Utah Trip: Hawkins Reunion

We made it to Blanding!!


Grampa and Aubrey. Wesley eating cookies!!

Talon and one of the twins. Granny Great.


"hobo dinners" You should have seen some of these customized dinners. I've never seen so much beef! The dinners were yummy. My favorite is to put cabbage and squash in them. mmmmmm.


Unfortunately, our car wasn't the only thing to give us fits. Our camera was/is acting up to. Hence the blurry images on some of the pics. (yes, I am sure it is the camera and not the user) Aubrey and Wesley had a blast in the mountain. I don't think Aubrey has ever been as dirty as she was when we left.

cousin Phoenix. Wesley and Avina pretending to be ghosts.

chillin'

It was fun to relax and visit. Aunt Danelle and granny Ann had some fun things for the kids to do. A scavenger hunt, and bubbles..........the kids had fun and made out like bandits with all the fun little toys from the scavenger hunt.

The first evening in town we had a get together up at Aunt Jenny's..........instead of a BB-Q, we did a desert night! yuuummmmmyyy! Jenny made a really yummy cobbler. Thanks Jenny!! We had been traveling that day and pulled into town just in time for this little shin dig, so we were really tired. But, it was fun to see all the kids and family. And, of course, I didn't get any pics!! I could just kick myself.

Then, we spent the day Friday preparing for the reunion and then headed up to Blue Mountain where Grampa and Gran's cabin is, and stayed the night and had fun visiting and roasting mallows and all that fun camping stuff. I didn't get a pic of our little tent city. Most of us slept in tents, so the guys rigged up a place under a few tarps for us all to set up. Wesley was so excited to sleep in the tent. He really enjoys camping.

Utah Trip : A Morning at Temple Square

We left Rockin' R Ranch on Sunday afternoon and drove up to Syracuse. We stayed Sunday night at Aunt Laureen's. They fed us dinner and everything! It was nice. Wesley chewed the rubber off of Laureen's shower squeegee........Gross! I about died. But, he apologized and Aunt Laureen did a good job holding in her giggles.

Monday morning we headed down to SLC. Aubrey was still puking at this point. So, I wondered how it would go. She did fine. However, cousin Nathanael decided it was his turn to be sick. Poor kids. Anyway, we met up with grandma Tingey, Aunt Christy, her son Nathanael, and her niece, and Aunt Becca. I had never been to the top of the church office building........that offered some neat views I'd never seen. Wesley really liked it. We weren't there long. But it was more fun this time since Wesley is older and more interested in seeing things. Grandma treated us to lunch at the Garden Restaurant at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building. I always enjoy being in that building..........it is so nice.


Cool view of the State Capital building.

Wesley's idea to stand in front of this statue....a young boy with his mom. The other is, of course, a statue of Joseph Smith. Aubrey was not happy as you can see.

The Salt Lake Temple never ceases to amaze me.



This is me and the kids with my Grandfather Low. We were able to stop and visit him for a bit. Aubrey puked on his couch and Wesley clogged his toilet. LOL. But really, we had a nice visit.

I know this is really random..........Nick is hilarious. I had to put a picture of him up. This is Brady's youngest brother.


I wish I would have been feeling better and been more on the ball. I didn't get pics of us with my friend Autumn and her two little cuties, Hunter and Peyton, or my mission comp. Jessica and her adorable little boy, Hayden. But, we did get to stop by for a few minutes, literally only a few minutes, and say hi to them. Also, I didn't get pics with Abby........I saw her briefly. She came and picked up our car and kept it at her apartment until my dad could travel up North to pick it up. (explanation just below.)
And then, it happened. The car started to over heat really bad and we stopped and checked the fluids etc. and found that the oil was indeed turning milky....................YIKES!! So, we made it to Provo, got a hotel, rented a car (after many wasted hours of car hunting by myself. We were just gonna buy a car......I am glad we didn't.), and ended up being in Provo for 2 days with the stomach flu. I got to spend some time with my friend Natalie. She was my shoulder to cry on and my moral support in going about finding a rental car and all that good stuff! I was on the verge of falling apart, but she helped keep me together. I didn't get a pic with her either! Dang it!!
So, Brady and Wesley had the flu the worse this time around. Aubrey seemed to be doing better. I got it, but not bad. Which I guess is a huge blessing. It was at this point in the trip that all my suspicions that maybe I was/am pregnant were confirmed in the affirmative through a store bought test. So, we got ourselves all pulled together and finally headed to Blanding a day later than scheduled. The morning we left, Brady was feeling so much better and was able to stop by and see some of his friends from Provo for a minute before we left. He got to see Rodney, Steve, and Benjamin. Steve and Benjamin are old roomies from BYU. Rodney is a nice man Brady still home teaches every month via phone. And of course, no pics...........*SIGH*

Part Two: Trip to Utah/Tingey Reunion

We left Blanding and headed off to Antimony to the Rockin' R Ranch. We had a nice scenic drive through Southern Utah........stopped by Goose necks (this stop was the first time our car wouldn't start when we went to leave again......took a few tries, but got goin' and made it to the ranch). It was a beautiful drive. I had forgotten how amazing the land scape is in that part of the country.

