Goodbye July Stop 4

Onward! To the Hale Family Reunion!

After the Terry and Luetta reunion, we expanded our family love to include the whole Hale side of the family! Jon's Aunt Susan and Uncle Nathan work as service missionaries at the Camp Early Girls Camp close to Logan.  It was a short and sweet reunion of cousins getting reacquainted and getting to know all the cousins' kids. I didn't meet one person I didn't get along with. I loved it!!

Friday night, we had a great campfire program with skits and hotdogs and marshmallows.  Then I had a pretty short night's sleep out under the stars and woke up with Lynn, Louis, and Weston to go for a long run. I had to go ten miles and they wanted to go 18 (yikes...) so I started off with them for five miles and then turned around and headed back to camp. We ran by something that I have never run by before... thus the strange selfie here...

 In case you can't read it, that sign says, "NO TRESPASSING: UNMANNED ROBOTIC TEST TRACK." Nope, never seen one of those before... I almost wanted to take that sign home because it was cool!

 And back at the ranch, reunion fun was going in full swing! Pancake breakfast, crafts galore including Monkey Fist necklaces, Origami, and designing your own stomp rocket! These hand carts provided more than a little entertainment (and a fair amount of danger among the littler ones...) Everyone enjoyed a ride or a pull!

Then we played a huge variety of "Minute to Win It" activities which were super fun! Then of course you have to play in the water! Bottle rockets and sprinklers and kites finished of the afternoon.

All the fun tuckered out the little ones and they couldn't even make it to the tarp to take a nap... Jade is particularly famous for her strange sleeping positions... 

Larry made friends with Ella, a cute little cousin-once-removed... she has very short hair and was wearing basic jeans and a shirt. Of course, as things go, clothes get dirty when one is camping, so Ella went to change.  While she was away, Larry started telling us about his new best friend Allen... I was a little confused... I hadn't met everyone, but I certainly didn't know any kid named Allen... As he was trying to explain about his new friend, Ella came back with a pink skirt and shirt on! Larry looked SHOCKED! "WHAT?!?" he exclaimed in disbelief, "You're a GIRL?!? That.... just... blows my mind!" We were laughing about that moment all day... but what made me happy was that Ella's being a girl didn't change how much fun they had together for the rest of the weekend. He's an equal opportunity buddy :) 

It was such a pleasant weekend with all the Hale family! I love getting connected and reacquainted... and we'll see you all again in 5 years :)