Summer Vacation: Part 2

Packard Family Reunion 2009

We continued our drive up into Utah where Camelot Resort, Fruitland, Utah was our destination for the 2009 Packard Family Reunion. (My mom's side of the family.) These reunions are always a party because my mom has 13 siblings so there is no shortage of friends to play with and things to do.

Some of the highlights this year: Games, crafts, archery, river floats, more games, good food, foot races, pinata, snow cones, foot races, stargazing with Arthur's telescope, family dance, variety show, and a video presentation of Grandma & Grandpa before Grandma passed away last year.

We had a blast. The only downsides were the mosquitos, the bathroom situation (not enough showers for the campers) and not enough free time to play card games. I guess we just needed one more day to squeeze in all the fun!

Games for the 3-10 year olds on the first day.

Notice all the beautiful color-coded family t-shirts, (designed by Kimball and Marianne--good job, guys.)

All 14 children have a different color assigned to their family, so when you see some little kid running around in lime green Packard t-shirt, you know they belong to Owen & Aimee's family.

Our family was navy blue this year.

Pin the star on the "sheriff" (Grandpa)

Some of the aunt and uncles did bottle rockets with the kids. Sean LOVED the bottle rockets! He hung out on the field watching everybody launching theirs.

Water guns

Foot races

I think Sean ran in almost age division. He's lucky he didn't trampled by those teenage boys. They were fast and ruthless!

All the aunts lining up for their footrace.

Hayden sitting on Grandpa's lap watching the races.

Archery

River Floats

This little river that meandered through the camp was deceptively fast. Dallin & I tipped over and had a hard time retrieving my flip flops and getting ourselves set to float down the rest of the river. When we got to the end of the ride, we were both sporting some scrapes and Dallin said, "Wow, Mom, I thought we were done for!"

Here is another part of the river that was dammed up so the little kids had a fun time cooling off in that part of it. It was so hot, sometimes I'd just go stand in the river to cool down myself.

Arthur and Hayden

Sean & Hayden.

This little swing set was fun for the kids riding it, but unfortunately, it took down quite a few little ones too.

Mom doing her crafts with the 3-10 year olds

No Packard reunion is complete without a pinata. There were three this year. One for the little ones, one for the in-betweeners, and one for the teenagers.

Here are the uncles doctoring up the teens' pinata so it would last long enough for them all to have a turn. That's red duct tape that they are wrapping around the thing. Needless to say, everyone got a chance and the last guy just took it down and started beating it on the ground to open it. Very entertaining. (In fact, I suspect the real reason the Packard's do pinatas at these reunions is so all the adults can get a good laugh.)

Thanks to everyone who worked hard to make this reunion a success.

I feel so lucky to have such a big, fun, awesome family!

Happy Father's Day

To my own Father:

"He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it."

Here is my Dad with his parents

Here he is with my mom when they were dating (or engaged?) Not sure which but I would guess they were probably engaged, because I don't think my mom would have agreed to go skiing unless she was seriously committed to my dad.

"The greatest thing a father can do for his children is love their mother."

Here is me with my Dad at the hospital.

Dad taught us to love skiing and was really patient with us with all our complaining about being cold, or carrying our heavy equipment, or not wanting to go to ski school. But after all the torture of learning to ski was over, we now enjoy skiing together a lot more. And it's a good thing he was patient with us because so far, all of the sons in law are into snow-sports too. (Dad has been very accepting of their snowboards. :)

My dad loves hiking. He took us on lots of hikes growing up and as a result it's something I still love to do. On these hikes he taught us to love the outdoors, and about being prepared, because he was never without extra water, snacks, and a first aid kit, just in case.

I just love this picture of Dad and Reed.

I'm not sure what he's reading in this picture, but I remember him often leaning over the counter reading the paper or the church news or any number of things, just the way he's doing in this picture. In fact, one characteristic I got from him is the ability to focus so intently on something that you don't hear what's going on around you. I remember trying to ask him a question once while he was reading something and the conversation went something like this:

me: Dad? . . .

me again: Dad? . . .

and again: Hey, Dad.

(finally after proving unsuccessful in penetrating the focus, I said,)

"Dad, I was thinking I might dye my hair green tonight."

And then he said, "WHAT?!"

This picture here is funny because neither me or my dad are very athletically coordinated. So here we are stinking it up on the basketball court together. We were laughing at ourselves a lot that day.

One of my dad's greatest virtues, (and something that I am still working on), is his patience. My Dad was the father of six girls. I think anyone with any daughters will tell you that that takes a fair amount of patience. Three of us were in high school at the same time, so you can imagine what drama that must have been. Sometimes if we were cranky, Dad might make a comment about it being our "time of the month" at which point we would launch into a "you- have-no-idea-how-awful-it-is-to-be-a-girl" tirade.

I also remember a particular occasion when we were purposefully testing the limits of Dad's patience. Natalie, Jenny and I were probably 6, 4, & 3 at the time. It was a Sunday afternoon and Dad was playing the piano. At first we were just twirling around in our dresses, but after awhile we became really obnoxious. We kept hanging on Dad and being excessively loud, and he just kept serenely playing the piano. I remember thinking, "I wonder how long he will put up with this?" And then finally he snapped and said, "Will you girls just SHUT-UP!"

There was a collective gasp and the three of us ran into the kitchen to tattle on Dad.

Mom's reply was, "Well, if he said that, I'm sure you girls deserved it."

She was right!!

Thanks, Dad, for everything you are. For praying for and being proud of our successes, for teaching us to love music and the mountains, for being an example of a righteous priesthood holder, husband and patriarch of the family, and for teaching us by example how to live. You and mom are quite a team! I love you and am still grateful everyday that you are my dad.

To the Father of my children:

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful guy as my husband and the father of our children. He is a great teacher and wonderful example for them.