I have to thank my sister in law, Christy, for a few of the pictures from the reunion. So, THANKS CHRISTY!!


The kids enjoyed the little hike to the overlook at Goose necks.

If I am remembering right, that is the Dirty Devil River at Lake Powell pictured above.


WE MADE IT!!! The Tingey Reunion was a lot of fun. From rodeos, to Olympic games, to just hangin' out at the playground. We all had a great time.


Neither one of our kids would ride the horse this year. Aubrey was off before she made it all the way on.

Go Grandpa!!! Go Dad!!

Nice hair Aubrey!! (and mom at that)
Aunt Laura is the pretty one in next to Aubrey.

The dancing is always fun! Right Angie??

Wesley loved the Olympic Games. Aubrey wasn't feelin' well this day so she missed out on all that fun.

Ready for the boat ride! Aubrey wouldn't get to close to the animals.

Aubrey kept asking to go in the boat, but when it came right down to it she wouldn't get in. So, dad, Uncle Chris, and Wesley went for a little ride.

Cute kids! This is Aunt Christy and cousin Nathanael.

Aubrey loves to have her nails painted!!

Aubrey holding her new cousin Henry. Such a handsome guy!!


Wesley and another one of those silly faces.

Part One: Trip to Utah

We started our trip early; We left Houston by five a.m. I thought the kids would sleep, they woke up and stayed awake for quite a while. But they didn't get to loud until much later on in the morning, at which time I look over at Brady to see him stuffing ear plugs in his ears. I was laughing at him. We decided we need to special order our next vehicle and make sure they put a divider window so we can shut out the noise from the kids screaming and arguing over which movie they want to watch etc. etc....

Love the facial expressions!! You'd think he'd never seen a TV or movie.

Aubrey was pretty excited about the TV in the car too.

LOL! Love it Brady!

We stopped by the four corners monument on our way to Blanding. I hadn't been there for since I was a little girl. Now, my kids can say they have been there. Wesley was just anxious to get to Utah.

They will probably remember getting snow cones more than the actual monument.

Aubrey was thrilled about being out of the car. It was a long trip to Blanding. We stopped in Santa Rosa the first night and rested and swam. I think I was more of a whiner than the kids when it came right down to it.

We finally made it to Blanding and stayed the night at Granny Great and Grampas. We went to Grandads that evening and Wesley got to make bullets with some of his cousins. He thought that was pretty cool. A good skill to have, don't you think?

I should have Brady in here. I don't know the process of making bullets. But the grand kids sure think it is neat.

I am not sure which of the twins this is with Wesley??

Here is Davis, Wesley, and unknown twin.

The next morning, we set out for Antimony.................Tune in tomorrow for pics and stories on that adventure.

Home Again, Home Again

We rented a car to get home...........yes our faithful Cutlass is gone....unless grandad can fix 'er up, in which case she is all his.

We have all had the stomach flu at least once, some twice.

But..............

We all had some fun and really enjoyed visiting our extended families. Wesley had a blast playing with his aunts and uncles and cousins. I asked him last night what his favorite part of our trip was, and he said, "gumballs at grandads house." My dad has a big gumball machine in the front room and the grand kids love to sneak quarters out of his bedroom and munch on gumballs. I asked him if he also enjoyed his aunts and uncles and the four wheelers and seeing all of the animals and playing in the mountain. He said yes, but kept going back to the gumballs.

Brady and I went floating down a river on tubes at the Tingey reunion. The first time I had ever gone. It was fun. And then it started to lightning, and for some reason, I was the only one concerned about it? It was fun though. We had a lot of good food and a lot of fun. We enjoyed dancing and I even got Brady out on the floor a few times! He is better than he lets on. Wesley and I enjoyed our traditional dances together, which meant more to me than to him I am sure since it took a bit of coaxing from his dad to get him to go out on the floor with me. But once he started, he had fun. He is a good little dancer. Definitely has some moves I've never seen before. He is so fun! Aubrey danced with us for a little bit, but was so tired. Then she got sick that night. Poor thing was sick a lot on our trip. Flu and car sick is my guess.

I was surprised at the fact that Wesley really didn't care to much for the four wheelers this time. Aubrey loved them and was always asking for rides. I finally got Wesley on with me, just the two of us, and he was so scared??? He has never been like that before. He even freaked out when Aubrey would go on the four wheeler. Anyway, I finally got him to go with me, and after a while he relaxed and then started to have fun. By the end of the ride, he didn't want off. Thank goodness, I was getting worried about him. LOL

Anyway, we had a good trip. And it is good to be home. I will post some pics and tell more as soon as I get batteries for the camera so I can load the pics on the computer.

So, stay tuned......................