Judy Reunion.

The next weekend after we got home from Aspen Grove we packed up all our stuff again and headed up to Idaho! Lance was in charge this year and did a great job! We went to our family property up by Lava Hot Springs. I was so excited, I hadn't been there since I was probably in middle school. The scenery is gorgeous, the land is in the mountains and away from everything! Since I was nervous about Collin being able to relax and sleep in a tent, we decided to borrow Randy's parents' 5th wheel. It was so nice to have a bathroom!! True to my past, I forgot to take any pictures. I don't even think I took my camera out of the truck! I hate when I do that! I'm just so busy and having fun that I don't think about it! So... I've been waiting patiently for pictures to trickle in from my family and got enough to make a post out of it! I'm sure I will add more pictures later.

It was such a blast. We went and floated the river over and over again, some of us even have the bruises and gashes to show for it! Then we went on a pony and wagon ride up to a bbq joint. It was fun! The next day was spent at Lava Hot Springs. My sisters talked me into going on one of the bigger slides... I can't believe how nervous I was! I was totally shaking. Man, having kids has made me a wimp.

By the end of the weekend we were all completely exhausted. It was such a fun time! I love my family!

Casslyn and Ashley going down the waterfall... what you can't see is that is actually a double tube. Yeah, OUCH.

 Love the faces! Joel and Caden. They totally biffed it.

 Best face ever, Randy! I don't know how they didn't totally konk heads.

 I liked the big tubes, and riding them with my kids because that meant no tipping and no huge waterfalls!

 My poor Dad got bucked off his tube one too many times and had a nasty gash on his leg. He learned his lesson and stayed on the big tubes later.

 Can't you see the look of fear? Love it!

 One of the wagons, our family filled up 2 of their 3 wagons!

 Me trying to hold onto Collin in the corner, Randy and Macey in the front behind the drivers.

 Cute Moo. She is pretty terrified of water, but did a good job!

 Under the water shot! Cute Kayla!

 Caden on the high dive. He is crazy.

 Traegan coming off the high dive.

 Collin is the opposite of Macey and LOVES the water. He thinks he can swim, and that can be a problem. Here he is with a mouth full of water. I couldn't stop him from drinking it up and spitting it out! So gross!

Thanks for the pictures, Heather!

Aspen Grove.

We started the tradition of going to Aspen Grove with the Slades every other year, starting in 2007. This was our 3rd time, but my first time of NOT having a baby with me to tote around everywhere! I can't tell you how excited this made me! Turns out, Collin didn't like his class so much and was really clingy to me, but I was lucky and had lots of help from family so I could go and do the things I wanted! Mostly, swimming, shuffle board, and badminton! Macey went to her class with cousin Sawyer and had a BLAST! She had a crush on one of her teachers, and cried when it was time to say goodbye. So cute. All in all it was a nice relaxing week! Aspen Grove is so beautiful, it was so refreshing to be in nature, but not have to sleep in nature. :)

Technically Aspen Grove is considered a Family Camp... but as you can see here... I wouldn't call this "camping". This is where we stayed- the Beckham Lodge. It is gorgeous!

 Whenever Collin would come up missing... this is usually where we'd find him, runnin' on the bridge.

 Macey and Libby, getting ready for family pictures.

Collin trying to get away, of course. 

 Collin eating a brownie, he really didn't want to get his hands dirty!

 His face... he obviously didn't care if it got dirty.

 This is just a glimpse... I try to sneak a cute picture of my husband, and the second he sees me (pic #1), he turns into pic #2.

 Macey and her class performing.

 Her leader crush: Chris

 Her other leader Makelle.

 Awww, presh. Of course Mariah found like 15 boys she liked, but the cutest one won her over. Riah's face is painted for her performance with her class. They did the Haka dance.

 Badminton! Randy can't take it easy, even when playing with kids. :)

 Grandma and Grandpa with Macey, watching the excitement. That's Joelle and cute baby Johnnie in the background!

Relay for Life.

