Trip Event 5: Hart Family Reunion

The  Hart family reunion that is held every two years. It's for my parents, siblings, and our offspring.

 This year there were 38 out of 47 of us there.  Yvonne and her family, my parents, and my oldest niece Katherine were missed.  We did have Katherine's fiance though, which was a cool bonus. 

Random facts about the Harts:

• 13 children 
• 10 are alive today
• 4 boys
• 9 girls
• 9 are married - Spencer is the lone wolf (and he's cute ladies!)
• 7 have children -Kaitlyn and Tim are trying to adopt --click here.
• 25 grandchildren
• oldest is 20 and the youngest is 2 months
• 15 girls
• 10 boys

 My parent's oldest child, Gus, is now 43 and their youngest child, Valerie, is 19.   My parent's oldest grandchild, Katherine, is engaged to be married in August. 

   My parents have children living in Utah, Arizona, Washington, Alaska, New York, and Dubai.  We are getting pretty spread out, but we love spending time together. 

The Crew

Showing our true colors

The Grandkids

 

Left to right back row: Leslie, Steven, Rebekkah, Emily, Victoria, Sam

Middle row: Julia, Mariah, Anna, Ethan, Emmett, Joel, Camille, TJ, Anthony, Aja

Front row: Eden, Alex, Hyrum, Natalie, Liv

Missing: Katherine, Abigail, Saylor, Talon, Rigdon

 

The siblings (minus Yvonne--we sure missed her!)

 

Back row: Greg, Gus, Spencer, Marshall

Front row: Valerie, Karen, Lisa, Kaitlyn, Carmen

The boys

 (youngest to oldest)

 The girls

 (youngest to oldest)

 (Sorry we cut off your face in this Carm!)

 

We should have made all the in-laws take a picture together. Maybe next time...

Our reunion was at Ensign Ranch in Washington. It was a fabulous place for a reunion!

Giant slip-n-slide:

 Horse-riding:

 

 Camille's ride

Nattie J's turn

 Emily even tried it out...

...then she was ready to be done.

 

Hyrum playing in the "dirt" after his ride

 

Adventurous walks and treasure hunts:

Goaltimate Frisby:

 

Good food:

 

And a whole lot of fun:

Trip Event 4: Liberty Lake Garage Sales

The 2nd weekend in June could indeed be my favorite time of year. It is always the date for the Liberty Lake town garage sales and I LOVE them! I don't know what it is but there's something about them that gets me totally excited and just makes my heart happy. Last summer we missed them for the first time in 8 years due to ....well, living in New York State. :) 
This June we just happened to be going to Washington for various family reunions so, we made sure we were in Liberty Lake on garage sale weekend. I went prepared with an empty suitcase just for the occasion. Despite the rain it was a successful weekend. Yup, it's a wonderful time of year.

Trip Event 3: Sugar City Cemetery

My favorite time to go to the cemetery is few days after Memorial Day. There are no people but lots of fresh flowers and flags. My Mom and I took the girls to visit my sisters' and Grandparents' graves.

We had had a talk about respect and how to behave at a cemetery. True to Idaho's form it was windy. Which equated to lots of flower pots getting knocked over. The girls felt the right thing to do was to put them back up. (Which was cute. But it was also cute to watch them put one up, run to put up the next one as the wind was blowing over the ones they'd just straightened. Oh Idaho wind, we sure don't miss it!)

At Vicky's grave

At Erin and Marsha's graves

Trip Event 2: Tautphaus Park Zoo

We use to go to Tautphaus Park all the time when we were living in Idaho so it seemed like a must-do stop. We decided to go on Memorial day while Bret and Audrey were still in town and Grandma and Grandpa were off of work.

Looking at the zebras

 Emily, Natalie, and Millie

Payson was feeling a little sad

Of course, you have to get pictures on the tiger.

(Or MANY pictures on the tiger!)

 The girls minus baby Jocelyn.

Emily, Camillie, Payson, Allison, Natalie

 Daddy's girls!

 The Maiers Family

Afterwards, Grandma and Grandpa took us to lunch then to Kiwi Loco for dessert, what a great day.

Trip Event 1: Valerie's Wedding

The first fun event on our trip was my baby sister Valerie's wedding.  I can't believe that she's married now. Hopefully, she'll be as happy with her Bradley as I am with mine.

 The living Hart siblings minus Yvonne

 

Lisa, Kaitlyn, Carmen, Marshall, Gus, Spencer, Gregory

Karen, Valerie, and New Brad

 My sister Kaitlyn and niece Rebekkah (They're so cute, right!)

Brothers

 Sisters

Nine of the fifteen nieces

 The Men

Awesome cake made by Lisa

 Fun at the reception

 Corbin, Liv, and Camille

 The best part about this wedding: it was a good teaser for our reunion that was scheduled for 2 weeks later.  Seriously I have such a great family!

Ten Years Later...

I know a lot of you out there have not been enjoying the spider picture that has been the face of my blog for so long. We just got back from a 33 day trip out West. I had every intention of updating the blog throughout our adventures but between having so much fun with family and rarely getting on a computer it didn't happen. So, throughout the next little while I'll be writing about our wonderful trip. (Seriously, we had such a good time!)

At the end of May Brad and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. We were able to leave our girls with some of my family. (Thanks again guys!) We decided to go to Salt Lake City where we were married. We had a blast!(Yup, after 10 years we still like each other.)

Now:

Then:

An isty bitsy spider

I know there are bigger spiders out there but this is the biggest one I've ever found in my house. Spiders don't really bother me however, this one did startle me when I turned around.  There he was just lounging in the middle of the kitchen floor. (Seriously, where did he come from? I hope he travels alone.)

 A little perspective...next to a wide mouth Mason jar and Emily's boot.

 We decided to save him until Dad can come home and met him. (Then Brad can dispose of him. Win-win!)

I don't know, I kinda think he needs a name...

Swimming with the Fishes

I know I've mention this to some of you before but I am really impressed with preschool program at the YMCA. There's so many great things about it. One of the things that we've all really enjoyed is the field trips. Usually the whole family is invited to attend. This last week we got to go to Lake Moreau State Park and help stock the fish. There were about 2500 rainbow trout that needed to be taken off the truck and dumped into the lake. Even though it was chilly and we got wet (which made it a little more chilly) we all had a blast.

The girls got the hang of it quickly and kept going back for more.

 

  Em was a solemn observer.

 Back in line for some more buckets.

 Our little friend, D, in the background helped when one of Natalie's fish swam the wrong way and got beached.

 Camille saw D holding the fish and really wanted to pick one up. She was a little too timid to actually grab a hold of them.

 She resorted to just dumping them in.

 We had to give Emily a chance to "play" with the fish.

 

She wanted in on the action but it was too cold to let her in the water.

 Afterwards we changed into dry clothes and had lunch.

 Camille inhaling her hot dog.

Such a fun experience. When we're at Lake Moreau this summer we won't be afraid of the fish, we're old friends now.

Video action our experience can be found here.