2008 Pack Family Reunion Pictures

After the campfire and smores, only 7 party-animals (including me) stayed up to play "night games" (Apples to Apples). Thanks Shellee and Mike for keeping us young and hip like you! (We all went to bed after this by 11:30 p.m. so we weren't too tired for the next day's activities of the lake and ropes course).
The best part of the reunion was of course re-connecting with Steve's cousins. Jason & Angie own the clothing stores "Plato's Closet." I will have to stop in when I am up to Mom/Dad's!
It was fun to see "cousins' children" so talented and growing up! Go Bailey!
Aunt Larene brings up the caboose of the five siblings. She is so sweet and has been so strong through difficult trials!
Uncle Terry is hilarious! He is in charge of the next reunion (which will be held in 4 years for the family and in 2 years for the immediate siblings). He already has it planned that we will charter buses to Idaho for a 15 hour day together hitting about 6 points of interest up there. I am excited for another fun adventure!

The boys can be mischievous but are also the BEST helpers. As we started to take some firewood over to the pit, they saw this wheelbarrow on their own and started loading it without being asked. They beat us over to the firepit and unloaded the wood before we could get there. They are so cute!
Kennedy playing by the lake!
Joe & Wendy enjoying the train.
Uncle Russ speaking on family history. Cora gets the strong arm award for holding the microphone for at least 15 minutes so Grandpa Russ could handle his notes better.
You could do paddle boats or canoes on the lake.

Cousin Miriam graciously took the boys on the canoe so I could babysit Haylee under the pavillion!
She is SO cute and so good! She didn't say a peep while her mom and dad went out on the paddle boats and canoe with Mikelle.
Another darling daddy daughter duo!
Newlyweds Joe & Sarah are so cute! Even though they only got about 15 minutes of sleep total for the night in our cabin, it was still fun to see them!

The lake was dry last year when we were up so it was incredible this year to see how beautiful it was! The picture doesn't do it justice!

More train pics...
Cheese!
Hi boys!
It was so fun it looks like I posted this picture twice!

Pack Family Reunion 2008

After a near-disaster last year with the Gus family reunion here (Steve calls it "tick fest 2007" although it was really bed-bugs:), we were ready to give Heber Valley Camp another shot with the Dimond side. It is a beautiful area and the facilities can hold almost 4,000 campers at once (even though you would never see that many people as the cabins are spread out over the mountain).
After the train ride and a wonderful dinner, Steve was up as the emcee to host the talent show/program/business meeting. He was voted as the one to sing from our family and did a wonderful job. Sometimes it pays to "have talents in other areas" as I was able to sit and enjoy the whole program:)
Here's what I mean about the gorgeous dark coloring of the Packs! This is Russell & Marion Pack and their grand daughters singing. Russell also spoke on family history and gave us hope and encouragement in this area, sharing personal stories of his experiences. My favorite part of the program was when Grandma Dimond and all of her siblings each took five minutes and gave a quick talk on "What it meant to be a Pack." All five siblings are such incredible and responsible people and learned great lessons from their parents. They all made a point to mention that as a Pack, you were always on-time! Of couse I was almost beside myself with internal chuckling knowing that their parents would have died at one of our gatherings! I remember a Thanksgiving dinner starting almost 2-3 hours late once waiting for extended family:) We are all much better now but I made a new resolution at the reunion that I would try and live by the Pack plan that "it is better to be 30 minutes early than 1 minute late!" We were 10-15 minutes early for church today (like we are supposed to be) and it felt great to everyone except Christian who asked me why we had to come so early! He said it just made church that much longer:)
Christian was trying to enjoy the program as much as I was but his attention was more focused on the trying to carve the walking stick he found with his fingernails. It was a fun night at the amphitheater, with the fire going and God's creations at their best in that beautiful setting!

Heber Valley Railroad

This weekend was the Pack Family reunion! To kick things off, many of us rode the Heber Valley "Soldier Hollow Express" before heading up to the Heber Valley Camp Ground. It was a fun way to reacquaint ourselves with Steve's cousins and relatives.
We had to pay to "be hot" but it was worth it for being together in a relaxing fun atmosphere! All of the outdoor seats were taken, so we sat inside. We were able to get a pretty good breeze at times when the train was moving.
I didn't even realize that Steve and his cousin were in the same outfit until now:) It is always amazing to me when seeing the Packs again, how much they look alike. Most of them have the dark hair and features. Here is Steve with his cousin Allen. He now lives in Colorado. Thank goodness for Christmas cards and reunions or we may lose track of each other!
Steve's aunt Marge (plaid shirt) organized the whole reunion. She is super organized and a very talented writer. She has taken on the challenge several times of compiling family members' stories, and having them printed in a bound book. I can't even imagine the hours she has put in to create the "Legacy" books. I admire her leadership and perseverance so much!
Steve's "eagle eyes" spotted this bald eagle's nest along our train ride. We tried to zoom in to get a picture. The whole experience was so fun but we headed straight for slurpees to cool off afterward!

