Tony Grove and Bear Lake - August 12, 2014

Tuesday - August 12, 2014

 Missy VanBibber, Brittany Wilding, and Teresa and Tyler Moser all came to play.  We started our day by meeting them at the cheese factory in Logan.  We all got some yummy cheese then headed out on our way to Tony Grove and then Bear Lake.  We love Tony Grove because it is such a pretty place.  I especially love it because bigfoot has been spotted in that area.  It's always more exciting to go places where there are stories of a bigfoot, a haunting, or a UFO.  I just love that kind of crazy stuff.

Pictures of our handsome Parker.

 Our super silly Brinley

Our cute little 'lissa

 Aunt Teresa and Cousin Tyler

 We made it to Bear Lake!  We have been here a lot this summer.  It's been too much fun.  Missy brought a super fun island toy for us all to play on.  It had a hole in it.  They had patched it, but weren't sure how well the patch would work.  The patch didn't work well at all, but we still had a ton of fun playing on the island until it ran out of air.  Roger, Tyler, Missy, Brittany, Alissa, and I were all on it.  We decided to play a game where we would try to push each other off.  Because it was losing air, it was really hard to stay on the seats.  We had just divided into teams.  Roger, Brittany, and I were going to be on one team.  Right after we decided this, Brittany lost her balance and fell into the water.  It was too funny.  The island had shifted and she was reaching, trying to grab a hold of anything to keep from falling, but there was nothing to grasp.  We all had a good laugh, then waited for her to get back in.  I kept trying to think of a different game to play, but no good ideas game to my mind.  Eventually, we just decided to try and push each other off, but we weren't in teams.  It was just every man for himself.  It was really funny and a lot of fun to play.  We were all laughing so hard.  It's a bummer that the island is ruined.  There were too many holes and they just got worse the more we played on it.  Missy was planning to throw it away when we were done.

 After we all played out in the water for a while, we came back in to eat some lunch.  Some people in a van were having car trouble, so Roger and Tyler went over to help.  They weren't gone very long, I just thought it looked funny the way that Tyler rode on the back of the truck on the way over to them.

 Teresa wanted to see the birds so we threw some food for them.  Parker loves to feed the birds.  

 We could see that a storm was coming.  We gathered up our stuff and planned to stop at Missy's Grandparent's property, so she could show Tyler and Teresa, then we would go to a camp ground in Logan Canyon to have a fire and eat our dinner.  While we were at the VanBibber property, it was so nice, we decided to just stay there and have our fire.  It has such a pretty view of the lake. 

 A few days before this, I got an idea that it would be really cool to take a picture of lightening.  I had decided that the next time there was a lightening storm, I would try and take a lightening picture.  

Anyway, so we started seeing lightening and I remembered my idea.  I stood there for a while trying to get a picture of it, but it was too hard.  I'd see it strike, but I couldn't snap the picture fast enough.  The only way would be to continuously snap pictures.  I got frustrated and decided that I would not worry too much about it now, but I would try again another time. 

 After we had our s'mores, I noticed that Missy had her phone and looked like she was taking pictures.  She had decided that she was going to get a lightening picture.  I couldn't just sit back and let her get a lightening picture before me, so I had to try again.  I took a lot of pictures.  I set the camera to sport mode where it will just snap pictures over and over.  I took a lot of pictures!  Parker and Brinley came over and jumped in front of the camera a few times.

 After a super long time and a ton of pictures, I finally managed to catch the tail end of a lightening strike.  You barely see it, but that's okay.  That counts.  I did it!  I took a picture of lightening!

We hurried and left after I got my picture.  the storm got really bad and the first part of the drive home was kind of scary.  The rain was coming down really hard.  The road had been warm, so the rain landing on it caused a lot of steam to be rising up off of the ground.  So we had heavy rain, a foggy mist over the road, lightening flashes blinding us, and on top of that we had to watch out for dear crossing the road.  It was a little scary, but Roger and Missy are good drivers and we all made it home safely.

Huffaker Family Reunion Day 2 - August 9, 2014

Saturday - August 9, 2014

Roger took a picture of us first thing in the morning.  He's just funny.

 Melissa had brought glow sticks for all the kids to play with last night.  That was really fun.  When Parker found his this morning, he decided to wear it.  He is goofy, just like his dad.

 While they were waiting for breakfast they watched an episode of Rabbids on my phone.  They think that show is hilarious.

