We left very early on Friday morning in order to get in to Park City around 5. To keep the kids occupied I printed some games that I found on Pinterest. We also had a countdown and a map so the kids knew not to ask, “are we there yet?” It actually worked very well and it helped keep them patient.
When we arrived at the resort the kids were so excited. All of their cousins gradually arrived and they didn’t waste any time getting to the fun stuff. Grampy and the grandkids quickly discovered the fire pits out by the pool and made s’mores.
Park City is absolutely gorgeous in June. It is so green and the sky is as blue as can be. We couldn’t get enough of this beautiful place while we were there. The first morning we were there Chris and I went out for a run and it was simply beautiful. I love running when we are on vacation. It is so relaxing and nice to just enjoy our new surroundings while running.
While we were out running Grampy took these kids to the pool. I snapped this cute picture when we got back.
The first full day of our reunion was the Davis family reunion in Salt Lake. (My mom’s side of the family.) We drove down to Salt Lake and spent the afternoon in the park with Aunts and Uncles, cousins and their children. It was so much fun to catch up with cousins and I hadn’t seen in years. Here is a picture I took of Heather and Cisco with Dave and Ana.
Heather and I
A long time tradition in the Davis family that goes back generations is a saw dust treasure hunt. All the kids get to search for coins in the saw dust and it is mad chaos. Pretty messy if you ask me.
Libby crying about how few coins she found.
The next day was Father’s day and it was my turn to make breakfast. We assigned breakfast and dinner to each family so that way we could all eat together. Since it was Father’s day I wanted to do something a little more special so I made French toast with strawberries and bacon. Chris missed his usual gourmet breakfast with all the works but I was making breakfast for 24 people so I was doing pretty darn good considering the circumstances.
After breakfast we went to church at a ward that is called the visitor ward. I hadn’t ever seen anything like it. The other wards in the stake take turns conducting the meeting and there are no classes. It was a little weird because no on knew each other but it was fun and the kids were happy they only had to go for one hour! Later that evening we all went down to the pool area and barbecued burgers and corn on the cob. Cisco was the master at the grill. We learned very quickly that feeding 24 people was quite the task and took some major orchestrating.
Cute little Stella added so much fun to our reunion as she is the newest member of the family. The kids loved playing with her and tried to help Aunt Kristy and Uncle Wes with her.
I got this great picture of Grampy in the Jacuzzi with all of his grandkids. All 14 of em!
The kids loved playing around all the fun Jacuzzi's they had. The weather was nice but not very hot so it felt great to warm up in the Jacuzzi. I love this great action shot of Coleman.
Later that evening we walked up to the lift areas after they we closed and took some fun pictures of Grammy and Grampy with all of the grandkids.
We also took a hike up on of the ski runs. There were this big white mounds that we could see from down below. They looked like they had been ski jumps. You can see one in the lower left corner of this picture. From below they looked like they were made out of rubber of something and the snow would just cover it in the winter. As we got closer we realized they were actual mounds of snow left over from the ski season. Sawyer and Carter had a blast sliding down them and actually hiked up to the fourth one with Cisco. Chris and I were with Libby so we were going a little slower and didn’t quite make it that high. It was beautiful looking down below at the valley.
Here is a picture of Sawyer on top of one of the snow mounds.
We stopped to take this picture just before hiking back down. Maddie didn’t come with us and opted to go back to the room with her cousins.
Libby picked some beautiful wild flowers while we hiked and gave them to Grammy when we returned.
That evening the kids went for another round of s’mores. I think they had s’mores every night we were there!
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The following day we spent the entire day on the Alpine Slides and Alpine Coaster. The kids had so much fun and it was the highlight of our trip. They did not want to stop and kept going until they were the very last ones up on the lift.
I love the Alpine Coaster because you get pulled up on a track instead of riding a lift. It is a beautiful tranquil ride and then you fly down the mountain and it is exhilarating.
