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.

No Kids Allowed in NYC

The second week of our east coast adventure featured a trip to New York City. Caleb and I went to meet up with all of his siblings and spouses. The kicker is that no one brought their kids. It was quite strange for us, but with all of the things that we tried to pack in to 3 days, it was easy to just trust that they were ok without us. Caleb and I decided to take the Greyhound to NYC from Baltimore since it was cheap and we had heard that it wasn't too bad. Before we even got out of Baltimore the bus stalled out and though they got it started again, we were a bit skeptical (for good reason it turns out). So after two more instances of stalling out on the freeway after going through toll booths, the bus ended up starting again, but we were going up the freeway with smoke billowing out the back by the time we almost reach Delaware. Luckily, a bus from another line, owned by Greyhound was followed us into the rest stop and picked up everyone that was going to NY. We were already an hour late at this point, and ended up being 2 hours late arriving, but we made it. Not something I would recommend, but we got there.

Caleb and I were in New York for 3 days and it was quite a whirlwind. We were in bed at midnight and up by six everyday, it was like having a newborn again or something. We tried to pack as much in as we could, and still have plenty we would want to see when we ever make a trip back. Here are a few of the highlights...

This is our group and Lady Liberty

Nathan, Stacy, Caleb, Me, Rachel, Ben, Mara, Rich (partly obscured) and Crystal

While the large group got tricky at time, it was really great to travel and see everything with this great group. I hope that we will do it again someday.

Here are Caleb and I on Ellis Island.

Aside from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Statue of Liberty was my favorite thing.

This was from the top of the Empire State Building. The breathtaking skylines seemed to be one of Caleb's favorite, no matter where we saw them from.

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge after eating at Grimmauldi's Pizza. The Bridge was super cool.

The George Washington Bridge in the background.
The "dum-dum" at the Natural History Museum. (This wasn't my favorite place, I expected it to be different, and that more things there would be real and not replicas.)
Caleb with some sweet shades in Chinatown. He was right at home trying to barter people for everything, even when he secretly had no intention of buying it.
Mara and I at Saint John the Divine Cathedral. Very huge, this is just one of the doorways.
I am so glad that we were able to go on this trip and see this amazing city. We are also so grateful to Michelle and Laurtiz for taking care of the boys while we were gone. It was so nice to know that they were in good hands. As a side note, they did better than I would have ever expected, and Gavin didn't seem to miss us until the last day. Even with Henry being a bit sick, he still loved being with the Petersons and having so much fun. We definitely owe them for this. :-)

Happy Memorial Day

Yesterday, we made a trip to Arlington National Cemetery in order to avoid the president and the Memorial Day crowd that he would attract. There were still a lot of people visiting the cemetery, but we had a great experience. The sight of all of those who have gone before us and served our country was indeed profound. We had the boys bring their own flags so that there would be no temptation for them to disrupt the flags that were placed by each headstone. Gavin enjoyed trying to count and find all of the flags that were just like his. The sight was amazing. We were not the most quiet visitors that day, since the boys didn't quite grasp why there were being asked to be reverent outside, but they did surprisingly well at being respectful.

We also got to watch the changing of the guard and a traditional wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was very touching and hard to describe, but to see the care that is taken to show honor to that sacred sight was amazing.

Happy Memorial Day to you all, and a thanks to those who have gone before us to preserve the rights that we have and love.

(Gavin had a lot of questions about why people fight for our country after this trip, and finally decided that if it was so that we could go to church and wave our flag, then it was important to him. Amen to that.)

Sweet DC Architecture

On Tuesday before we went to the monuments at night we also tried to go and see the Supreme Court. We got there about 2 minutes after they closed the inside of the building, but the outside was also super amazing. It is just so big and the architecture is breathtaking.

You can glimpse Caleb and Gavin doing the traditional walk down the steps of the Supreme Court. You can kind of tell how huge it is by how tiny they are on the steps. Gavin had been asleep on the way, but was more than willing to make the walk.... perhaps he has dreams of being a justice there someday. 

We also went by the Library of Congress. It was really different than we had expected, and we wished we had been there in time for a tour. There were some old cool books on display that we did get to see, and once again, the amazing and huge building. We couldn't capture the whole thing with the camera. The windows and stone carvings were so intricate and detailed. We hope to go there again someday and get to see more of it.

Around the back of the Capitol building we saw this sign. Pretty funny. I went up the stairs to take a picture of it, and got a few funny looks at the way that we were all laughing about it. Just seemed odd placement, and a strange idea.

Monuments at Night

On Tuesday night we went to see the National Mall monuments at night. Very cool. Here are a few of our favorite shots.

The wall of the Vietnam Memorial with the Washington Monument in back. This is my favorite picture from the night.

The World War II Memorial.

Iwo Jima Momument... this thing is huge. Far bigger that you would expect... the pedestal that is stands on is probably about 7 or 8 feet tall.

From the side of the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the US Capitol.