Pack family reunion

We were in charge of the Pack Family reunion so we decided to have it at Bryce Canyon at the Ruby's Inn Campground. We thought it would be fun to stay in the tipis. 

June 20th:

We had a lot of stuff we needed to take to the reunion and found that it wouldn't fit in just the van (we probably could have figured it out). Courtney had to work that morning so we decided to load up the truck and have her drive stuff up for us. It worked out pretty well.

Bryan and I drove up in the morning to get things set up before people began showing up that afternoon. We went on a walk around the campground to figure out where the showers were and to see what was offered.

Ruby's Inn is pretty nice.  We set up our site and then explored around while we waited for people to show up. There was a lot of room in the tipis. It wasn't hard to get all three air mattresses in the tipi with plenty of room.

Ethan had a final to take for his term class, so he was coming up a little later in the day. I anxiously watched their progress.

We had a great night of visiting with everyone. We all got dinner on our own. But it was fun to see everyone.

June 21st:

It was really cold overnight. We stayed warm in our tipi but Courtney did say that she was cold when she got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

We woke up, had breakfast, and then took off for a hike. We decided to do the Navajo Loop hike. Our kids had done this hike years before when they were little so we were excited to go on it again. We ended up going in a couple of groups so Bryan and I ended up with Sammie, while Ethan and Courtney went ahead with Mike and his kids. It turned out fun and there were some amazing views.

We had a great dinner and sat around talking, bike riding, or just hanging around. It was a great day and the weather was great.

June 22nd:

This was a day I was most excited about. We drove to Marysvale to go river rafting and ziplining. I love river rafting so I was happy to do it. We had great guides and had a lot of fun going down the river. The river was really high at one point, so we weren't able to go under a bridge. We had to get out of the boats and portage them across the road to get to the river.

When we finished rafting, we went to the park at the river rafting place and ate sandwiches for lunch. We didn't have much time between finishing rafting and going to the zipline area, but we were able to make it work.

We then did a challenge course. This was fun. We went across a bridge (it was really windy so this was kind of tough for some of the little kids but they all did it!) and then could climb up a rock face using rungs. I didn't want to do that just because it was really windy. When we got to the top (I just hiked up), we ziplined down. It was super fun!

Courtney

Ethan

Michelle

Bryan

Courtney climbing up the rock face

Courtney on the zipline

On our way back from the river rafting, Bennett was exhausted and fell asleep on Courtney's arm. It was cute.

That night's dinner was yummy but we had a hard time getting the burner going on the stove. It was fun to watch all the guys try to get it lit.

June 23rd:

There is a really cool balloon festival in Panguitch every year but, unfortunately, it was too windy for the balloons to go up. We wanted to see that but it didn't work out. Bryan, Andrew, and Julie biked from Bryce Canyon down to Panguitch and we met them there.  We had heard there would be a farmer's market that morning but it didn't end up being much so we got cookies and went back to camp.

Everyone was on their own for activities. We went into Bryce Canyon to look around and did a small hike to see the sights. Some biked into Bryce Canyon with the kids and then biked back. It was great weather (it was really cold at night) so it wasn't too hard to do activities. Some went swimming and had a great time there.

At night, we all went to Sunset Point to see the sunset. It was beautiful and a fun ending to our family reunion.

We had lots of s'mores and talking around the campfire before bed.

June 24th:

We packed up and were finished with the reunion. We didn't get a group picture so Grandma Pack asked us all to go to the Bryce Canyon sign, sit in a particular place, and take a family photo to send to her. She spent time in Photoshop putting a group photo together from all our different pictures and she did an amazing job. You can't tell we weren't all there at the same time.

We won't plan another reunion for 10 years (I believe) so we can rest easy. But it was a fun reunion and it was great to see everyone (except Jeff's family).

Father's Day hike

We have a tradition of going on a hike for Father's Day (well, the day before). Bryan wanted to go on the Wildcat (I think that's what it's called) trail which is the start of the Subway hike. You can go to a certain point and then the trail breaks off and goes to the Subway (which is a permit hike). We stayed on the trail and went to the lookout point. It was a nice day, with not a lot of people on the trail, and beautiful views with cool weather. 

Courtney kept stopping to take pictures which turned out great. It was a great hike!

A treat for Courtney

There is a new Chef's Store over by Costco so Courtney and I had to go over and look around.  They have everything in large sizes because it's for chefs and restaurants.  Courtney was in heaven when she found a massive rice crispy treat! It is just what she would want in her life!

Oman family reunion

We had an Oman family reunion in Castle Dale.  We took my dad and met everyone in the park on Main Street.  It was fun to see everyone. Dad brought his history book that we had made and everyone got to look at it. Some of them asked where to buy it so I will be putting that online so they can get one for themselves.

Courtney and Bryan drove to Price to get food (we should have gotten something in Castle Dale but I didn't know what was there and I knew there was pizza in Price). It took a long time and they weren't too happy about the long drive but they did it.

Dad didn't want to stay too long after we ate so we loaded up and came home.

Michelle, Candy Price, and Leigh Ann

Dad and Candy

Hike

We have been going on hikes on the weekend. This weekend, we drove up to Silver Reef to go on a hike but it didn't go as expected.  The road is super windy and not very wide. People were coming down it when we were going up and there wasn't much room.  Courtney and I were nervous and weren't having fun on the ride.

When we got to the trailhead there were bugs and we weren't in a good mood. There were a lot of branches and bushes near the trail that were scratching Courtney so she wasn't very happy either. We hiked for a little while and then turned around and came home.  It wasn't a successful hike but we did get out in nature so we should get points for trying.

Our view

We have had some amazing rain clouds and rain showers.  I had to go outside and take a picture of the fun rainbow to share.