We were so glad that Libby was tall enough to go on everything! We had so much fun taking her on the coaster and the slides.
These kids just love being with their cousins.
Here’s Libby and I riding the lift up to ride the Alpine slides. You can see our hotel in the background. It was so nice to be so close to everything.
Here are the kids all ready to go down the slide. This doesn’t go as fast as the Alpine coaster but there is an element of danger which makes it more exciting. You can potentially fall off the track or your cart if you are going to fast on a turn. Poor Grampy, Davis and Uncle Wes. They all got road rash from falling off the slide. I guess its pretty common and happens many times a day there.
Heather looks like she’s having a great time!
Libby had fun going with Maddie on the slide.
They had a few little rides that the little kids could go on down at the base of the mountain. Libby is a sucker for Merry-go-rounds and went several times.
The following day we all headed down to Provo to go to one of our favorite places to eat, Brick Oven. My personal favorite is the chicken noodle soup, rootbeer and of course a cinnamon sucker on the way out! We met Bonnie and Roger there for lunch and had a wonderful visit.
After Brick Oven we headed over to BYU to check out the bookstore. As we walked through the Cougareat we noticed this sign. We all thought it was pretty cool that BYU is getting one of our all time favorite places to eat. If they’d had Chick-fil-A when I was a freshman that would have been trouble!
We all went to the Bookstore to pick out some t-shirts and fun BYU paraphernalia. With 14 grandkids, all of us adults and all the EFY teenagers the store was in complete chaos! We made it out okay after over an hour in the store!
We were hoping to get to walk around the campus a little bit but it was getting late and I had to make dinner that night. It was fun to drive down memory lane and drive past my old apartment and dorm. Those were wonderful memories I will never forget. I can only hope my children have those same opportunities I had when I went to college. On our way back we stopped at an authentic Hawaiian Shave Ice place right across from Helaman Halls. Check out the size of this thing! It was amazing!
Later that night we all enjoyed hanging out by the fire and making s’mores I had to capture this picture of Heather eating one because she never eats stuff like this. She enjoyed every bite of it!
The next picture needs some explaining… When I was young we had family reunions in Newport Beach every year with all of my Jones cousins. Not sure who introduced this game but we always enjoyed playing Oooga Booga. It is a silly game where someone dresses like King Oooga booga in a tribal type of outfit using makeup, jewelry and whatever else we could find. The rest of the people act like they are worshiping King Ooga Booga. The person is then brought in and has to follow King Ooga Boogas every command. He sits in a chair and has to get up and do several motions before sitting down. Of course the person is completely confused by the whole thing and just follows along. At some point a wet sponge is slipped on the chair and the person sits down right on it and the rest of the group squeals in laughter. Anyhow this game went on for years and when ever one of the cousins would get married or engaged, we would all play Oooga Booga to initiate the new person. We decided to have our own game of Ooga Booga with our kids. They were so excited to play it and we brought the older kids in one by one to play it. A few of them freaked out and started crying! A few of them were good sports but overall we had a fun time and we laughed a lot. I think we probably should have waited a few more years to start this tradition! We was a good sport and played the part of King Oooga Booga. Jeff also played it too, but I didn’t get his picture.
By the time we had finished all the kids had wet bums!
My dear cousin Barbara Jean who is the oldest cousin in the Jones Family lives in Salt Lake and has worked for the church for many years in different capacities but recently has done a lot with the Church History Library. She heard we were all coming up there and arranged for us to have a private viewing of some of the church history archives. We felt so lucky to have this amazing opportunity to see these wonderful artifacts from our church history. Here are some of the things we saw. Hopefully I can remember them correctly, since its been a few months.
This is a journal of Joseph Smith. It is known that he did not like to write so it is very rare to find his handwriting. He wrote the first few pages and then he had a scribe write the rest. What I found interesting were the scribbles on the inside of the front page. I like to think that one of his children made those scribbles. I think I have a few books with similar scribbles.
