The Cardon Reunion 2008

Last weekend we went camping at the Spruces Campground, in Big Cottonwood Canyon, for the Cardon Family Reunion. We had a really good time. We ended up getting the perfect double campsite that we were able to cram our 4 tents into and all 20 of us stay in the same site. There was a nice little stream in back where the kids spent a ton of time "floating boats". It was cold at night, but all around great camping weather so we were able to relax and enjoy being together.

On Friday we hiked from the campground to Doughnut Falls. It was pretty hike with wildflowers and some patches of snow still on the ground. Gavin and Rich were thrilled to be able to throw snowballs and unsuspecting people. There was also a moose spotted by most of our group on several different occasions. I missed out on seeing it, but I guess I believe them, since there were pictures. :-(

On Saturday, we came home to shower and drop off dirty smokey stuff and then headed to Nathan's to hang out until Sunday. We spent plenty of time watching and playing the Wii and just hanging out. Here are a few shots from camping.

The babies did well, though Claire preferred to be inside for things like eating and being able to hang out on the floor. Here are a couple of extra cute pictures.

Claire and Mara

Happy Father's Day and... the Countdown to 30 is here...

Sunday was my 29th birthday and Father's Day. This is the first time since we have had kids that I shared by birthday with Father's Day. It was really nice. It made the birthday more fun to be focused on trying to make Caleb's day nice as well. And Gavin felt like it was a big party where everyone got presents. It was also nice that both happened on a Sunday, and that Caleb's morning meetings were cancelled. We really didn't know what to do with all of the extra pre-church time and help. We ended up giving Caleb a haircut, which I hadn't had time to do with the busy week that preceded Sunday. Really the nicest thing was just deciding that we weren't going to try and do anything complex and have a quiet day.

In the morning Caleb gave me some really great flowers, including 5 really large amazing sunflowers. I hope that I can get these to grow in my garden this year.

For dinner we tried out a new thing we have discovered... grilled pizza. We just have a small grill, so our pizzas weren't huge. It was amazing though, and they cook pretty quickly. I think this is going to become on of my favorite summertime meals. It tastes a lot like brick oven pizza, but I don't need a brick oven to make it.

Here's Caleb working on cooking some of the dough. You slightly cook one side and then flip it over and add the toppings and cook the other side a little more. Mmmmm.

Here we are getting ready to enjoy it.
I got these tulips for my birthday as well, Gavin was pretty proud of them.

It was a super great day, and now I am knocking on the door to 30... oh my.