~Utah Vacation 2011: The Christensen Reunion~

On my Dad's birthday we all loaded up in the cars and headed up to Shelly, Idaho, all in honor of the Christensen Family Reunion.  (My Grandma Marion's family)  It was a fun ride with great conversation with Grandma Shannon and Auntie Erin in the car.  We all met up at my Aunt Heidi's house to relax for a little bit before heading out for Grandpa Steve's birthday dinner! 

Olive Garden was delicious, and I was quite pleased with their dessert selection this time around.

After dinner we headed down to the river walk across from the Idaho Falls temple and the water falls.  The views were beautiful and the kids had so much fun flying around and exploring the shore.

Dad with his girls on his birthday. 

Then Nick, kids, and I were off to spend the night at Nick's Aunt and Uncles (Maryjane and Doug) house.  They were kind and generous hosts and we all had a great, comfortable night's sleep.  Then we were up early the next day and ready to head over to Firth for the family reunion chaos.

There were TONS of people there that I had never even met, mostly my mother's Christensen cousins and their children.  I also got to see a number of my own aunts and uncles, which was fun.  I thought Nick was amazing for coming along and being such a good sport for this event, especially considering he really had no connection to any of these people.  He's just a good guy like that.  I think it was  bit overwhelming for my kids, with Lyssa going as far as falling asleep on the table.

Eventually my two older kiddos ended up in a shady stop watching movies on Grandpa Steve's ipod.  Meanwhile a giant talent show started and Cordy fell asleep on a blanket.  

The best part of the day was probably seeing my grandmother together with her four siblings.  It had been a long time since they had all been together at the same time.  As soon as Erin and I got this picture set up all sorts of camera came out of the woodworks.  Everyone wanted a picture of these fabulous five together.  I think this photo is priceless.

It was an awesome weekend with a long drive back to Orem, but we were happy to do it, driving through sun, crazy rainstorms and then sunny skies full of beautiful rainbows.  Nick had to leave bright and early the next morning, heading back to work while the rest of us stayed to play.  Don't think we sat around sad while he was gone though.  We had tons of fun!  More to come...