Abundant Recompense Copy

This year, Grandma and Grandpa both had a very special birthday. To celebrate, they threw themselves a big birthday bash in Beaver and had all the family come and spend five days together. Now you may not think that five days at a family reunion in Beaver sounds like the most exciting thing ever, but it was so much fun! We were way up a mountain at a ski resort, and each family had a cabin to stay in. Our theme was "Minions on the Mountain," and Grandma had planned a billion activities. Some outside, some inside, some for kids, some for everyone. She also planned some seriously delicious food. She's a born party planner, that one. My favorite thing was the unscheduled time where the cousins were able to discover each other. They played games and explored the woods and shared popcorn and started some great relationships, I think. Also game nights after the littles were asleep were an absolute riot. Here are a bunch of pictures that show some of the fun. We met at the Crazy...

Bryn turned seven this year! She helped me with the cake on her big day and we had a fun time watching her open presents. Aunt Bri and Uncle Mason even came all the way up from Provo as a surprise, just in time to have birthday taco salad with us! Bryn is into fairies right now and devours fairy books from the library. She loves to read and play the piano, ride her scooter and bike, and jump on the trampoline with her sister and brothers. She's a sweet girl that's easy to love. She is very anxious to get to be just a little older so she can participate in Activity Days at church.

One thing I've learned about Nate is that he's got to get his outdoors fix. He loves to be outside "puttering around" in the yard, as he puts it. Also, he really enjoys running, and is persistent at it. That's all pretty normal, I think. But Nate, as in most areas of life, goes above and beyond when it comes to the out-of-doors. He's gotta get his adventure on every so often in order to be a cheerful human being. He has a long, long list of death-defying outdoor adventures he wants to do, and is always scheming up plans to knock one or another of them out. Echo Canyon in Zion has been on his list for the last couple of years, ever since he hiked above it to Observation Point. And 4th of July weekend, by some miracle, the stars aligned and he and I got to go do it with Bri and Mason. Ready for the hike in! Bri's copious back sweat. (We all matched.) Lunch #1 at like 10:00. There's nothing more tasty than smushed pbjs on a big hike, I tell ya. This was B...