The second part of our July included a trip to Phoenix to join the rest of my side of the family for a family reunion! Though it is not advisable to plan a vacation to Phoenix in July, we had a great time and had a chance for all of the cousins to get to play and know one another.
We stopped at Navajo Bridge to see the Colorado River on the way south.
We stayed with Grammy and Papa and the boys had such fun just doing simple things with their grandparents. To see them having fun with the Slip'n'Slide in the same backyard my siblings and I did the same thing was a bit surreal!
Toby LOVED his first time on it!
Joe didn't have enough momentum to go very far, but he had fun nonetheless!
One of the most fun activities we did with almost all of the cousins was go to an indoor trampoline park. Some of the aunts and uncles even got to bounce in on the action, much to the little ones' delight!
A highlight of each of our trips to Phoenix has been to ride the lawn mower with Papa. This time, Jack got to drive it all on his own!
And Toby was thrilled to have the chance to do the same.
George and Joe were content to ride with Papa.
The simple moments when cousins got to just love on other cousins were precious. Sarah got lots of hugs from Danny!
George and Nate are good Lego buddies.
And sweet Logan was just one of the boys when he was with us!
A highlight for all of us was the game of family baseball in my parents' back yard. Almost EVERYONE got in on the action and was up to bat at least once! It was so fun to have the uncles all together, playfully competing and encouraging the nieces and nephews.
Even Grammy took a turn! Toby could not stop smiling!
We were able to continue our baseball theme by going to a Diamondbacks game! They were playing the Cincinnati Reds - Josh's favorite team - so he was the lone Reds fan among our little crowd.
The kids had the chance to run the bases after the game to raise money for the Children's Hospital.
The boys really enjoyed the game, and getting to experience it with so many of their family members!
A priority for our family get together (the first like it since 2011) was to have a family photo taken. Seven members were missing from this shot, but it still makes for an impressive amount of people in coordinating colors! :-)
The grandkids! (Missing 5)
The kids all had numbered shirts, indicating the order in which they came into our family! Toby enjoyed being at the end to hold Hank!
After our time in Phoenix, we made our way back to Utah and waited for the Morgan crew to join us the next day. It was so fun to have even a few days together with them. We took them to see some of the nearby sites of beauty.
At Cedar Breaks, they all lined up by age. Between our two families, we have kids born each year between 2005 and 2014!
Cousin buddies!
On their last night with us, the boys got to "camp out" together in the living room.
We are so grateful for the time we had to spend with family. All of our kids are filled up with love and happy new memories, and a new knowledge of many of their extended family members. Toby, in particular, could not stop smiling the entire trip. It had been his dream to meet his cousins Luke and Ben, so he was so happy that it came true. And he is feeling more loved and included in this big crazy family than ever before! It was a good - and crazy - couple of weeks! We hope it isn't another six years before we can all see each other again!
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