Heber Valley Camp

While in Utah, we were able to go to my mom's family reunion at Heber Valley Camp. It's a lovely camp, and we had a lot of fun. We were able to visit with family, play, hike, paddle boat, zip-line, do team building activities, feast on great food, and pretend to sleep. That last one was quite an adventure, let me tell you. Just imagine five adults on squeaky air mattresses, three school girls with restless legs, one pre-schooler who falls out of bed, one toddler who talks and mumbles and snores in his sleep, and one tiny baby who has a gassy tummy and decides she doesn't feel like eating all sharing the same cabin. Needless to say, no one did much sleeping. Except Sleeping Beauty, who, apparently, is named well, as she slept the entire night and woke up wondering why everyone else wasn't jumping out of bed to run around at the first sign of daylight. Despite the endless night of no sleep, it was a grand time!

The girls had a great time running around with their second cousins on the hiking trails. We saw a lot of deer, minding their own business, right next to us.
(Again, a lot of these pictures (all the best ones) were taken by my talented Uncle Dave.)
King and Cinderella flew back home Saturday morning so that Cinderella could go to Girls Camp, so they missed out on a lot of the activities. They didn't miss the fire with the S'mores and Starbursts (Have you ever had a Starburst roasted over the fire? If not, you should definitely try it. Yum!) or the baby shower for baby L and mommy Christine, so Cinderella was happy.Saturday morning, we headed to the lake for some paddle boating and canoeing. We were able to enjoy a nice paddle around the lake, until, for no reason whatsoever, the paddle boat quit working, and we were stuck. Luckily, Nate, Christine, Emily, and kids were nearby and paddled us in. Then Snow White and Sleeping Beauty set out on their own in a new paddle boat. (This picture was taken by, then swiped from, my cousin Jeremy. You can see more of his pictures (which are way more professional than mine)on his blog here.)

And, that hat. I must say something about Snow White's hat. It was given to her by my Aunt Renee. Renee had brought it from my Grandma's house to give to one of my cousins. It didn't fit my cousin, and once Renee learned that Snow White adores hats, it was Snow White's to own. And, she totally owned it. I don't think she took it off for at least a week. She loves it. After a delicious mock Cafe Rio lunch, and a refreshing (that was actually a sarcastic adjective) power nap on the cement floor carpeted with paper thin carpet and using my wallet as a pillow, it was time to head to the challenge course. We split into groups, did some fun group activities and anyone who wanted to got to go on the zipline. Snow White was excited for this opportunity, and loved it.
(These next two pictures were taken by my Uncle Mike, whose talent can be seen here.)
I also went on the zipline. It was fun, but, do you see how cute Snow White's tushy looks in the picture above? Let's just keep that image in your head instead of thinking about what any behind bigger than hers would look like shoved into the little straps. You're welcome.