Seeing Double!

My friend Laurie has done a great job of getting our twins together again this summer after we both moved about 3 years ago from the ward which we met each other in. Her girls were born about 2 months before our boys and we both don't remember a whole lot about those days and years as we were both so sleep deprived and just tried to survive! It is so fun to see them now; great friends and so cute together! I still can't tell her girls apart!
They invited the boys to their house for water games one day and then we had them over for the slip-n-slide etc. They all had a great time. Laurie also took them all one day on her "Meals on Wheels" run (program that delivers a hot meal to shut-ins/homebound people). What a great example of service they were able to see! Mikelle joined in the slip-n-slide fun with the quad! We hope we see much more of the girls through the years!:)

Good Things Utah!

Ever since the Gus girls started going to GTU as part of our scrapbook weekend, Mikelle has been asking when she can go! She has asked for a couple of years now-so we just finally found a time and went! We got the front row this time! It was so fun! I love Mike McKay and think he does a great job with the studio audience, keeping us all informed of what to do and how loud to clap etc.:)
It was a fun treat to run in to the Jensens from Kaysville there. I went to high school with Amy and it was her Mom's 65th b-day. They were all celebrating with her. I just snapped a quick pic of their group!
It is always fun to meet the "girls" after the show and take pictures. Angie said to me, "how do I know you?" I explained that we were frequent fliers there and were last there on PJ Day with my sisters. Pretty soon we will all be going to Nicea's for lunch and then up to Reagan's for a quick horse ride:) It was fun to be there with a guest host there. She is also an RN. I thought she did a great job.
Now Mikelle can never say I didn't do anything for her! Grandma Gus recorded us on video and of course we had to Tivo ourselves! It was a fun morning out together!

Wicked cousins!!!

We have been trying to get our $$ worth on our Lagoon Season passes this summer, so I told my siblings when we would be there so we could try and do a few rides together. We were able to meet up with Jen & kids this past week and also saw Julie and her family there. Although everyone is not old enough to ride "WICKED," the kiddie rides are pretty fun for now!
I am loving this summer with "my babies!" They are growing up and are so fun to hang out with! I have tried to share fun memories from my childhood there (like skee-ball, jet-star, etc.) I am so disappointed the shooting gallery at Pioneer Village isn't there anymore as well as the slides in the Fun House and the paddle boats! Can you tell we had a blast there growing up? The kids love to stay until it closes at 10:00 p.m. and then crash on the way home.
They run all day and then are exhausted!
What a fun time we are having this summer and cousins just make it that much more fun! (We thought it was so funny that Izzy and Kennedy kept wanting to ride in each others strollers:) Oh oh those summer nights!

Lewis & Dimond

Mikelle has such a great time with her friend Emily. She is the one who told Mikelle about the triathalon etc. She is such a great girl and we are so glad they found each other! Their family always has Mikelle over to play and then she ends up eating dinner with them alot:), so to try to start to pay Emily back, we took her to Lagoon with us. Here they are with the boys at the Lagoona Beach.
We kind of forgot about taking more pictures until we left, so here they are in the parking lot by one of my favorite rides "Old Whitey" roller-coaster. I watch the news everyday so I can see who the lucky coaster cart was to go off the top of that thing! I know they inspect and fix things if needed everyday, but it still gives you the thrill of knowing you could be the lucky car when you ride it!
Our attempt at trying to get the ride "WICKED" in the background. Nice try! Too dark!
Close up of the two cuties!
Until next time, keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times, hold on tight and HAVE FUN! Thanks Emily for being such a great person and friend for Mikelle!!

A Day in the Life of Kennedy!

I just couldn't take Kennedy's ponytails only staying in and cute for an hour-so we headed Monday monrning to get a cute bob cut! She looks so cute and was smiling the whole time at the salon at herself in the mirror:)

Cute Kenz!...even if we never can get rid of Red Dye #5 mustache!
After the haircut, Kennedy had her first week of "cooking class" at the Rec center. All of the older kids did this and loved it and now it is Kennedy's turn. They don't include the cute little apron anymore with tuition-so we will have to bring our own next week!
Mikelle is able to attend with her as the "older sibling" assistant. This is heaven for Moms to have some big helpers! They made pigs in a blanket and a big pig cookie!
After cooking class, we headed to Costco to spend the usual "too much" and then off to Lagoon for the day! We finally tried the swim park part of Lagoon and it was SO NICE to cool off!
The kids loved the lazy river and slides. We only needed an hour or two to escape the heat. We then stayed for the broadway music show and more rides. Steve met us there after work. We had packed our food in and it all tastes so yummy after a busy day. It was a fun night. We stayed until we were kicked out at 10 p.m. It was fun to have Mikelle's friend Emily with us! We all had a good time! Kennedy of course fell asleep on the way home! She is such a sweetheart!