Handlys take Zions 2014-Part 1

Due to the overwhelming number of photos taken at our awesome family reunion, this is going to have to be done in multiple posts!

We just returned for 3 nights of fun in Zion National Park. Every other year my family has a reunion. It is for the six siblings & families of my Dad and Mom. That encompasses about 36 people. This year my brother Mark was in charge of finding the location and arranging the details. We stayed at Clear Creek Ranch at the stables. There was enough space and bathrooms for us all. It was about a mile from the east entrance of Zion and easy to find.

My sisters family arrived at our house on Tuesday afternoon since their drive was too long for a single day. We enjoyed visiting, having dinner and playing games. We left Wednesday morning at 7am caravaning all the way, stopping at Costco in St George for supplies for our designated meals.

Once we arrived we quickly unloaded and the cousins we quick to start taking advantage of the ammenities at the ranch. Lots of canoeing, paddle-boating and swimming.

That evening we had spagettii all eating outside on the patio:

Sam thoroughly enjoy his dinner

After dinner there was volleyball and feeding/petting the horses that were grazing directly behind the property:

We tried to have an earlier evening in preparation for a 6am breakfast so we could get into the park on on the hikes before it got too hot.

Stay tuned for the next post for more on our family adventure in Zion!

Marathon Weekend..Utah Valley

Friday morning we packed up in Vegas and started our drive up to Provo. We pulled straight in to see Erika before she headed off on a camping trip for the weekend. We were glad she made the time to let us pop in!

From there we picked up N8's brother Brent and headed to pick up N8's marathon packet. While there N8 got his shin taped up to see if that would help with the shin splints he'd been suffering from.

We then went and checked into our hotel and took Brent to our carb loading dinner with pizza and pasta and a walk around BYU campus!

An early to bed night for a 3am drop off for N8 at the busses to the Marathon start line. The kids and I headed to the startline about 8am to find a spot to cheer daddy in!!

Here he is...26.2 for the 4th time!!

Although he wasn't super satisfied with his time 3:20, I think just being able to run that far is amazing and he should be nothing but proud! He took advantage of what they had there and got a massage after.

Then back to the hotel, a shower, packed up and headed North just a bit to met Carol & Bruce for lunch and some playtime at the park!

After that we started our drive back to Vegas where we spent Saturday night. We were up at 6am and leaving the hotel by 7am so we could make it back home for 1pm church on Father's day!!

A marathon weekend indeed!!

Vegas Vacation....

This past week N8 had to go to Las Vegas for meetings at Nellis Air Force Base and the kids and I tagged along. Free hotel, per diem and a pool!

We left Monday afternoon and made our way across our desert to the next in the blazing heat!

That evening we got some frozen yogert and watched some Studio C!

Tuesday we headed to Ethyl M's candy factory and tour. I am sad to say I was sorely disappointed- and so were the kids. We have been spoiled with the Jelly Belly factory tour, which is fabulous (informative, longer, guided, etc). I didn't even take a single picture. From there we headed to the outlet mall-restocked the kids on Crocs and some Disney tshirts. The highlight of the morning was probably lunch at 5 guys :)

Followed by our first day of swimming.

Back up in the room we had a little visitor on our windowsill!

That evening we  went for self serve yogurt, walked around the LDS Las Vegas Temple.

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N8 had some fun with the apps on his phone!

Wednesday we slept in, which was awesome! The we drove out to Boulder City to check out the big horned sheep. When we got there we were told they only come down in the afternoon, but lucked out and a dozen came into the park about 5 minutes later.

We watched them for a bit then headed down to the dam. It was hot and were were unprepared. So we didn't stay long, but the kids have now seen the Hoover Dam.

As we drove back we stopped at the park again and found a herd of about 50 big horned sheep in the park.

The afternoon was more swimming with an evening at a local park on the playground and looking at the ducks.

Thursday was an earlier morning. We drove in with N8 to the base and went to the Petting Zoo. This is not a typical petting zoo. It is old military machinery that you can get into/hold/touch/etc. It just happens to be right where N8 was having his meetings for the week, so we also met some of N8's coworkers from other bases.

After that we picked up some bread, headed back to the park and feed the ducks.

When we were done with the ducks we stopped at a Sketchers outlet and got some new shoes for Mo and Emma, lunch and more swimming!

That evening we ventured to our one an only Casino experience to eat at Steak 'n Shake. Still unsure how I feel about it (enjoyed the meal, not the Casino/Smoke/etc).

Friday morning we packed up and started our quick trip up to Provo....