The rest of our Utah vacation

After we went camping, we had a whole other week to enjoy Cedar City.  Between both families, we had a lot of fun.  Nana B. and Papa Joe had some sparklers and pops for the kids to enjoy in backyard. 

 Of course, Papa Joe had to take us out shooting.

We went swimming at the aquatic center.  Grandma Sherman got a new camera is water proof, so we had to try it out!

 I love that Gavin totally photo-bombed our picture!

We cleaned out Tyler's Dad's old shed.  That was an all day project!  It looks so much better. But then there is so much more we can do.  The kids loved playing in the gutter water.

When you have no paper to draw on, yourself is the next best thing!

We, or course, had to make a date to the temple that we were married in.  The sealing room sits right off the celestial room, so we got to sit in there and reminisce about our wedding and sealing almost 11 years ago!

 We visited Grandpa's grave.  He had a birthday... would have been 62.

My neighbor was so kind to give all the kids a horse ride!  Makenzie was in heaven.

Papa Joe and Gavin were twins!

My friends from Elementary and High School had a reunion as well!  We are still missing about half  our group, but it was so great to see those who could make it!  We are all married with lots of kiddies and live all over the country now.  It's been fun to stay in touch and see where our lives have taken us!  I really do think we are BFF's!   

In between all this fun, we got hit with the worse GI bug!  It hit each member of the family one day at a time.  It pretty much took you out of commission for a few days.  No fun!

Bales Family Reunion

We planned a reunion with my family in Utah.  

We decided to go camping at Fish Lake for several days. 

It was a successful week! 

 It is always good to come together as family.  

It doesn't happen as much as it should!

 

 We have missed the mountains so much!  

It was great to let the kids run, explore, and have a little extra freedom!

  

These two were having a screaming contest....

Pure joy on this kid's face!

Racing! 

 Playing some games!

Playing in the dirt!

 Coloring!

 

 You can tell these two red-headed kids are cousins.  Great little playmates!

  

She is a Daddy's girl... and she took advantage of all the Daddy time this vacation.    

Nothing is better than being with Dad!

 But being with Dad AND a bag of Cheetos is the BEST!!!

 

We spent a morning down by the lake with the rafts.  

 

Uncle Chris has a boat, so we all got to take a turn on the boat as well. 

Tyler gave a lesson of Rock Skipping 101 to all the kids.

 

The clouds rolled in every afternoon!  We got rain everyday.  We decided to go down the mountain to Richfield one afternoon to go swimming and get ice cream. We came back up to rain!  We just made it an adventure under the tarps.

We met up with "Smokey the Bear."

We did a little hiking!

 

And, of course we ate s'mores!

 

While the kids were on the boat, we tried to do a little bit of fishing.  My kids did not understand the art and science to fishing.  They have it in their heads that they can throw a worm in the water and catch a fish right away.  So even though we were at "Fish Lake," we never caught a fish. It really just came down to my kids not have the patience for it.  Before we left the mountain, we went to a small creek, hoping to catch a few small fish a little quicker than our turn at the lake. It was so picturesque.

 And this is how we all felt by the end of the week! 

Exhausted and sunburnt!