Pioneer Days

This year due to me going to Colorado for the 4th of July I wasn't going to come back for pioneer days.  Hailey and Alyssa really wanted to be there so we decided to leave them when we at the beginning of the month and have my mom bring them back to Utah later in July.  You know me though, knowing that so many of my family was going to be there spending such a fun celebration, I just had to keep thinking of ways that I could get there.   My dear cousin Shelby was going into the MTC the Wednesday before and her parents, my Aunt Myrna and Uncle Dennis agreed to take me back to Colorado with them.  YEAH, I found my way for me, Abby and Macey!

We had so fun and first Sanfords parade, breakfast, races and reunion. 

Sanford even had primary pioneer games for the kids to do before the races.

 We had a Cornum/Miller reunion in Sanford at the park where at least 15-20 famililes came to enjoy a fun dinner together.  Leslie and her kids came in the day before I did (on Tuesday afternoon).  My uncle Tennis and his daughters Myla & Andrea with their children also came to visit from Dallas Texas.  The girls had so much fun with their cousins.  Hailey loved the egg toss though her and Makel didn't do very good

Alyssa really liked the three-legged race where her and Grace (Natalie's daughter) won the race :)

Manassa has a much bigger pioneer days celebration, they have a carnival, rodeo, demolition derby, 5K dances and more.  I loved it as a kid and I still love it, so many people work so hard for it go through.  Yet, when things get bigger other things happen too, and they have lost lots of the true pioneer feel. 

Here is mom and Brooke (and Kamry) having fun watching the parade!

The parade is the best and these kids loved watching the different floats.

Abby really loved the carnival and had so much fun riding all these rides.

  

Hailey and Alyssa had 'all you can ride' passes and really loved Friday afternoon at the carnival.

Vannoy family campout

This past winter I decided that for our family vacation this year we would go stay in a cabin in Colorado. Close enough to spend part of the time with my Vannoy family, but somewhere in the woods to offer diversity for our family vacation.

My mom really liked this idea and went to work looking for a cabin big enough for her entire family, all 22 of us. She did a good job and we got two cabin at the rocky mountain lodge. Everyone made sure this weekend would work and the plans were made.

The cabins were located in a beautiful place, almost up to plateuro, I have no clue how to spell that. We all got there on the 4th but due to fire restrictions all fire works were banned. We did get rain on and off throughout the weekend, which was so needed.

Let's just say the first night, when we had one cabin was fun. Parker was a little grouchy and was on the floor right by my bed. His sleeping bag was the kind that make a cracking noise when they move and he moved. He moved from one end of the room to the other in the night, about 25 feet, so I didn't sleep much with that rustling noise and also his baby brother crying in the night.

It was fun though and I moved rooms the second night and slept wonderfully from then on.

Here are some of the fun things we got to do.

We did a few small hikes, John and the men hiked into bear lake for fishing.

We rode four wheelers a lot, my dad was nice enough to bring all four of his up to the cabins.

We all hiked up to a waterfall

I drove up to the reservoir

We played games

We cooked a lot

And, we just had a wonderful time together as a family.

Thanks mom and dad for turning my little family vacation into a outstanding family reunion!

Cumbres Toltec train ride

Thanks mom for the wonderful birthday gift. John and I went on this narrow gauge train ride through the mountains of Colorado on Saturday after we got packed up and checked out of the cabin we had been staying in for the past 3 nights.

We had lots of fun in Colorado this trip an my girls all lived riding 4-wheelers in the mountains and hiking into the waterfall or this lake. I will say there was way to much food but what we did eat was really yummy.

Here are a few pictures of our train ride!

Freedom festival balloons

This morning we were up nice and early off to the hot air balloon part of the freedom festival. Macey was left at home in bed with her daddy to look over until he left for work and we got home.
Yesterday We saw the purple pig balloon landing at the elementary school in our back yard. That sparked my girls interest and they were all excited to be out and about at 6am.

The sunrise was beautiful!

Abby, Alyssa, and Hailey each liked the "Hawaiian" balloon the best, because of it's palm trees... I wonder why? My favorite was good ol' Smokey Bear. I did really like the coca cola bottle, just it's shape makes it unique in it's own way.

There was a total of 25 hot air balloons that took off today and they will do the same again tomorrow. Of coarse, we won't be here tomorrow. I decided last year after this crazy freedom festival provo puts on that I wouldn't be around this year, so a few months ago I decided we should go camping in Colorado to miss the 'excitement'. My mom thought this was a great idea and booked cabins for the entire family to stay in.

I also was still a little stressed from our stay at the Hilton waikoloa village in Hawaii two years ago. The day we returned home to Kauai, the Beach Boys put on a concert there. I have been wanting to see the Beach Boys for sooo long. I heard the Beach Boys were going on a 50 year anniversary tour this summer so I started stalking their website hoping that they would put on a concert somewhere, anywhere around here. Nothing was there. Then after all these plans were made for our family reunion in Colorado, Provo announced the freedom festivals Stadium of fire performers. Yes, it is the Beach Boys and yes, I am missing the concert even though I really really want to go.

So, in a few hours we will be leaving Utah, going to Colorado. I am still excited for this and hope we have loads of fun! Don't get me wrong, it was just a little bad luck. Oh well, we will still have fun!