Sunburns and Mosquito bites

Our summer of family reunions and vacations has commenced and is quickly coming to an end. I am VERY behind when it comes to blogging.  I decided one post about the 4 trips thus far would be way too much so I split them up into 2. 

Our first adventure was at Wolf Creek in the Ogden canyon down in Utah with the Barber family.  All of the kids, spouses, and grandkids were there and we had so much fun!!  The resort was in a beautiful location surrounded by the mountains.  Kevin and I were only there for the first few days because of having to come back for work so we missed out on a lot of stuff.  The things we did do were lots of fun though.  We spent one day swimming at Cherry Hill water park and everyone got sunburned I think but it was fun.  I was surprised to see Mike and Tena (Kevin's parents) going down the water slides.  The resort had a great pool so we swam a lot as well as doing outdoor activities such as basketball, tennis, horse shoes, hiking, etc.  We, the adults, spent many hours playing cards after the kids had gone to bed and we had a lot of laughs.  When it comes to cards I'm a pretty good player and I think all of the Barber siblings and spouses now know that about me.

I somehow got roped into playing basketball with Tim, Todd, Chad, Kevin, and Emilee.  I wasn't too excited at first as sports is definitely not a favorite thing of mine to do.  I don't mind waching but when it comes to playing them I've never been any good at it and have decided I never will.  I got to play because Emilee played and they wanted one girl on each team (no hard feelings Emilee).  In the end I did admit to having fun playing with them.  They were of course nice and let me shoot and dribble the ball when someone was nice enough to pass it to me, but I didn't have a problem with just hanging out in the back of the court or the side lines and not touching the ball haha.  Emilee fell on the court and scraped up her leg pretty bad so Matt, her husband, took her spot.  I then got to guard Chad.  Now Chad gets picked on a lot by his brothers but he's a good sport about it.  I can't say I ever played basketball with the boys but now I can.  There was sweat flying and ball fighting but it was fun to watch Kevin and his brothers play.  When I played t-ball as a little kid I was hit in the face with the ball in the outfield and ever since then I have had this fear of balls coming at my face.   For this reason I never go under the basketball hoop.  Also, that seems to be a very competetive place to fight for the ball and I didn't want any part in it.  In the end, I did make a few baskets and had a great time playing, although I'm sure they were all laughing inside at how horrible my skills are haha.

I was horrible at taking pictures on this trip unfortunately but I did get a couple. 

                                            This is a picture of the dam below our resort. 

                                  Kevin and Emilee playing tennis against Chad and Kelsey.

Our next adventure was the following weekend at Copper Basin with my dad's family.  This is one of my favorite places ever! Growing up I can't tell you how many years of memories I have of being up there but I love the fact that now Kevin and I get to make our own memories up there.  At the campground we are about 1 hour from cell phone service and 1.5 hours from any sort of store and basically civilization and it's THE BEST thing ever! Four wheeler rides, hiking, lots of card playing, delicious food, and sitting around the fire making memories.  Here are a few pictures to enjoy.

 My grandpa Ed takes lots of naps! Him and Grandma are wonderful people and we all love them so much! What great examples to look up to of marriage, the importance of family, and having gospel centered lives.  I sure do love spending time with them and appreciate all that they do. 

 A tradition of ours is to hike up to Greek Lake each year.  It's always an adventure because you never know the condition of the trail.  Sometimes we can get a car up to the trail head and sometimes only 4 wheelers can get up the road so it's always an adventure.  We have to go through large creeks to get to the road that takes you to the trail head and Kevin loves to get us wet when we have the opportunity. This year we could get cars up the road so we had two vehicles and many 4 wheelers hauling people to the trail head.  At the bottom of the trail head is this cabin, seen below, that has been there for a long time.  Each year the roof falls in a little more but we can still get in there for pictures.  Another thing we always encounted up at the lake is snow.  We're sitting at about 10,000 feet so its chilly but beautiful!

This is my Dad and Lynn with most of their kids and grandkids.  It's nice to get together as we don't all live in the same places and states and visits are sometimes very spaced out.

 Grandpa Ed with most of his grandkids and great grandkids.  We had 35 people up at camp this year and that's probably the most that will ever be up there all at the same time. 

 Kevin and I with Green Lake in the background.  It's all glacier water so it's freezing cold but glistens green and beautiful year after year. 

               Grandpa Ed with the grandkids and three grandson-in-laws that were there this year. 

 This is kind of difficult to read, but last year Kevin carved our names into the log by the lake, where everyone carves things, and put "KG 11", adding a 12 this year.  I hope that one day we can have our kids intials added next to ours!

We went on many 4 wheeler rides and found a lot of snow this year.  Snow and tress blocked many trails forcing us to turn around but we had lots of fun exploring and going through the creeks. 

All in all, we had a fun 2 weeks in the sun and the mountains with our families.  We feel so blessed to get to spend time with them and live close to most of them.  Thank goodness that we were blessed with such wonderful families that have great traditions and love spending time together.  We look forward to the day that our children will get to make memories of their own with cousins and aunts and uncles.