We did so many fun things that I blogged about before.  Among our many activities, we took family photos.  I was a little bit worried about this photo session, mostly because I felt like I still looked like I had just had a baby (Logan was 3 months at the time), and was feeling a little self conscious.  But our photographer was great, and I felt like she made us all beautiful, and really captured our family so well.

 Yeah, he was not in a good mood.  But still so cute!

 Awww. . .

 This is hilarious.

Here's where the real fun began.

 You go, girls!

To date, this is the most fun I've ever had in a photo sitting!  I love my family!