We rented a home in Fruitland, UT which is up in the Uintah Mountains near Strawberry Reservoir. It had three floors, eight bedrooms including a fun sleeping loft for kids, and 11 acres to explore.
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| Views from the porch |
It actually had a playground outside, a basketball court which was also set up for pickleball, a fire pit and a zipline. It was cold but we still made use of all of those things as the days were sunny and clear--and cold.
A few days before the event, I realized that there was no way to put all of the food and other things that I was brining in our small car, especially because we were also picking up Ben to join us for the reunion. I am glad I figured that out before Saturday night when we were packing up. We made a quick trip to Syracuse to switch the car for the truck and pretty much filled it up with reunion stuff! Gary made a few snide comments about if we need this much for four days---how will we make it in our small car to Arkansas for 18 months---one problem at a time!!
Sunday afternoon, we got there first and unloaded and got some thing ready and then the kids arrived with their families! Pizza for dinner! And let the cousin playtime begin---they loved exploring the house, playing with the toys, and being with each other--even though they didn't remember everyone's name on that first night. It has been since 2019 that everyone has been together--
Looking down into the Great Room from the loft
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| video game playing |
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| James getting comfortable |
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| Liam |
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| Zander |
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| Carter |
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| Ezri |
The older boys liked the games and did great sharing with each other.
The loft beds...places for six kids to sleep (or not sleep). The room also had hammocks which could be hung up. Photo of that later....
Niki and Liam shared game playing together
We then gathered for our evening plans of "Movie Night and Popcorn." First order of business: Reunion PJS for the grandkids!
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| Zander and Alex |
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| Ava, Alex, and Ezri |
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| Scarlett, Liam, Niki eating popcorn during our "movie" |
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| Not the best picture but the grandkids loved the "movie" |
When I got the pjs, I thought it would be so great to have a picture of the 10 grandkids on the stairs. We tried that with limited success.
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| Scarlett |
And one more attempt...which is now my screen saver. It makes me smile each time I open my phone. It isn't picture perfect---but it is messy real life and that is good enough!
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| Scarlett and James |
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Cooper, Ava, and Niki
Beyond with Aunt Jena, too |
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| Zander with Jena |
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| Carter |
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| Jessica with Carter, Zander, Ezri and Alex |
For Movie Night, we had made a PowerPoint of old pictures of the kids and grandkids. The grandkids loved seeing pictures of themselves and also of their parents when they were growing up. I think we had about 200+ pictures. We laughed and talked about old times...and some not so long ago!
And then off to bed....well, easy for Gary and I since Jena and Ben are good to head to bed on their own. Not so easy for the others. Being together with cousins makes bedtime a bit tricky. And the upstairs loft had lots of talking until about 10:00 or later....as the grandparents--those are happy sounds, but not as much for their parents!
It reminded me of the days staying at my parents' home in Amarillo and all of us would sleep on the floor in the living room and adjoining family room--aunts, uncles, and cousins--wall to wall---I reminded my kids that at least they got to sleep on a real bed...after their kids went to sleep!
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