Stringam Family Reunion - 2011

Last week we headed up to Midway, UT (just outside of Park City) for the Stringam family reunion (my mother-in-law's family). We rented a big house and had a few families stay with us, while some of the others rented condos nearby. 

One day we drove over to Cascading Falls to hike around. It was more of a walk than a hike, but it was very pretty and the kids got a kick out of looking at the fish in the water. The top right picture shows most of our group.

We had 3 babies on this trip. Brady (5 months), Alyssa, and Annelise (both 7 weeks I think). The girls both sleep A LOT and slept right through our walk.  The little boys had fun throwing rocks in the water with Aunt Arlene :)

The next day (and the next 2 days after) we all went swimming at Cheryl's condo. The water wasn't cold, but Brady seemed to like the hot tub more (it wasn't a HOT hot tub, just bath water temp.), so we spent most of our time in there. Brady is SO relaxed in the water. He usually gets bored with whatever he's doing after a few minutes and lets you know it, but in the water we hardly heard a peep from him for over 30 minutes. The only reason I took him out was because his toes were getting really wrinkly.

The older kids LOVED having Ryan and Jared to horse around with in the pool. The next two days the guys were golfing and the pool scene was much quieter.

We celebrated a few birthdays this week. First, Cheryl's #5 turned 2. For his birthday we had tacos, he opened some gifts which he was very excited about (see above), and we went to Grannies in Heber to get milkshakes (side note: we went to grannies to get milkshakes THREE times this week!!!).  

We also celebrated Grandma Stringam's 89th birthday. We ate pizza and her famous angel food cakes. Next year we will all be heading up to Canada to celebrate her 90th birthday!!

Although I considered the entire week a family reunion, the "official" reunion was on Saturday night at a park in Park City. A few more family members were able to meet up with us there and it was fun to eat, chat, and watch the kids play.

The picture in the middle is of Cheryl's #4 and I think it's my favorite picture of the entire week. I just think it's so perfect! He is the cutest!! Also above, Courtney got to spend a lot of time with her favorite nephew!

We took family pictures with Grandma Stringam before saying our goodbyes. The next morning we (just me, Brady, Ryan, his parents, and Courtney) packed up and headed out to spend the day in Park City

In the summer you can ride the lift up the slopes and zip line down, so we decided to do that. I've never zip lined before so I was very excited and a little scared. Here we are in the lift.

Courtney took my camera and snapped a few pictures on the way down and then waited for us to come down so she could get some pics of us. I have a huge goofy grin on my face because it was SO fun. At the initial drop I kind of freaked out a bit, but it was awesome and I was so happy I went. After the zip line we did the Alpine coaster, not to be confused with the alpine slide which we didn't have time for. The Coaster twists up and down the mountain and you're in this little cart that lets you control your speed. We were able to ZOOM down super fast and it was SO MUCH FUN. No good pictures of that though. I was busy accelerating!

Rick stayed back with Brady while we went off an had all the fun. We really appreciated that!!

After Park City we headed to Reed and Clarese's for a yummy dinner and then made our way to the airport to come HOME. It was such a fun week and we're so glad we were able to go and spend time with the family. Can't wait to do it again next year in Canada!