We spent the last week in Utah having the BEST time with family. The reason we made the trip was for an extended Roper family reunion on my side of the family. I've been to dozens of family reunions done all sorts of different ways in my life, and this reunion put on by my Grandma Roper is my favorite one for sure. It's one full day each summer at a farm in Northern Utah, tucked into a hidden valley loaded with activities: Giant downhill slip-n-slide, tractor train for the kids, a playground in the sand, swings, big pavilion for meals, zip lines, and a pond loaded with diving platforms, more ziplines, sand, slide, floating platforms, rings, climbing wall, rope swing, and lots of little kayaks. Everything's homemade and pretty janky, but wow it's a good time. Nothing is scheduled out besides meals, but we all end up doing the same activities at the same time all together anyway. It's my favorite day of the year and the only day where I get out of the car and then don't have to do anything for my child all day but lather a new layer of sunscreen on him every few hours. He has so much fun playing with all the little kids there, and me and Jared have a blast playing and catching up with all my Roper relatives. At the end of the day I leave happy and maybe wanting a bit more time to catch up with cousins, but also so pumped to go home (to my parents' home) to a familiar bed.
After the reunion we spent a week in Utah Valley at my parents' house visiting family and hitting our favorite UV spots. One of Jared's favorite hangs is Utah Lake. Even when it's 100 degrees outside and there's no one else out on the entire lake because the water quality is questionable. Jared was living his best life running through these shallows:
One afternoon we went to the dinosaur museum at BYU. Jack has gotten all of his cousins in on the dino craze so this was a highlight. The number one highlight of the trip was "playing with Asher." At the end of every day I'd ask Jack what his favorite part of the day was and every single time the answer was "playing with Asher." Love these cuties:
Then we popped by the Bean Museum because, why not, and then we ran to the BYU bookstore for Jared to grab a planner. We stopped for milk and cookies in the bookstore too. It was very cute.
On one of our last nights, the boy cousins and their dads went on their first short lil' backpacking trip with Grandpa Haines. I was glad to be back home having a girls' night with my mom and some sisters in law, but I did end up hiking up to see the camp the next morning. Mostly I did this because a Dry Canyon hike was on my "must do in Utah" list and this was our last morning there. They just happened to be where I was going to hike anyway, which worked out because Jack was very nervous for his first camping experience and I think he was comforted by the promise that I'd come visit his campsite in the morning. I planned on just saying hi and then finishing the loop by myself and taking a nap before they got home, but I absolutely should have known that Jack would not let me leave his sight and would end up hiking back with me. At first I was annoyed but honestly I envisioned this very moment hiking down Dry Canyon trail with my little boy before I even had kids. Will be more fun next time when I'm not 7 months pregnant in 90-degree heat. But still a good time.
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