2009 England Family Reunion

There are some trips you go on and you are so glad to be back home. There are others that you wish you didn't have to leave so soon. We just got back from the England Family Reunion and I really wish I was back at Kara and Todd's.
We first went over to Manson so Matt could participate in the ChelanMan 1/2 Ironman. This is one race I don't mind him doing because we stay at Granny Janny and Papa Butch's house and they make it very easy to get to the race. Matt did great. He finished first in his age group. Because he did he got a little glass mug that is tinted yellow at the bottom. Everytime I look at it I think it's dirty.
From there we drove to Boise and stayed with my sister, Sara for 2 nights. Her complex has a nice pool that the kids (and Matt) took full advantage of. Matt also requested that we stop by Sonic so he could get his double jalapeno cheese burger he has been craving. As we ate our dinner I noticed my burger had a bit of a kick to it. The jalapenos had been put on my burger by mistake.
From Boise we headed down to Matt and Sara's house in Salt Lake. We took the kids to Cowabunga which is a waterpark in Draper. As soon as we parked, Maddy informed me that there was no way she was going on any of those slides. (She can be a bit of a chicken.) We dragged her inside and all the kids loved it. We were even able to talk the kiddos into riding on some of the non-toddler slides. Great place to go for 1/2 day if you are in the area.
Friday we headed to Kara and Todd's in Pleasant View. Matt and the kids spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool. I had a pretty good sunburn going so opted to avoid the sun. Later that night we pulled the kids from the water and went into the Ogden Rodeo. Crazy. Parking was insane. We walked into the rodeo grounds and could not find a seat. The place was absolutely packed. I finally found some nice people who let us squeeze in next to them behind the grandstand box. Every once in awhile we were able to see something. The kids enjoyed it though.
Saturday we went back to Kara's and had family pictures. I think there were 90 of us there. We had yummy burritos for lunch and hung around the pool some more. It was so nice to visit with people. After dinner we dragged the kiddos back to the hotel. None of them were too happy to leave. After everyone else went to bed, a group of us went to the hotel hottub and just talked. We decided at about 12:30am that we should probably get to bed. On our way to our rooms, we heard a lot of noise coming from the breakfast room (those Englands can be loud!). We stayed in there chatting away until about 2am. It was fun.
Sunday, my cousin Brynne had her mission farewell but we had to miss it so we could get Matt to the airport in Boise. We brought back a lot more baggage than we went down with...Kelsy, Aden, Thaddeus and Ben tagged along for the drive back to Washington. The 7 grandkids are all at Granny Janny and Papa Butch's house until tomorrow. They have had a blast and I will have to do another post for that. I'm glad they were there with air conditioning instead of here. It was 105 degrees yesterday according to weather.com.
So Kara and Todd, we tip our hats to you. You were fabulous hosts and we had a blast. My kids are already asking to go back. You took such good care of all of us and went far beyond what anyone expected. You are awesome! Next time, Kara, I hope you get to relax and come visit with us! Thanks for a great time!