Willford Woodruff was known as an excellent Journal writer. This was one of his journals. The entry you see here was written on his wedding day. I love the way he decorated the sides of the page.
I’m bummed this picture didn’t come out more clear but this is Eliza R. Snow’s pocket watch. She was given this watch by Joseph Smith because she was the secretary in the first Relief Society presidency and it was to be used to keep time during their meetings. After Joseph Smith was martyred she would take this watch and show it to the people as she would bear her testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet.
This right here is the actual letter written by Joseph Smith while at Liberty Jail which later became Section 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants.
This is the Book of Commandments which is the most rare book relating to Church History. There are only about 30 known copies of the book and my Uncle Chris (Barbara Jean’s Dad) had the privilege of finding one of them and helped the owner sell it. The book is valued at $500,000. This was the first published book of the revelations of Joseph Smith. What we have today is the Doctrine of Covenants. The book has quite a history because as it was being printed a mob destroyed the printing press and burned it down. A couple of teenage girls grabbed all the pages they could and ran out into the corn fields. The pages those girls saved that day were later cut and bound to make the Book of Commandments. They were never reprinted because the press was destroyed. The pages of the book in this picture were literally the pages those girls saved in the corn fields. Here is a link to the story.
The following was perhaps my most favorite thing we got to see. This right here is the actual translation of the Book of Mormon. The original copy of it written in Oliver Cowdery’s handwriting. If you look where the person’s fingers are you read the words “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded…” My nephew Davis was invited to come up and read straight from the page before it was explained to us. It gave me chills and it was a very touching moment to hear him read the Book of Mormon straight from the handwriting of Olivery Cowdery and translated by Joseph Smith.
This is a first edition copy of the Book of Mormon. It is neat to thing of the people who held and read this book.
This is also a copy of the Book of Mormon, it was the first edition printed in England. The significance of this particular copy is great. Just before Joseph and Hyrum were sent to Carthage where they were martyred, Hyrum took this copy of the Book of Mormon and read Ether 12:36-38 which reads “And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that he would give unto the Gentiles grace, that they might have charity. And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: If they have not charity it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness, thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father. And now I … bid farewell unto the Gentiles; yea, and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood.” He turned down the page and closed the book. After reading this to us and telling us this story, the page was turned to that scripture and we could see where Hyrum had turned down the page. It was pretty marvelous!
What an amazing treat to be able to enjoy these artifacts from Church History. Thank you so much to my cousin Barbara who put this together for us to enjoy, and we will never forget! Barbara is the one in red. My Uncle Chris is in the center.
After we walked around Temple Square and enjoyed the beautiful grounds.
All the Jones girl cousins including Barbara Jean’s girls on the right.
We were able to get in touch with Sister Linda Reeves our dear friend and get a tour of her office and the Relief Society building.
After we left Temple Square before heading back to Park City I had to see my roomie, Megan. She works as a Speech Pathologist at a hospital in Salt Lake. She had us meet her after work for ice cream and it was such a treat to catch up. I absolutely love seeing my roommates!
I also got to see my other roommate Meagan who lives in Park City. We got to spend some time together one night for dinner and then I stopped by her house on the last night we were there to see her daughter Grace. It was so great to see her and catch up with her. It was like we were never apart. I feel so lucky to have such wonderful roommates. Even though we rarely see each other the memories are always there!
Libby and Grace who are just over a month apart, totally hit it off! They loved playing together. I can’t wait to get them together again!
The following day we packed up and headed out. It was sad leaving the family not knowing when the next time we’d be together again. The kids just love being with their cousins and I love being with my siblings and their spouses. I can’t wait to do this again in two years. We’re hoping to go to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina next time!
Libby was all tuckered out on the way home and we had a smooth ride home!
1 comment:
No one does family reunions like the Joneses! Looks like a great trip. Such cute cousins!
BTW, I remember my Ooga Booga initiation at the Reeveses' house like it was yesterday.
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