Family Reunion, Part 2- The Cabin

We spent the second half of the week at our family cabin. It is such a great place to be and to relax. Especially after having braved the elements for 3 days, it was nice to have a place to go inside. The kids love it because they can run and run and run. Plus they pretty much did whatever they wanted with very little adult intervention.Crazy cousins

Grandpa's rocket shooter, never-ending fun. With a little air compressor, the rockets would shoot at least a 100 feet into the air.

The Grygla Men

and the women

The kids.

Here is Jacob with his 2 cousins closest in age, Emma and Zoey.

My brother Dave, with the help of others put up quite the zipline down the meadow. The kids loved it and went as much as possible. He also put one over the ice cold pond, but no one seemed deterred by the temperature. There is something about those kinds of experiences that make being a kid so great.
I definitely had to include this sweet little picture of Brooke. What else do you need besides a life jacket anyway?

One the most important parts of the trip were the horses. Just being able to be with them and pet them was heavenly for Anna. Of course she realized once again that she was being deprived and desperately needed a horse and a dog. The poor girl is going to have to wait a while before any of that changes.

Grandma Charlotte and BrookeJacob with his cousin JamesThe plan was for the kids to have "kids camp" while all the adult siblings went off on the big hike. I unfortunately stayed behind for obvious reasons and helped out with the babies. Grandma and Aunt Shanna took all the kids on a hike up to a tree where my great grandparents had carved their initials into a tree. Cousin Sarah then gave a presentation on safety and emergency preparedness to all the kids. Grandma Carolyn had prepared emergency bags for each of the kids. They had a great time and were thrilled. They spent the afternoon making crafts and running around together.
Here is the hiking crew. See how fresh and excited they look? The hike turned out to be quite the challenge, and as you can see from the pictures below took a lot of team work. They all still came home quite exhilarated from their accomplishment, well except for poor Moss with his broken heel.
The water was quite disgusting and they were not excited to find a dead animal lying in a puddle at the top of the climb.

I had to include a few of the more glamorous pictures of these magnificent caves. To walk through them (when not filled with water) is really quite amazing.

Fun on the Water

The kids had a great time trying all sorts of new things. Anna wasn't quite as sure as Mary, but I was impressed that she was willing to do something so risky. I am sure that she would be quite a different person if Mary were not her older sister paving the way.
Mary was up for trying it all. This is her first time skiing and she got up on her second go at it. We couldn't get her to try anything outside of the wake, but I was impressed.

Moss had a great time on the wake board. I am not really sure if this was his first or second time, but you always pay the next day for fun on the board. Somehow you just never use those muscles for anything else. But as you can see he had a good time and really caught on quick. (It's not as easy as it looks.)While there are many things I love about the lake, I love the clear deep water. I love jumping out of the boat and just swimming around away from the beach and sand.

Grandma Charlotte was a great sport and I think she might have even enjoyed herself despite the heat and sand. The Sea Doos are so fun for everyone. The kids loved getting to drive and jumping the waves, although we avoided that for Charlotte's sake. It can make you a little nauseous when you are not the one driving. Jake just couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't want to go wild and fast.

Here is Aunt Steph with Anna and Abbi. Just one of the kids, and always ready for some fun! Needless to say the kids are not far away when Steph tries to do anything.

One thing Lake Powell is known for is its great cliffs for jumping. I guess they have made it illegal to jump off the really high cliffs, but we still made the most of it. Mary was very willing to jump, and made us a little nervous at how uninhibited she was.

All I can say is Home Sweet Home when I see pictures of the Lake. There is just something about the place you grow up. Maybe it's because I haven't really been back much since going to college, but it is heavenly to me.

Family Reunion, Part 1- Lake Powell

Well, we started our reunion on the beaches of Lake Powell. Granted it was Lone Rock, which is a beach we totally avoided as locals, but it was the only place for such a big group. Of course the kids didn't care. They had sand and water for three days. We had to drag them out of the water and into the car when it was finally time to leave.

The best part about being at the beach for vacation is that there is nothing to do but relax. We all enjoyed sitting in the shade and making an occasional swim out to the buoy for some exercise. We always made sure to be picked up by the sea doo for a ride back.

Grandpa and GrandmaThe cousins were thrilled to camp out together on the beach. They had such a great time. Don't they look so well rested?While camping is somewhat less enjoyable than a hotel, there is nothing like waking up at the beach. It was so peaceful and beautiful, and of course the kids could swim before breakfast. It was especially beautiful after going to bed amidst a sandstorm and the hours of rain.

Mary's Baptism

Mary was finally Baptized on August 3rd while we were out in Utah for our family reunion. She has been waiting for this day and was so excited to have all her family there. It was a very special day and we were very thankful for everyone making the effort to be there. Even her Grandma Charlotte flew out all the way from North Carolina to be there. She was sad that she couldn't have her church family there as well, but today she was quite honored to be recognized in front of everyone as the newest member of our ward.

Mary and Anna made their first public perfermance at the baptism singing "I Feel my Savior's Love". They were so cute and focused (They never took their eyes off the paper). I was actually a little worried because they hadn't had very many chances to practice, but it was so sweet to hear them sing together.

Mary's cousin Sarah, who is 10, gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. Lets just say Mary adores her. She did an amazing job. She even put together a blanket for Mary to remind her of the Holy Ghost's role as the comforter. Mary was thrilled to say the least. She sleeps with it every night. Thanks Sarah!

Christopher, another cousin, was very brave and played his violin accompanied by Grandma Carolyn on the piano . He played the primary song Baptism. Thanks Christopher!


This is the whole clan. It was astonishing how well the kids posed for the camera. It was a small miracle. Looking at the picture it doesn't seem like nearly as many kids as when they are all running around. We had such a great time together.