So several months ago my father-in-law Larry kind of got roped into being a team captain for a Relay for Life team. He had never done one before, but thought it would be a great thing to do. He e-mailed me, asking me to be his co-captain and told me our team name was "Cowboy Up". He said we would do it in honor of my Mom, because "if anybody knew how to cowboy up, she did." The gesture was very sweet and of course made me cry. I was on board. Before we knew it, our team had snowballed into a neighborhood/friend team. When it was all said and done, we had over 40 members. Almost everyone was either a survivor of cancer, or had someone in their family who had died or battled cancer. It was incredible to see. Sometimes I feel a little picked on, like my family is the only one that has been devastated by cancer. At this event, everyone has.

I wasn't much of a team co-captain at all, I had no experience with these relays and not a lot of time to devote to it. Larry and Bonnie made up for any slack on anyone's part. They racked up the donations from friends and family wanting to help out the great cause. One weekend Randy and I went up to Logan and did a bake sale at Nibley's Heritage Days where all of the funds went to the American Cancer Society, we had quilts made and donated to our team, we had baskets filled with spa items from Randy's cousin Laura who owns a nice salon in Logan. We did a silent auction for those and ended up making a lot of money on them. One quilt sold for $300! I was overcome at the generosity of people. This is bigger than we are, and it was great to see everyone come together for one great cause. Our team ended up raising over $3,000 and together as a whole the Logan Relay for Life raised over $82,000! That is amazing. Our team came in 5th place for most money raised, the top 4 had corporate sponsors. I thought that was pretty neat.

I wasn't really sure what to expect of the relay itself, other than I knew I would probably cry the whole time. ; ) I decided since our team name was Cowboy Up, that I would wear my Mom's bright yellow cowboy hat. She was a rodeo queen and loved that thing. I remember when I was little, opening the box it was stored nicely in and just staring at it. It was the coolest thing ever. I wasn't sure I even wanted to take it out of the box because it means that much to me, and I was worried about what my Dad thought. When I asked him what he thought about me wearing it he got choked up and said, "I'd be right proud." Aww. That sealed the deal. I proudly wore it in honor of my beautiful rodeo queen mother while I walked laps. I got so many compliments on it and people wanting to know the story behind it. It was neat being able to talk about my Mom and share her story.

One thing you can do at Relay for Life is have luminaries made in honor of cancer patients. At night they have a luminary lighting ceremony and it is so reverent and emotional. The track was lined with these luminaries. So many people affected by cancer. I made some in honor of my mom and sister, Lori. Since my Dad is a survivor I wore his color of cancer bracelet on my wrist. Ironically, it says LIVESTRONG. :) The luminaries were my favorite part of the whole thing, it just makes it so real and so worth all of the time and effort.

These things go for 24 hours, so naturally there is entertainment. Larry sang some cowboy songs on Friday afternoon, one was one he wrote for this occasion called "Cowboy Up" and I totally bawl whenever he sings it. Bonnie and Larry have a singing group they belong to that sang and entertained Saturday morning. I didn't get any pictures of that because I was out walking laps, but it was good and appropriate! There was one band there Friday night that was heavy metal... I was like, really?

Anyway, it was definitely a memorable experience and now I'm going to bug my family to do one together! : ) I will never forget the feelings I had there, this is definitely my "cause".

 The Survivor's lap.  (Luckily my camera was hiding my ugly cry face.)

 Larry performing.

 Dancin' to Grandpa's songs.

 Mad he can't go up on stage with Papas.

 Another luminary I made for Randy's cousin Natalie, who is a brain tumor survivor.

 Larry's Dad, F.B. Slade. He had bone cancer.

Walkin' for my angels.

 I tried to get a good picture of the top of the hat...

 Awww. This was actually after like 20 shots of him pulling dumb faces. He can actually take a normal picture! I am still in shock.

 I know this is super blurry, but this is my mom's luminary after it was lit up.

 Lori's looked really cool and had a bright light, this picture turned out pretty good.

 Everyone decorates their camp site. Since our team name was Cowboy Up, we had a "boot hill" to remember the people we were doing this for. This is my section of the boot hill.

 At the end of the relay they have a balloon launch. Before they launched, one of the directors read a poem that he had written for this event. He had a hard time reading through it and teared up a lot, which made me feel better about bawling my eyes out. It was beautiful, I'm going to try and track him down to get a copy of it.