We left the heat of Salt Lake for the even greater heat of St. George. The kids were excited to go to the "desert," and see their grandparents and cousins. Rob's parents were in charge of this year's Wood Family Reunion and we hoped to make ourselves useful. Unfortunately I wasn't much help at all as I immediately came down with a nasty bug that knocked me out for several days. But Rob helped with set-up as well as the spectacular Amazing Race that had been prepared for Saturday morning. Family teams followed clues and raced around the town to complete tasks and sprint to the finish. It was such a great event! Later that night we joined the hundreds of other Wood relatives for dinner (oh-so-delicious and all made by Dad Wood) and a talent show. I may be a little biased, but my favorite performance was when Jake, barely 4 years old, got up and sang the Transformers cartoon theme song.
One of the "roadblocks" teams had to perform was to have one member rappel down the face of the Dixie rock.
The kids and I were the official race photographers. It was interesting trying to stay one step ahead of all the teams.
The teams, pre-race.
Did I mention it was H...O...T...? We tried to stay cool by playing in the water as much as possible. Here we are hanging out at a local splash park with Anna and Mike and their kids; Roger and Bonnie; and Grandma.
Cousins Maren (4 months old) and Alex (12 months old) getting cozy.
Natalie, Jame and Issac taking a whirl.
Grandma planned a big Girl's Day with Haley and Natalie. They baked cookies, went to have their toenails painted, and dressed up for a tea party. They were nice enough to allow Jake to crash the tea party.
Doll friends Barbie and Lanie (not pictured) were invited too.
One morning we drove out to Sand Hollow to go swimming. The weather was GORGEOUS, the water was the perfect temperature, and we had the beach to ourselves. It was PERFECT....
...Maybe too perfect. When we got out of the water to go home the kids complained of itching. They scratched and whined some more. It soon became frantic scratching and crying so we rinsed them off in the bathroom as best we could and hurried home to scrub in the shower. That's the last time I'll ignore the big red sign posted at the park entrance warning of swimmer's itch!
Crawling UP the slip-n-slide doesn't work so well. But that didn't keep Alex from trying.
Grandma and Grandpa have a great front-yard hill for slip-and-sliding. And Bonnie was an
awesome hoser-downer.
A last, random memory: On the drive from Salt Lake to St. George, which was only 4 hours, Alex made it very clear that he did NOT want to be in his car seat any longer. We stopped at a gas station and bought a box of Kleenex, then drove on into the gathering night. The next 20 minutes were blissfully peaceful as Alex proceeded to pull tissue after tissue out of the box. One of the best $1.59 I've ever spent.
We left the heat of Salt Lake for the even greater heat of St. George. The kids were excited to go to the "desert," and see their grandparents and cousins. Rob's parents were in charge of this year's Wood Family Reunion and we hoped to make ourselves useful. Unfortunately I wasn't much help at all as I immediately came down with a nasty bug that knocked me out for several days. But Rob helped with set-up as well as the spectacular Amazing Race that had been prepared for Saturday morning. Family teams followed clues and raced around the town to complete tasks and sprint to the finish. It was such a great event! Later that night we joined the hundreds of other Wood relatives for dinner (oh-so-delicious and all made by Dad Wood) and a talent show. I may be a little biased, but my favorite performance was when Jake, barely 4 years old, got up and sang the Transformers cartoon theme song.
One of the "roadblocks" teams had to perform was to have one member rappel down the face of the Dixie rock.
The kids and I were the official race photographers. It was interesting trying to stay one step ahead of all the teams.
The teams, pre-race.
Did I mention it was H...O...T...? We tried to stay cool by playing in the water as much as possible. Here we are hanging out at a local splash park with Anna and Mike and their kids; Roger and Bonnie; and Grandma.
Cousins Maren (4 months old) and Alex (12 months old) getting cozy.
Natalie, Jame and Issac taking a whirl.
Grandma planned a big Girl's Day with Haley and Natalie. They baked cookies, went to have their toenails painted, and dressed up for a tea party. They were nice enough to allow Jake to crash the tea party.
Doll friends Barbie and Lanie (not pictured) were invited too.
One morning we drove out to Sand Hollow to go swimming. The weather was GORGEOUS, the water was the perfect temperature, and we had the beach to ourselves. It was PERFECT....
...Maybe too perfect. When we got out of the water to go home the kids complained of itching. They scratched and whined some more. It soon became frantic scratching and crying so we rinsed them off in the bathroom as best we could and hurried home to scrub in the shower. That's the last time I'll ignore the big red sign posted at the park entrance warning of swimmer's itch!
Crawling UP the slip-n-slide doesn't work so well. But that didn't keep Alex from trying.
Grandma and Grandpa have a great front-yard hill for slip-and-sliding. And Bonnie was an awesome hoser-downer.
A last, random memory: On the drive from Salt Lake to St. George, which was only 4 hours, Alex made it very clear that he did NOT want to be in his car seat any longer. We stopped at a gas station and bought a box of Kleenex, then drove on into the gathering night. The next 20 minutes were blissfully peaceful as Alex proceeded to pull tissue after tissue out of the box. One of the best $1.59 I've ever spent.
