Happy is a verb: Reunion Days are here

The summer explodes with reunions for our family. I mean it. We have 3 reunions scheduled, a birthday/reunion, and probably another 2 reunion invites that will float in during the summer, depending upon which year and which great grandparent's family is organized to re-unite.

That means crazy prep and traveling all summer. We just returned from our first reunion, which we had in the high Uintas, a camping trip for 4 days. It was a good time, and it felt good to be camping again!

Keeping the kids entertained was not hard at all. These were their dirt drawings. They were proud of them, and I was impressed.

This ballet dancer's hair is blowing in the wind. Of course it's really princess Hannah, she explained.

The Uintas are amazing. Until last year I'd never been. It's unreal, and so peaceful.

On the way back from 4-wheeling, we spotted this doe. My hubby paused for this shot. I can see the appeal of hunting, though the only shot I want to take is with my camera.

Does this explain every parent's attempt to teach their kids to fish, or what? It was so wonderful, despite the fact that neither Dan or I got to cast more than 4 times in the whole trip. Our kids did, and they loved it. We got a bite or two, but no real success yet! We did get 2 kids casting well though!

I feel like the simple beauty of the mountains is always tucked away and small, like packages to be unwrapped as you go.

I usually would never let the dog travel on my lap, but it was so perfect. All of us packed cozily into our truck, warmed up by the tightness of it all (it was windy cold!). My hubby and I just looked at each other with complete satisfaction. We love the way being out in nature makes things stand still. No phone calls, no emails with emergencies blaring, no distractions, just hanging out with family.

This was the perfect shot. My boy trying to have lunch, with two dogs perched on either side hoping for crumbs to drop. The other pup wandered away just before I could snap it. Though it doesn't look like it, there really were 22 of us camping. It was excellent, but they're not sure they want to be all over a public blog, so just imagine the fun.

Our sweet babe. He loved camping, and with so much family around it was nice to see him going from one curiosity to another. Mostly he stayed perched on top of the parked 4-wheelers. No movement necessary to inspire our kids to have fun.

Night time was not so easy, as his sweet hands would freeze. I bundled him up with Dan and I and held his hands. He slept like a rock then.

Since we're a bit early in the season to be camping at 10000+ feet, it was pretty cold and windy. At one point our tent blew totally upside down, fully loaded with bags, mattress pads, pack and play and even my daughter inside! It was a little scary. She was so calm though, and by the time I grabbed her out of there (she was buried), she yelled "I'm ok, just a little collapse in here". After she was out, we began to try to make sense of the inside, and another microburst of wind picked it up again, at which point my hubby jumped on the tent to ground it again. With the help of my FIL, they got things staked down enough to keep Chernobyl safe n sound.