Box Elder Flats and FHE

Dear Kate and Riley,
After Grandma Wiggins birthday party we headed over to the Hansen/Canova's for the start of the Hansen reunion. We have these reunions every other summer and it is really for me the highlight of the summer when we have them. I love that I grew up being close to my cousins and I love that we all still get along so well. I feel like everyone has so much fun and I continue to be surprised that year after year so many of us manage to make it to the reunions. We had a really good turnout this year, I think that minus one family and the two boys on missions every one of the grandkids at least made an appearance! Pretty cool.

We spent the first evening chatting it up while the kids swam. Brady had his second pool day (no pictures I think) and really was into it this time (I am sure the 100+ temps helped make the pool seem more enticing)

The second day was Sunday so after church and naps we all met up at Box Elder Flats in the canyon for dinner, pictures in our too cute matchy shirts and some Minute to Win It FHE activities. It was so much fun! Zach played in the creek and had as much fun as any 2 year old can have and yes, we're still watching for signs of giardia since he wouldn't stop drinking the water!

I'm waiting for Megan to blog so I can steal some of her group pics and our family pics from this day as well. :)

Enjoying his first Fatboy with Aunt Jenny


Throwing rocks in the river

Getting a little more daring

pretty soaked

Uncle Chris is so good with the kids! Brady loved him.


Seriously kid STOP. DRINKING. THE. WATER!



Minute to Win It!

Keep the balloon in the air for 1 min

Wrapping your partner in TP, aunt Kathy and Laina

Ami and Presley were the best


Cash picking up cotton balls on his nose, the kids were SO cute

Uncle Chris and I trying to get an Oreo from our foreheads into our mouths. Harder than it seems!

We had so much fun up the canyon, it was a good one Nelsons!

Love,
Mom

Grandma W's 80th Birthday

Dear Kate and Riley,
On the second day of our trip we got the chance to celebrate my Grandma Wiggin's 80th birthday. All of my mom's siblings were there and a lot of the grandkids too. We had a luncheon with some walks down memory lane of my Grandma's 80 years. It was fun to see cousins I hadn't seen in a long time and catch up and to celebrate with my Grandma. She is really an amazing woman who has done SO much in her life, it was really fun.

Grandma Wiggins

Aunt Ilene made these beautiful cakes, she is so talented, she also made our wedding cake!

Aunt Ilene hosted Price is Right (one of Grandma's favorite shows) for the party guests, it was pretty hilarious!

Grandma Janice was one of the Price is Right models! Ooh-la-la!

Loving this look on Grandma Janice, I really think she should sport it on a regular basis!

Uncle Clint wore one of Grandpa Wiggins' outfits he got on his mission.

Summer and Ali got to try on Jenny's wedding veil that was used for the game, they loved it!

Ilene (seriously multi talented am I related to this woman!?) also wrote Grandma a song and sang it, it was beautiful and mad me cry.

I was glad we got to squeeze in some quality Wiggins time before the Hansen reunion started. It was so fun to see everyone!

Love,
Mom

Summer Fun-- in parts

Dear Kate and Riley,
It is totally overwhelming to even think about writing about this vacation so I think I'm going to have to baby step through it.

We left for Utah AGAIN in July for ten days. Our drive out was uneventful. A late night stopover in St. George and we arrived in Salt Lake the next day.

First stop-- uncle Andrew's house. Since the purpose of the trip was the Hansen family reunion we tried to squeeze in a little O'Farrell time when we could. We were able to spend our first afternoon with some O'Farrell cousins and Zach got his first try on the slip-n-slide. Zach kept looking out at the back yard and saying "Look mom! A park!" poor kid, some day maybe we'll have more than just a patio.

Zach took a bit to warm up but then he thought the slip-n-slide was cool. So cool he had a hard time taking turns.




loving his popsicle


the babies! So fun to have them 2 weeks apart.

More to come!
Love,
Mom

4th of July!

Dear Kate and Riley,
Summer fun is in full swing around here. After our fun weekend at home with Dad we just had a few days until we headed of to St. George with the O'Farrells for the 4th of July.

We drove during the day and it went great, the boys did really well and we made good time. Zach was SOOOO excited to see his cousins although he didn't really get that we were staying in St. George since last time we just spent the night there. He kept asking when we were going to our cousins' house.

Despite the 103+ degree temps we managed to have a great time. Zach just loves every second with his cousins and it is so much fun to watch. I love hanging out with Dad's fam and being silly. I'm grateful that our introvert (Dad) and his pretty introverted siblings (for the most part) all married extroverts. Everyone got in on the fun and although I have no pictures to prove it, we played a great game of "Bum Charades". It is going to be a party game for some time to come I think!

Our drive home was pretty terrible since we hit quite a bit of holiday traffic. Guess it just meant that we should have stayed a few extra days!

This is going to be major picture overload!

Decker and Zach crashed

Brady getting ready for his first time in the pool!

First time in the pool!

Eating strawberries by the pool

Ready for fireworks!

Autumn and Maddie ready for fireworks!

Cute Myra

At least Zach isn't the only one obsessed with the "puzzle phone"

While waiting for fireworks we played a mean game of "Mrs. Sally Walker" it was a new one to me but brought me right back to my days of EFY

All the cousins minus Zach who was having a tantrum (are we really surprised?)

ALL the cousins plus me crouching down behind Autumn and holding Zach

There were like ten of these with Zach not looking until SMART aunt Stacy yelled, "Oh look! Lightening McQueen!" we know how to fool a 2 year old.

Don't you just want to eat those toes!? Brady does.

The babies are getting big!

Let the popper wars begin. Zach was INTO it this year

Cute Jake

FINALLY!!! All I wanted, both of my boys looking at the camera. Turns out poppers are a good bribe.

All the girls, very cooperative

All the boys, this time it was Jake's turn to have a tantrum

Sparklers!

Zach would only hold his sparkler by the ground. After a lot of encouragement he finally started waving it around, only to have it singe his hair! Guess we should have left him in "safety" mode!

Getting ready for our firework show "in the street" as Zach kept reminding us

On Monday we headed to the Washington City rec center which was REALLY cool, for all Zach knew we could have been at a full blown water park. He had a blast. The pool was actually indoor but all the walls opened. It was really nice to be out of the sun!

Sooo sleepy!

And really, the summer trips have just begun!

Love,
Mom