Reunion Triplet

It just so happened that the Loel Tonks family reunion (ie all of my grandpa Tonks's progeny) was the weekend after we moved out of Illinois.  I hadn't seen most of my Tonks cousins/aunts/uncles for years, and Kevin hadn't even met any of them ever, so we decided to go this year long before we had made concrete moving plans.  It worked out well, though, since our stuff was all in storage and our cars were sold, so we just flew to Utah.  I had convinced my little brother that he should come out to the reunion too, and that my other siblings who lived close and my parents and us should all rent a cabin together to stay at during the reunion, plus an extra day or two.  We had a couple of days before the reunion started, though, so we just drove up to Rexburg where my sister lives and hung out with her and her family, and my brother and his family (they live in Idaho Falls).    One of the days at Heidi's house, we decided to take a trip to take Matthew's girlfriend (Arianna) to see Yellowstone, since she's never been, and since it's not too far from Rexburg.  We knew it wouldn't work out well with Abby, though, and Heidi and her family had some plans (it was her son's birthday party, etc.), and my Dad didn't want to get up as early as we'd need to leave, so Kevin stayed behind to watch Abby and it was just my mom and my little brother and Arianna and me.  We had a *great* time!  I had so much fun talking and laughing with Matthew and Arianna, both on this trip and when they drove up to Idaho from SLC with us.

Old Faithful at Yellowstone

Arianna inside the Old Faithful Inn

The trip to Yellowstone was a blast, even after I lost my glasses (maybe they'll spout up from Old Faithful one day), and even when we took a wrong turn on the way home and ended up driving over an hour in the wrong direction!  We then had to drive back to Yellowstone, where we decided to eat dinner before trying a second time to drive back.  We didn't get home until late--Kevin was a trooper and took care of Abby all that time and put her to bed on his own and everything.  Yay Kevin!  I can't say I didn't enjoy a day of freedom to go and sightsee without worrying about nap schedules and eating times and babies who don't like being strapped in for long periods of time.

Our cabin at Bear Lake

Front of the cabin

(By the way, I should say that most of these pictures were taken by either my little brother or his girlfriend, which you can tell by the suspicious sudden increase in quality from what I usually take.)

my cute nephew

When it was time for the Tonks reunion to start, we all drove down to Bear Lake (which is between Utah and Idaho) and checked into our vacation rental cabin.  It was a nice cabin, although they did NOT have wifi, and I'm pretty sure they advertised that they did.  Not that I minded that much, but certain other parties amongst us have a hard time being unplugged.  Actually, the cell phone reception wasn't good there either, so it was a true get-away!  We had to drive like 45 minutes or something to get to the location of all the extended family events, which was a slight bummer, but not too bad.  We had a great time, especially back at our immediate family cabin.  It was just great to BE with everyone, and we really loved getting to know Arianna better.  She is great--good catch, Matthew!  Kevin and I never got to actually *swim* in Bear Lake, because the day we planned to go it was so crazy busy that by the time we got there, they were at capacity and turned us away.  (The rest of the family got there earlier, so they got in.)  Instead we went and had raspberry shakes.  We did take our turn in the hot tub at the cabin, though.

Bear Lake--the view from the cabin, I think.  (Isn't my brother a great photographer?)

After the Loel Tonks reunion was over, we stayed an extra couple of days for just a Davis Tonks reunion.  Sadly, I got pretty sick the day before we left and felt rather miserable.  Abby got sick too, and was especially bad the day we drove back to Utah.  She basically slept the whole day.  (Of course, that DOES make for a quieter drive...)  She was mostly better within a day or two, although she had a runny nose for weeks afterwards.

When we got to Utah, we stopped off at my Grandma and Grandpa Ellis's house to pick up the luggage we had left there.  They fed us, and we hung out for a short while (and took a 4 generation picture--glad we thought to do that!) and then we drove down to Provo to Kevin's sister's house.  

Four generations!  

There commenced our third family reunion--this one was a Hoffman reunion (just Kevin's parents and siblings).  We had a fun time there, too.  One day we went up to Park City and did the apline slide and ziplines. We also went swimming and hiking (both with everyone one day, and then a longer one with just some of the adults another day--Kevin's mom watched all the kids! ) and generally had a great time.   The adult-only hike was a longish one where we hiked up to Sunset Peak and then down by way of a few pretty lakes.  We started in one canyon and ended in the other (we drove two cars and parked one at the end).  I really enjoyed the hike!  I was worried I'd have a tough time, since I've been living at sea level, plus I'm not very in shape these days, but actually I did just fine and really enjoyed it.  The Hoffman reunion was short but sweet (just a few days), but I'm really glad we all made it.

After the Hoffman reunion, we flew down to New Mexico, and stayed with my parents.  Heidi and her family stopped by for a couple days after we'd just been there a few days.  Even though we'd just seen them at the reunion, it was fun to visit again!  They were there for my mom's birthday, so we all celebrated together.  After they left, we settled in a bit...quite a bit, I guess, because we are still here!