Gardner Reunion

Oh the dirt! We always forget how incredibly dirty camping is--then we come back and look at pictures. DJ--this first picture was taken especially for you! We just spent 4 days at the actual Gardner family reunion. We went to the same place that some of us went to over the 4th of July, the Hams Fork Campground north of Kemmerer, WY.


Last time we were there the kids made paint out of mud. This time Aunt Danette brought real paint for the kids. It was a huge hit! Glade and Connie's David is the warrior in the back and their little girl Yvonne is in the blue. Danette and Curtis' Eli is shooting us, or something. And then there are our 3 girls--clean for now!



And the big boys played horseshoes and mountain man golf!




Kaylee, Emily and I went on a hike with some of the other cousins. We have done this hike before up to the seminary/EFY object lesson tree. I am very curious to know what direction Matt's brother Ryan will go with this object lesson. Here is one talk that I thought of. We are guessing that at some point another tree fell on this one. Instead of dying off or even growing at some funky angle it went around the obstacle and kept going on the path it was intended to go. The quote —“to act for themselves and not to be acted upon” comes to mind. I would love to have YOUR COMMENTS. What quotes or lessons do you learn from this little tree that could?
The kids had fun taking pictures in the trees (actually Emily didn't, and I couldn't bring myself to posting the picture of her holding on for dear life with tears in her eyes). Danette and Curtis' not a baby anymore Skylar is next to her big brother Eli. Kaylee is below that with her walking stick.




Here are 3 of Chad and Carolyn's kids: Jeremy, Caleb and Jessica. And then the picture of the hiking crew. It was sure hard to say bye to the Houston Gardner's. We miss you already!



“And my father dwelt in a tent.” (1 Ne. 2:15.) The perfect theme for a Gardner campout and tshirt. The kids had fun signing their names. With 23 grandkids and 23 shirts, Emily really got good at writing her name!

"What is the score?!" Traci you are so great! This was such a fun scavenger hunt! I had fun watching all of the kids. They loved it!

Sailing!! Some day we might upgrade to a bigger boat, but this works for now. It was a pretty windy day on Viva Naughton.

I'm trying to get the sailing video posted but it isn't working, so it may be up later.

38 years!! This was a fun night! It was fun to see Matt and his family all together. The family band played while Dave sang a love song to Dixie for their anniversary and then all of the little kids did songs, dances, skits, poems etc. I wish I had more video from this night.



Coy and Kaylee's "Let your light so shine" devotional!

I wish this picture from the cup game had turned out better. I wish I could figure out how to take pictures in the dark. I took a bunch this night, but they didn't turn out well at all. Aunt Danette did a great job with this reunion and especially with this night. It was very special!

So, that's it! Our last vacation and school starts on Monday! We are tired. In fact poor Kierra is just now waking up from a good 5 hour nap! Hopefully her two front teeth came in while she was sleeping. We had a great summer though! It was busy that's for sure! Now off to clean my house and get ready for a routine!

Daily log of Estes Park

Well here it is. I have so many videos and pictures from this trip. So turn the music off at the right and enjoy. I've had fun watching and re-watching and re-watching and.....wow, I'm so homesick right now. ;)

We had thought about splitting up our trip and leaving Tuesday night, but we decided to do it all in one shot. We left about 8:30 Wednesday morning and made it all the way to Rawlins (a little over 4 hours). Everything was great! The girls didn't even watch a whole movie--they had too much fun playing and coloring. We were definitely ready for a break though so we stopped at the McDonald's playplace to let them run around, in fact, we decided 2 hours in Rawlins would be such a blast! Actually, no, our van just wouldn't start. Luckily Matt's brother Glade lives there and was able to do some cleaning and tweeking and bail us out. (In fact, as these winter months approach--if any of you ever need help along I-80 in Wyoming we have good connections at each town along the way) Anyway, it probably actually worked out better because the girls took a little nap as we drove another 3 1/2 hours. I was so excited once we finally made it to Glacier Lodge in Estes Park, Colorado. There were M&Ms everywhere. This is my mom's family, the Montesi's, and her Aunt and cousins the Masons. We have always been in Wyoming and they have always been on the east coast, so the last time I saw any of them was 5 years ago at my Aunt's wedding in Boston. It is amazing though how family is always family and we all felt right at home! Even more amazing was watching the kids, who don't even know how we are all related, have so much fun together and become best friends. My kids miss the cousins sooooo much!

Thursday--actually every day was swimming and hanging out! The kids had a blast in the pool! ROCK ON!!

Abby was able to practice being a mommy by putting Kierra to sleep twice that day. I promise I do take care of my own kids most of the time. My cousin Piper was also amazing with Kierra. I really do think in a couple of years she needs to come stay with us for a summer!

That was also the day that about 20 of our group went horseback riding. Matt and Kaylee went. Kaylee rode on Trooper and was the leader of the pack (behind the 1st guide). The trip was 90 minutes through the mountain. Kaylee came back with a huge smile and a sore bum. She had a blast! I also love the pictures of my Grandma and Grandpa Montesi. These two are the most active people I know and they are in their 70s. They live on a boat through most of the summer and are skiing in the winter. They are incredible and this picture of my Grandma says it all! I love them both and miss them so much!

That night was the talent show. I really wish I had more video of that. So please make sure you go to my previous post to see my girls do the tiki dance and then my brothers play Phil Collins. Here are my brothers with some Sweet Home Alabama! To steel DJ's line from our family website, "The lodge has entertainment every Thursday night, but this week the guy scheduled to sing had other plans so rescheduled for Friday. Brian and Jackson's manager...okay...their dad asked the owners if they needed someone to fill in so these guys got the gig." They were even signing autographs afterwards! It was awesome!

On Friday and Saturday we spent a lot of time in Estes Park. Right as you pull into town there was this cute little golf course. The girls had fun and as always there was much picture taking! Watch the cute videos of Emily and Taylor golfing!

HI Brooklynne!! CHEESE!!

After golfing we rode the tram up to the top of Prospect Mountain. (1100 feet in 5 minutes--no wonder you weren't feeling so well Abby) My family had a little too much fun taking pictures.

Kierra fell asleep right away on her daddy. The rest of us had fun feeding the squirrels. If you look really close you can see that Taylor is petting the squirrel.

On Friday we went to Fun City. We rode bumper cars, went down the slide and I did the bungie trampoline. DJ, David, Dale and Dylan (that's my problem--my name doesn't start with D) ...they all made it look so graceful and easy. I did some back flips, but I was anything but graceful. When that guy sprung me up into the sky I screamed so loud and made a full of myself. Matt wasn't even able to get very good video of it (thank goodness) because my baby who was on his back was screaming too. That poor baby had no idea what to think. So, I'll post what little I have. It was so fun! I was shaking for at least 30 minutes afterward. I needed that rush though! Thanks DJ for doing that with me. I miss you a ton! The 2 of us need to take a vacation together and do more psycho crazy things like that. I promise not to be as embarrassing next time!

Oh--and sorry about this video--you'll need to turn your head sideways for 6 seconds to see it.

Well, that was the big stuff, but what I loved the most was just hanging out in the lodge. The kids did face painting and played in the bunkhouse and the adults jammed and talked. We played cards and settlers, figured out riddles ate GREAT food and listened to the GREATEST music. That was the best! Morgan and Matt jammed on the guitar and the kids got out the drums and bells and whistles. This was it. I'm sorry that it took me FOREVER to blog this. Maybe someday I'll get faster at it, but one of the reasons it took so long was because I have enjoyed looking at pictures and watching the videos over and over again.

Those cute little puppies are still missing. :( Briannyn, you've been caught spot handed!