On Friday morning we got home from Cancun, did a little laundry, took a nap, and headed out to Grandma Nielson's 80th birthday Party in Palisades State Park. Thankfully the ride was good and uneventful. About 3 hours after we passed Victorville, Freeway 15 caught on fire along with 20 other cars! We sure dodged that bullet!
The next morning Mike's family came over with all of their toys. Marcia rented a cabin for all of her family to stay in which was the meeting point for breakfast and dinner. So after breakfast we headed out on the ATVs.
All the way home Mike was looking up trailers and ATVs, I think he's trying to tell me something :)
The little kids were going to go play in the lake while the big kids rode on the trail. Tyler suggested they all have a 10 minute ride before going to the lake so they would say they went on the bikes. Here's Odin ready for the lake getting a ride from his dad.
The kids were all excited to go riding.
I thought it was awesome that Ann's family was more than happy to share their toys with us
Even Grandpa Nielson has his own ATV, he's such a cool guy!
I hopped on with Michael :)
And we're off!
We went on a really pretty trail
I'm glad Mike was driving because I got to enjoy all of the views
There were about 12 of us, it was a good size group and it was fun to ride with everyone
I accidentally took a picture of this butterfly
Utah is so beautiful
Grandpa Cy is such a cool guy!
Beautiful views every where you looked
When we got back home we headed over to the lake to meet up with the little guys and have lunch. It started pouring (the rain really followed us this entire week!)
There were like 20 kids piled up inside 1 van. They were all yelling at the same time walking on top of each other. It was madness so Ann just took them back up to the cabin while we stayed back and loaded up the car. It was sad we weren't able to go on the paddle boats and kayaks but we sure didn't want to risk being in a lake during a summer storm.
I stole these pictures from the family photo stream since we weren't able to go to the lake
When we got home the kids all jumped into the Jacuzzi
That's a whole lot of craziness in one jacuzzi
We never thought about how dirty they all were, let's just say the water was all kinds of different colors when they got out
They were sure having fun though!
The Nielsons have a family tradition of Bingo. The kids loved winning and getting prices
Bingo at the 'cabin' More like beautiful house by the lake
The cabin had beautiful views
The kitchen is our meeting place, no matter how big a house is, we always seem to gravitate towards the kitchen :)
Bingo after dinner
Found the first treasure on the Palisades sign
Evan was the lucky one to find it
We found aunt Kathy on our walk riding her ATV
I love the blue sky
My cute nieces Grace and Edie
The lake was so pretty, it looked like a great camping spot
Jill and Walt called Mike to say Happy Birthday since they weren't able to make it. Here is Mike Face timing with them. I love his sassy pose, I wonder where he gets It from?
Beeb and Millie
I wanted to go in the lake sooo bad it looked amazing and super fun
Looking for more geo-caching treasures
Odin and Dean
Cutest little red head
Oh how I love my cute Gracie girl!! She is so sweet and will sometimes come up to me and ask me to do her hair, she just makes me one happy aunty!
Our group, I sure love this big family of mine
Silly pose!
These next pictures were taken by my niece, Edie...
And then it was time to eat cake!
Jason, Kari, Lindsey, Brad
Laurie (Laurie scared us a couple of months ago by having a stroke! Such a miracle that she is perfectly fine today) and Elizabeth
Ben
Odin and Ben are the cutest little buddies
Ridge
After cake we headed over for family pictures at the Manti Temple. I had never visited before and I thought it was absolutely beautiful! Walt and Marcia got married here. One day I'll have to make it to the Manti pageant
The flowers around the temple were beautiful. I loved the contrast of the dark flowers against the light stone
These next pictures were taken by Edie, she did such a great job!...
After every one finally arrived we took family pictures. It was quite the scene having all 60 grownups and kids trying to sit still for a picture
Next came the great grandkids photo
Then Marcia's grandkids
Julia
Grandma Carol and Papa Cy. They're such an adorable sweet couple. They're always holding hands
Odin and Ridge
My cute sister in law Katie with her boys
Karin's kids. Top left: Adam, Julia, Benjamin, Luke
Bottom Left: Isaac, Austin
I couldn't believe just how beautiful this temple was, I've never seen one like it
After pictures we headed back to the cabin
The cabin has such pretty views of the mountains and lake
My cute little photographer, Edie
Edie said she wanted to take more pictures so I let her go around taking some more pictures...
She did a great job, the cabin was beautiful.
On our way home Mike suggested we meet with Marsix and Alex for dinner, um OKAY! Since they were still at work we went and played down at the Container Park. We had gone with Marsix and Alex before but couldn't go in because we had a baby and it was past 9pm, so we went to check it out. There were so many crazies in the street! There were a lot of schizophrenics in downtown Vegas, needless to say we didn't stay too long.
All the shops were made out of shipping containers, even the bathrooms! This train was made into a restaurant.
I dared Mike to sit in this bike rack, I thought it was so funny when he actually hopped on. Didn't look very comfortable, ouch!
We decided to meet Marsix and Alex at Frijoles, a Mexican food restaurant they have been raving about. It was so good!
It was kinda funny because Marsix and I ordered the exact same thing and Alex and Mike not knowing ordered the exact same thing also. Great minds think alike :)
I'm glad we were able to have such an awesome weekend with family. We are so blessed to have the sweetest family and it was fun meeting up with all of them up in Utah. Can't wait to do it again. Happy 80th Birthday Gma Nielson and Happy 30th Birthday Mike!