 We had pancakes and sausage for breakfast this morning, then we got ready, packed up our stuff, and headed to a park to enjoy the second day of our family reunion.  The kids were so excited when they saw this playground.  It looks soooo fun!  Eventually it got super crowded which made it a little less fun, but the kids still had a really good time.

 It was starting to get really hot, so the kids used the ice from the cooler to cool themselves off.

 Grandma played baseball with Parker for a little while.  He loved it!

 Then Parker played basketball with his cousin Atreyu.

 Here we all are enjoying our lunch together.

We ended up leaving after this.  We were so tired.  It was a relief to get home and be able to relax for a little bit.

Huffaker Family Reunion Day 1 - August 8, 2014

Friday - August 8, 2014

We all met at the Fielding Garr Ranch on Antelope Island.  There were a lot of buffalo.  It was fun to see them all.  A bunch of them decided to cross the road right in front of us.

 There weren't any signs that let us know we were at the Fielding Garr Ranch, so that was a little frustrating when we first got there.  We decided to get out, look around, and see if we ran into anybody.  Luckily Missy, Teresa, and Tyler were there, so we knew we were in the right place.  We found out that they were going to have a ghost hunt there when it got dark.  I thought that sounded like a lot of fun, but I knew we probably wouldn't be able to do it.  We said "Hi!" to everybody then walked around and saw what the ranch had to offer.  There was a big field with lots of old farming equipment.  The kids posed by an old truck and some other stuff, then we found an area where the kids could learn and practice roping.  They loved that.

 Tyler posing while he filled a bucket with some yucky water.

 The kids were having fun trying to learn how to rope, so they didn't want to walk around with me anymore.  So, I wandered through the house and buildings with out them.  Walking in, reminded me of the old house up the North Fork.  It smelled exactly like Grandma and Grandpa Holcomb's house.  I really wish we would have been able to go to Montana this year.  The smell made me really home sick for Montana.  Anyway... beside making me wish I was in Montana, it was a lot of fun.  It was interesting to walk through and see everything.

 When I finished, the kids were still playing with the ropes and toy horses.

 Brinley wanted me to take a picture of her on the horse, but she was wearing skinny jeans and wasn't able to lift her leg high enough to get on.  She's a funny girl.

 Alissa felt like she had the roping thing mastered, but every time she had me watch her do it, she would miss.  She kept telling me that she can do it and has been doing it this whole time, but every time I watch, she messes up.  She was getting so frustrated.  It was funny.

 I finally got the kids to walk around and do more exploring with me.

 For some reason, they were really creeped out by this room and especially by this picture hanging about the fireplace.  They thought it was so creepy.

 After everybody got here, we all gathered together to enjoy some dinner.  It was fun to visit with everybody.  Brinley was especially excited to see her cousin, Aurora.

 We stayed until it got dark.  We gathered up all of our stuff and stood visiting with family in the parking lot.  The kids were busy trying to arrange different people for them to ride with.  We ended up having Brinley, Parker, and Aurora ride with Missy and Tyler.  And Alissa and Anastasia rode with us.  Before we left, I realized I had to go to the bathroom.  I was a little worried because I didn't see a light for the bathroom.  As I walked over there, Melissa came to.  She also had to use the rest room.  The kids told us that there was a sensor and the light would come on when we got close.  When we got up to the door, the light flickered on.  It was really creepy.  I didn't like it.  Also, there were a couple large creepy crawly spiders that we knew of.  One was in the stall with me.  I watched it as I hurried to go potty and get the heck out of there.  I had just finished buttoning up my pants, when the lights turned off.  It was pitch dark!  Melissa was in another stall and we both just started screaming hysterically.  I was so freaked out and panicky, that I couldn't get the stall door to open.  I just get so shaky when I'm scared, it's hard to get my hands to work right.  I finally managed to get out.  Once I got out, my movement outside of the stall, triggered the motion sensor lights to turn back on.  Alissa and Anastasia came running in just after I got the lights back on.  they were laughing, of course.  They had used the restrooms before us, but they had been smart enough to have one person wait, while the other one went.  How were we supposed to know that the motion sensor couldn't detect motion from with in the stalls.  And why wouldn't they detect motions from with in the stalls?  That's just mean!  I'm glad I wasn't the only one in there.  It was really funny once we got out.  We had a good laugh about it. 

We headed to the VanBibber's house to have a camp out in their back yard.  Melissa, Anastasia, and Aurora set up camp in the VanBibber's backyard also.  It was fun and just something different.  We had some s'mores, Missy and Becca told everybody some funny stories, then we all went to bed.  It wasn't the best nights sleep, but it was fun.