Ogden Family Reunion

Ryan and Rochele's family always comes to visit from Florida every summer for a few days so we decided to have a family reunion while they were here.  Grandma and grandpa Ogden went to a lot of work putting together a fun weekend for everyone.  They decided on a "Family Ties" theme where we focused on our ancestors and got to know some of them better.

We drove up to the cabin Friday after work and pretty much just put the kids to bed because it was pretty late.  Randy and I visited with Ryan, Rochele, grandma and grandpa for a while to catch up a little before we went to bed too.

Saturday morning, the guys went golfing while we made a late breakfast and let the kids play together.  Then we got ready for the day and headed to American Fork to meet up with Misty and Rhett's family at the temple which is where grandma planned to start our tour.

Family pic in front of the temple

Once everyone was there, we walked to the southeast corner of the temple grounds where we could see the house that grandma and grandpa raised their family across the street.  They sold the house about 6 years ago and the new owners have changed a lot of things to the house (like demolishing the garage and putting it on the other side of the house but not finishing where the garage used to be) so it looks totally different than what any of us remember.  But grandma sat the kids down and talked about some of her memories from that home and watching the temple being built across the street and how all of her kids families started in the Mt Timpanogos Temple.  After reminiscing for a while we continued walking around the temple then loaded up in our cars to take a "tour" of American Fork and talk about some of the memories that the moms and dads had there.

I didn't get pics of all the places we went but these are the places we drove and/or stopped at: Mt. Timpanogos Temple, the church they attended, the house they owned for the first few years of marriage, Barrett Elementary, Evergreen Park, AF High School where all the kids attended school and grandpa was vice principal for 17 years, Beehive Park (baseball fields), the old hospital where everyone but Ryan was born and finished at AF Junior High School where MacNiel was principal for 15 years.  It was fun to drive by all those places again and the kids liked hearing stories about when their dad was young.  After the "tour" we all went over to Rhett's to have pizza and let the kids play.  Randy, Rhett and Ryan all went to the Van Halen concert that night but Rochele and I let the kids stay and play for a while before heading back up to the cabin.

The kids played soccer, flag football, tag and whatever else they could come up with

Paisley and Mia had fun on the swings

On Sunday, went to church in Midway that morning.  That afternoon Randy's cousin came up to the cabin to take some family pictures for us then we all had dinner together.  That evening, we got together for a family history lesson and a piano recital.  Rhonda had put together a binder for each grandchild with pictures, stories and a family tree for each kid.  I think the kids had fun learning about their great grandparents and hearing some stories about them.

Grandma going through the binder with the kids

After the family history lesson, each of the grandkids, except Mia and Taya, played a couple songs on the piano.  I think each of the kids have started piano lessons with grandma and they all did a great job.  Halen was excited to show off a little of what he has learned and even though Alex hasn't taken any lessons, he's taught himself to play a couple songs so he played them for everyone too.

The recital took up the rest of the evening so when it was over we made a huge bed up on the loft for all the grandkids to have a sleepover then the adults played a few card games.  We usually play a lot of cards when we're together but we didn't seem to have a lot of time this time. :(

Monday morning was spent just kind of relaxing and hanging out with each other.  All the kids took turns riding on the four wheelers and playing around the yard.  It had been a little rainy the last few days and it was pretty cool in the mornings...it felt great, but the kids wanted their jackets.

Daddy taking Mia and Alex on the 4 wheeler

After lunch, we got ready to go hike to Timpanogos Cave.  Rhonda had made reservations for us to go through at 6:00 & 6:15 (our group was so big we had to have 2 times Ü).  I had never hiked up to the cave but Randy had done it a few times and said it wasn't that bad and Mia would be fine to walk it herself.  She actually did really well and walked most of it herself.  We carried her for part of the way but it was a lot steeper than Randy remembered so it was tough to have to carry her.  We just had to stop at most of the benches and let her rest.  It was overcast and cool when we started but of course as we got going, the sun came out and it got pretty hot.  Randy's not a fan of heights and there were several drop offs that made him nervous to have the kids get close so he made sure one of us had hold of Mia's hand all the time and he kept telling the kids to hug the inside like he was doing. Ü  We were the first ones to start up the mountain but we were the last ones to get there.  It took us about an hour and half to get to the top.

We look so refreshed and ready to go

About a quarter of the way up...can this count as the cave Ü

We were all sweaty and exhausted but we made it 6730 feet up

Our group for the cave tour was us, Misty's family and grandma and grandpa.  Alex was a little unsure about going inside and held onto my hand pretty tight until we got inside and he realized there were lights and it wasn't as tight as he thought it was going to be.  They did turn the lights off at one point to show how dark it is inside and Alex and Mia both grabbed on to me pretty tight but they were fine the rest of the time.  They thought it was really neat to see all the formations inside the cave.

Our group in the "great room"

Don't bonk your head on your way through

Go toward the light...

The "heart" of Timpanogos

We didn't bring coats so we had to borrow some from grandma...I love Halen's 80's style Ü

The view of the valley from exit of the cave

We got down off the mountain a LOT faster than we had gone up but we definitely got our workout for the week.  We should go do it more often. Ü  We were all starving when we got back to the cars so we tried to decide where to go for dinner but since it would be almost 9:00 by the time we got to town, some of the places we were wanting to go would have been closing soon so we just ended up at Chick Fil A before heading back to the cabin.  We were all ready to go to bed after our long day.

Tuesday morning, we had breakfast and started packing to head back home.  Grandpa took the kids on some four wheeler rides while we got ready and grandma gave Halen a quick piano lesson to work on for the week.

Alex really was having fun Ü

Mia always likes to go for rides

Halen might be getting a little big to ride the little bike but grandpa let him drive so he was happy

Halen getting a piano lesson from grandma

We left about 2:00 and went down through Park City so we could stop at the Adidas outlet to get Randy some new shoes then stopped in American Fork for a late lunch/early dinner at Whistle Wok (our favorite Chinese restaurant) before actually heading for home.  It was such a fun weekend being with family.  The kids love playing with their cousins so much.  We wish all of us lived closer together so we could hang out more but it just makes the times we do get together that much better I guess.