Gardner Reunion

My grandparents decided to have a little family reunion this year at the ever famous Gardner's Ranch. Okay, LITTLE, may not be the exact word to use, I counted 94 of us just from my grandparents down, and I'm sure I'm missing someone! Not to mention 3 of us are prego! Although not everyone could make it, nor was everyone there for the entire three days, there's still a lot of people regardless! I LOVE it! I love coming from such a large family and it's when we all get together like this I know why I want to have a large family myself! It's so great and the girls were loving every minute of it! What's funny is Kylie has no idea what any of her cousins names are, she simply calls them all cousin! Who could blame her, she has to have around 60+! I'm lucky when I can remember everyone's names!

We arrived in time for dinner Thursday night, and stayed until late afternoon Saturday. I'm pretty sure I've once again over done it with the pictures! But I just couldn't decide which one's I wanted to use!

The best thing about the Gardner Ranch is by far the pool! I actually remember them building this thing! It starts out a foot or so deep and gradually goes down to around 10 feet (I think, maybe more). The water for this pool comes straight off the mountains spring run off. Oh it's cold! Sadly, getting this pool up to swimming condition is no easy task! It takes all day to clean and scrub with a large handful of people, and then TWO days for it to fill completely with water! Needless to say, it's not used as often as many of us would like.

The first part of Friday morning was surprisingly over cast! And how grateful we were for it! Although the heat in Central is nothing compared to the scorching heat of St. George, it's still rather hot! If only we could have been as lucky throughout the rest of the outing!

'Sun Your Buns!'

Look like a leisure weekend to you??

My Grandparents also have this little paddle boat, perfect for this pool! It was defiantly one of the swimming highlights for my girls!

Yes, that is an air mattress! That's my family for ya! No I did not join in on the fun, just enjoyed watching from a safe distance!

I found these sunglasses at the dollar store as I was shopping for the trip. I knew I couldn't pass up these red ones, oh how she loves them!

Kayla got a rather small cut on her toe and would not stop crying until a band aid was applied. This is her admiring the Toy Story band aid she loves so much!

More water fun after the sun came out that afternoon.

Kylie fell asleep on the sidewalk. She was freezing so I told her to lay out in the sun and covered her with a towel. Next thing I knew she was in dream land! I love how she's using the floatie on her arm as a pillow!

They found a salamander in the pool, something Uncle Weston use to be obsessed with during his younger years. Kayla was every bit as fascinated. I actually told her to give it a kiss and would you believe she actually went for it?! If Uncle Weston hadn't pulled back, she'd have gotten a lip full of salamander cooties!

This picture just doesn't do it justice! It was so beautiful and the sun was streaming through the clouds. The kids were all looking out across the valley and I just couldn't resist! Wish it would have turned out a little better though.

Mike, unfortunately couldn't get time off of work, so he simply camped out with us, then would head back to St. George in the morning, and come back for dinner and a night of not so great sleep, then do it all over again!

The second night there was a little bit of wind that blew through right as we were eating dinner. I actually ate something that fell from a tree, and was done eating after that!

Kayla's really not sad in this picture, she was just telling me something about her dad, I think it was he didn't have anything to drink, and apparently it deserved this facial expression. She's so dramatic!

The second night Kayla was having a hard time getting to sleep, so I handed her a flashlight, and would you know, it didn't take long for her to drift off for a good nights sleep.

Don't you just love camping food and eating chips first thing in the morning for breakfast?!

Kylie, oh so happy after a great nights sleep!

Mike's version of how his night went! HA HA! We bought a camping heater years ago when Kylie was a baby. But never used it this trip. I would have never guessed the nights here were going to be so HOT! We had to sleep with all the windows unzipped and are now debating a camping fan!

Well as you can tell there's also a nice size slide for the kids to play on. The girls most definatly enjoyed it. Kayla had to have a little help going down though.

Mike, up early waiting for the minutes to pass until he had to make the drive back to work. Poor guy!

So I alway figured camping was suppose to be a technology free event, just you and your family enjoying the great outdoors. Apparently when there's a cell phone tower only a few miles away, it all goes out the window! The guy was on facebook half the time!

Kylie looks sad in the photo, and she was, but only for a few minutes. That was until Grandpa Gardner came and hauled us all over the pool. Kayla actually came on for a little while to, but unfortunately, there are no photos to prove it.

Love this mischievous look! She knows exactly how to get her grandpas attention!

Ready to deliver, and deliver she did!

On day three, I had packed up the tent and had everything ready to so when Mike got back, we could pack up and head to a BBQ a friend of his was having. Kylie wanted to go to sleep, so we had to compromise with a blanket and pillow under the shade. Most likely it was much cooler then the tent would have been.

It was a great family reunion and I'm so grateful for such an awesome family and for my Grandparents providing so much of the food for everyone. It's defiantly not cheap or easy work to put on an event with a group as large as ours! Hopefully next time Mike will get to enjoy it a little more.