The Hardy Family Reunion

We had a fun family reunion with my mom and siblings July 16th through the 19th. We kicked it off a little early by having dinner with the siblings on the 15th at our house. No family reunion would be complete without some Papa Murphy's Pizza. The next morning we got all packed up to go camping and got ready to have our pictures taken. So we started out the day with some family pictures in the park. Then we headed to Provo for some lunch at the Cougar Eat and a friendly family bowling competition. All the little kids did awesome thanks to the ramp, and I did quite aweful. Normally I'm a pretty decent bowler but it took my till the 7th or 8th round to get a strike. So frustrating! Grace was on Ben's team and she had a great time picking out her ball and rolling it down the ramp!

Then we headed up to Wasatch Mountain State Park in Midway. We set up camp, had a yummy dinner and smore's and had a very successful day of our family reunion. Unfortunately it went downhill from here.

Thursday we woke up and half of us headed over to Deer Valley for some boating. Grace and Ben were able to have a ride on the tube together and I am sooo sad I didn't have my camera! They had a fun time, but unfortunately about 1/2 hour into our ride the boat broke down. So our manly men started rowing us into shore, that lasted about 5 minutes before they gave up and waved someone down to tow us in. Boy were we grateful for them! So the other half of our family met up with us and we had some lunch while Kurt and Ben tried figure out what was wrong with the boat. Then my brother Scott and his family had to leave for a funeral in Idaho, so we were sad to see them go. The boys gave up on getting the boat working so they pulled it out of the water and we all headed back to camp for some rest and dinner. What a bummer it was to have the day ruined by the boat! But it only got worse....

We had a yummy dinner of Hot Dogs cooked over the fire (there really is nothing better than that while you're camping!) Then we decided to cook up some more Smore's. While we were sitting around the fire my little neice Elise who is 2 tripped on the cement and fell into the fire! She was only in it for like a second, her mom pulled her out so fast, but it was aweful to watch her fall and try to catch herself. They ran her over to the water faucet and tried to get some cool water on it, but they decided to take her to the hospital. Luckily Ben had his consecrated oil on him so they were able to give her a blessing before they headed out. Luckily the hospital wasn't to far away and her burns were just on her arm and were mostly 2nd Degree. But it was a very awful traumatic experience!

We put the kids down for bed shortly after that and the adults cleaned up and played a few games waiting for Rob and Kim and Elise to come home from the Hospital. Elise was a little drugged up but happy as can be when they got back. What a little trooper!

The next morning after breakfast my little nephew Logan took a swan dive off the picnic table and got a good little cut in his forehead. So we decided to take the kids fishing next because it seemed like a fairly safe activity to do. We were having a fun time when Heather was helping her daughter cast a line and they caught a Duck! It was awful. The poor duck was so scared it kept turning in circles and tried to swim away so it was choking itself. Just picture a very pregnant Heather running down the side of the lake chasing after a duck attatched to her fishing pole. Anyway, they finally reeled the duck in and cut him loose.

Here is a bunch of the family by the lake.

Well, as we were sitting on the grass recovering from the Duck incident we all decided that we had had enough trauma on this camping trip and they we should pack up and go home before a birth of a baby happened or something. So we headed back to camp for lunch. But before we left we had to try the park's Geochaching activity. Half of the family had done this while we were boating so Ben and I got a chance to do this with Kurt, Sydney and my mom. Here we are with our "treasure" that we found.

We packed up fairly quickly, and then headed out of town stopping at Granny's for some shakes on the way!

Since the family reunion was supposed to officially go until Saturday we decided to do some fun things at home that day. So we went swimming at the AF Pool which was sooo fun! And then us girls left the kids with the men and headed out for some Pedicures. Boy that felt good. Then the boys went golfing. It was a great relaxing way to end our family reunion. Some people's reunions are ruined by family feuds. We had a wonderful time together it was just one accident after another for us! Thanks to Heather for planning such a great reunion! It was fun even if it didn't go exactly as planned!