4th of July Travels

Family

Before the actual day of our reunion, my immediate family all got together to celebrate the 4th of July and finally being all together. My oldest brother and his 3 girls drove out with the help of my mom all the way from Tennessee and my second oldest flew in from way out in Virginia. Dad drove down from Montana picking up Andy and Katelin on his way, and Chris and I came late from Utah since Chris had to work. We are a very spread out family but I was excited to be all together for this short amount of time, plus we could get a good full family picture just like the Bells got just a few months ago! Unfortunately, Katelin got car sick on her way there and ended up leaving the night Chris and I got there so our picture is missing her.

Claire

The early week was really great for Claire because she got to spend time outside playing in water and chasing butterflies and getting daddy kisses good night. She loved going shopping for the food we were all going to eat on our trip and helping me pack by being cute in her sister's travel bassinet. Unfortunately, the night we drove to southern Utah and stayed in a hotel was a really bad night's sleep and none of us really caught up with it so she wasn't our normal happy little girl. She did have her moments of having fun but whenever she didn't get to do what she wanted she was pretty upset about it in the natural tantrum of a toddler. She had her first experiences playing at a McDonald's with one of her cousins while we were trying to let her get out of the car for a while and was overly loved by all her cousins the whole weekend.

Shay

Being still too young to run and play with the cousins, she was content with being held safely on a couch by the girls and given kisses. Everyone else in the family enjoyed holding and trying to avoid her spit ups and poop explosions the time we were with family and we found out that she likes grass as long as it doesn't touch her face. We got her a seat during our trip that my husband likes to joke is a flying saucer and she is an alien trying to take over the family. I think she likes it and even though she doesn't know how to play with the things on it, Claire does and its a way for them to be cute together.

Reunion

This is the first time in 4 years that I've been to our family reunion from my dad's side of the family so it was great to see people I haven't seen in a while. I mostly like introducing my husband and two cute girls to those who haven't even met them because we haven't gone since being married. They have this reunion in the same place the weekend after or on the 4th of July every year for as long as I can remember with a big meal and then an auction of donated items. This year I donated reversible table place mats (got the idea from the mother's day ones I made for Chris's mom) that I had finished making just in time for us to bring them. We also donated by buying things in the auction which is fun because one of my cousins in a professional auctioneer and it is amazing to hear him go. I really enjoyed showing my husband my childhood memories of Southern Utah and talking about how great it was to see family every year.