Family Fun in Utah

In July, we had a wonderful trip out to Utah where we spent time with family and friends.

The first weekend was occupied with an extended Wasden Family Reunion organized by our Michael. He did an amazing job. The previous summer, Mike received some family documents passed down from Mike's great-grandfather, Willard Wasden. Willard had been the president of the Thomas Wasden Society of America, an organization whose primary purpose seemed to be to organize reunions for the family. Mike was inspired to revive this tradition, starting with the descendants of Willard.

Mike worked consistently all year to track down contacts from different lines of the family and invite them to the reunion. We were thrilled to have about 80 or so people attend the various reunion events across the weekend. It was quite the undertaking, and we were really grateful to have it come together and make these valuable family connections.

The rundown of the weekend:
We spent Friday running around and picking up food, decorations, paper products, etc. for the events. After that, we set up the gym at the church we were using in Sugar House. (Booked for us by Trevor - such a great help!) Friday evening was a welcome potluck event that was well attended by many family members. The next day we had a picnic lunch at Sugar House park complete with a pinata for the kids and a family picture. That evening, we had a final banquet for the adults that included a family jeopardy trivia game and a catered dinner.

The other wonderful thing about our time up in the SLC area was that we stayed with our friends, Kevin and Leah, as they lived close to the reunion events. We LOVE the Mitchells! The boys had so much fun playing with Rainey and Eleanor and baby Ikey, and we absolutely loved catching up with Kevin and Leah. It was really a treat!

After the larger reunion, we spent the next few days at Jake and Michelle's new home in Spanish Fork with the immediate Wasden family. As always, it was a great get together! The boys loved meeting their baby cousin, Alex. In fact, Lewis got a real kick out of how much attention he got when holding Alex.

We also had a family birthday party for Daddy! Happy 36th birthday, Michael!!! It was a tennis themed birthday party with lots of tennis related games and gifts. The culminating gift was tickets to the US Open Men's Quarterfinals. Woohoo! Our dinner had a southwestern salad, roasted vegg, and quesadillas in spinach tortillas, made to look like tennis balls. Activities at the party included Lewis and Beau singing Skidda-Markiny-Dinky-Dink, Deborah doing a baton routine, playing pass the tennis ball under your chin, birthday-boy in the middle, Annie-annie-i-over over the house, and a family massage for Michael. It was quite the affair!

The next day we had a wonderful family picnic at a park in the canyon with Thurl and Millie. It was so lovely to see them and spend time together. And the boys loved yummy food and playing in the sprinklers with their cousins.

Mike is going through a "Doing Scott's Hair" phase -
Amazing results!

Baby Alex might actually the the cutest baby boy ever!

Our boys' favorite event of the trip was hiking the Y! They both loved that so much. They're good little hikers anyway. But, there was something about hiking up to a letter that they could recognize on the mountain that was extra exciting! They still talk about it as their second favorite thing ever (second only to seeing the real Thomas!). We actually decided to hike the Y twice in one day, heading up again in the evening to watch the sunset. Beautiful!

Fruit bar rewards halfway up!

Lollipop rewards from Rachel at the top!

And here are the evening hike pictures!

Other than that, we spent lots of great time chatting, laughing, catching up, and playing. We also had a lunch together at Papa John and Jake's work - very fun! The boys and I snuck in a visit with our friends Katie Rugh and kids. Also a treat to catch up with her! And, Mike and I snuck in a visit to the temple - wonderful!

The other news that marked this visit was Cat learning that she has breast cancer. We were very grateful to be together as a family to share in the tears, fear, hope, blessings, and shock. We love our Auntie Cat so much. At a time when she would love to settle into the sweetness of life with a darling baby and new husband, she must literally face the shadow of death in order to come through to a place of new strength and health. Our prayers, faith, hope, and love are with her.