Packard Family Reunion

We spent the last week of June up in Washington State for the 2007 Packard Family Reunion--(Sharee's mother's family.) We had quite an adventure actually getting there. Our car was misbehaving the whole way until finally in the middle of Utah, the engine died. The kids were great about it and we had a "fun adventure" getting towed through the Spanish Fork Canyon. Aunt Melody and Uncle Carl were awesome to take us in as they were preparing to leave for the reunion also. We borrowed Grandma and Grandpa Packard's car (thank you!) to drive the rest of the way to the reunion. I wish I could say that we arrived there without further incident, but a deer jumped out of nowhere in Montana and hit that little black car! (Yes, we were wondering if anything else could possibly go wrong.) But that car got us the rest of the way, and we had a great time. We also had a fun time visiting Jenny & Brandon, and Julianne and Melanie up in Rexburg on the way up. Here are a few of the pictures from all the festivities.

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For those of you who actually check our blogspot from time to time, I know you are probably getting sick of seeing the Bandelier National Monument blog pop up. I have been awful at keeping this thing updated. But I have great plans to update it soon despite our recent downgrade to dial-up internet (a change which has drastically decreased my time on the computer for better or for worse.) Anyway, I'll post again soon. Don't give up on us!

A-Camping We Will Go!

We went camping the Friday and Saturday before Father's Day up at Jack's Creek. It was beautiful! We pitched our tent in this green meadow surrounded by pines and aspens, and wild irises! (I didn't even know irises grew in the wild!) Arthur and Dallin brought their new fishing poles and we found a little pond for them to fish in. Even though the fish weren't biting, they still had fun casting their lines out over and over and over again. Our friends The Schmutz's and the Halls met us up there Friday night and we sang songs around the campfire, and looked through Arthur's telescope, and went on a hike to the creek the next day where Daphne discovered a nice mudhole. Sean was so tired that he didn't have any fun at all, and fell asleep on a camping chair while we were striking camp. Poor little guy. I guess we just played too hard.

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Memorial Day

Arthur had to work on Memorial Day to finish some things, so the rest of us stuck around home. I got out the little wading pool for the first swim of the summer, and the kids had a blast! Sean was apprehensive at first, but after watching Dallin and Daphne go down the slide over and over, he decided he couldn't let them have all the fun. We had a picnic lunch and then a BBQ with Daddy when he got home.

Vist to California

After having my sister, Julianne live with us for three months, we drove out to California to take her home so she could get ready to go back to school. And it was a good excuse for us to visit the family, of course. We loved having her come and both agree that she can come back and live with us any time! We love you Julianne!

Aunt Julianne

"Sisters, Sisters, there were never such devoted sisters"
(from White Christmas)

While in California, the kids had a blast playing with their aunts and uncles, we took a family trip to Knight's Ferry to hike around some of the historic sites there and the kids did a pre-Easter egg hunt. We love it when we get to go to Nona and Grandpa's house.

Party on the trampoline

Easter Eggs

Knight's Ferry

The covered bridge

Arthur and Sean at the old mill, (that looks like a prison)

Me and my three by the river

Arthur and I also got to see my family perform in a multi-stake production of "Savior of the World" which my Dad helped direct. We were so impressed with the production, and so proud of all the work they all put into making it happen. Good job, guys; it was really phenomenal!

Dad, Jacob, a very tired Nathan, Emma, Reed and Mom
(Mom made these costumes)

Grand Canyon in the Snow

FYI: I'm backtracking a few months (it's actually July, even though the posting date says April) to fill in the months I've missed. Hopefully I can consistantly update this thing and catch up to more recent happenings. Keep your fingers crossed, but don't hold your breath.

We had low visibility on this, our first visit to the Grand Canyon. We stopped there on the way out to California and were not prepared for SNOW! Although we couldn't see much, I could tell it was just way bigger than anything I'd ever imagined. Pictures (even without snow) can't do this place justice. We'll have to try again when the viewing conditions are a little more ideal.

Daphne spitting over the edge

Aunt Julianne, the super hottie!

Catching snowflakes

Snow at the Grand Canyon

Us