Arthur & Hayden

Hiking in the Pecos.

I'm so glad Arthur loves being outdoors and that we make time to go camping and hiking together as a family. We make great memories together that way.

Having a goofy tea-party with Daphne.

Arthur is a really good mix of working hard and playing hard. He makes sure we have a good balance of each in our family.

Arthur puts a high priority on teaching our children the value of a good Cougar Football game. This the BYU-Airforce game in Colorado Springs a few years ago. We make sure to go to at least one live BYU game a year, and plan our fall schedule around the viewing of the rest of them on cable. :) The children are taking these lessons to heart, for example, when he was in kindergarten, Dallin proudly declared to his class that he was a BYU fan even though most of them were wearing the UNM Lobos colors.

Arthur is a hard worker and the kids all know he can fix just about anything. I'm glad our children have such a good example to follow in working hard to take care of the things we have.

Arthur, thanks for all you do as the father of our little family.

Our kids are lucky to have you be their dad.

Summer Vacation: Part 1

Our summer vacation this year was all smashed into an exciting, action-packed two weeks! It started out with stopping at two national parks on the way to a family reunion in Utah. We went to Mesa Verde, (Colorado,) and the next day visited Arches, (Utah).

MESA VERDE

Here are our exciting pictures from Mesa Verde. It was very cool to see these ancient cliff dwellings and learn about the people who built them and lived here.

At Mesa Verde, there is only one dwelling you can visit without a Ranger guide. We looked at that one and then we went on a guided tour to another one. I was not prepared for how much information the Ranger would share with us (and more importantly, how LONG it would take to hear it all.) Here is a picture of our kids being angels, and I am standing behind the camera just crossing my fingers that they'll keep it up as the ranger kept going and going and going.

We stayed near the back of the group because as the tour progressed the kids got more and more antsy. At the last stop, the group had surrounded a Kiva, where we learned quite a lot about kivas and the various theories there are on what their purpose was. It was here that Sean started putting his head down the ventilation hole for that particular kiva, and the ranger used Sean to point out where the ventilation hole was and what it was used for. (Definitely not for putting your head in.)

It was a cool tour I would have enjoyed a little better had I not been so paranoid about my kids being disruptive or falling down ventilation holes. So if you go with young kids, I'd probably pass on the ranger tour, even though it is neat to learn about all that stuff.

We did learn some really interesting facts. The ones I remember most were about the women of that culture. They married around the age of 12 or 13, had an average of ten children. And most women did not live past the age of 30. The men lived a little bit longer: 40-45, because they didn't have the babies. So had I lived back then, I'd probably be dead already. History is fascinating, but I must say, I'm glad I live today.

Here is a picture of the kiva in the foreground, and the dwellings in the shaded background.

Daphne kept holding Sean's hand as they hiked along the trail.

I love that she was watching out for him.

The cool ladder ascending up out of the canyon. I barely fit through with Hayden on my back.

ARCHES

We did Arches for the first time last year and went again because we loved it so much last time. (Also, since we went last time, one of the arches unexpected collapsed, so Arthur felt some urgency in hiking out to see the landscape arch--a particularly thin formation, before it collapses. You never know, right?)

I love all that red rock at arches.

Hayden making sand angels.

His hair was auburn for the rest of the day.

Landscape Arch

Double Arch

Arthur and the kiddos.

Davy Crockett Performance

We had our Children's Music Theater performance of "Davy Crockett" on Friday, June 20th. My kids had a blast! I had 30 kids in this production, ages ranging from almost 5 to 12. and they did such a great job! (And frankly, we need a bigger stage.) They sang out and did their choreography and smiled, and they looked great in their costumes. The set was AMAZING, (thanks to my amazing husband who built it,) and some great moms who helped paint it. Also, since this play is so old, there was no accompaniment CD available, so we had live accompaniment this time. In fact, we had a whole Davy Crockett band with piano, fiddle, guitar and banjo!

We had a great time, and I was so proud of those kids. It's a ton of work, but I think it's worth it for these kids to have an experience where they are singing and dancing and working together, and also cooperating and helping each other out. It gives them something fun to talk about and look forward to, and now to remember.

I actually chose this play because I performed it when I was growing up in California, with a group of children directed by Brad Thompson. I had such a great time, that it inspired me to try to do something similar for my kids. Hence, Stone Soup last year, and Davy Crockett this year. Believe it or not, when I was in it, I was "Carrie Ann" who has blond hair. (There is even a song about her "Yaller Gold" hair.) Obviously, I don't have blond hair so I had to wear a hideous wig which clashed with my dark eyebrows. Haha! Good times. (Maybe I'll dig that picture out and post it.)

And now, the pictures you've all been waiting for . . .

This is just me welcoming the audience, but I posted it because here you can see the awesome set that Arthur built for me. It turned out great, (and we got to use the beautiful mountain backdrop from last year's performance of Stone Soup!)

Opening number, "Old Fashioned 4th of July"

Daphne having just a great time.

Dallin is the boy second from the left. He loved being a part of Mike Fink's crew.

The entire cast. (Too bad the lighting isn't very good on that front row. I'll have to bug my friend for some better pictures taken at the dress rehearsal.)

Mike Fink's crew

My little actors (& Sean) posing in front of the set before it was taken down.)

"Coming to a Theater Near You"

For all you Albuquerqueans who are in town this weekend, there is a free Children's Musical Performance on Friday night. Here's the scoop:

the 2009 Children's Music Theater

presents . . .

Davy Crockett

Friday, June 19th at 7 p.m.

San Victorio Building

of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Come for a "ring-tailed, rootin' tootin', side-windin', rifle-shootin'" GOOD TIME!

Exclusive behind-the-scenes pictures from the making of Davy Crockett below: