Our Trek West: Fireworks!

Monday NIGHT 7/4

After an afternoon of napping and shopping, the Earls reconvened for one last BBQ at Aunt Evie's

All day the weather threatened to turn ugly, but we only got a bit of spitting rain and cloud cover. It made for a pleasant 4th of July.

The cousins sure had a great time!

Jake is shown here sporting his haircut by Uncle Tim.

He's taller than Lala now! At Jake's recent sports physical the doctor pointed out that he has grown 5 inches since last fall.

He's such a patriot!

Dance Party!!!

Evie's basement doubles as a dance club.

How many people does it take to get Joel to do his baby dancin'?

We danced until the sun went down, then it was time for the neighborhood fireworks display!

 We gathered on Heidi's lawn and watched the uncles out themselves in harm's way all in the name of freedom.

God bless America and God bless families!

Our Trek West: Earl Family Olympics

Monday, July 4th

Same family, different park.

Lots of folks showed their patriotism by wearing red, white, and blue. Some showed their independence by wearing different clothes than mommy picked out for them.

Once again, Heidi and Evie pulled out all the stops. The 4 rival teams came together to compete in The Amazing Race.

One challenge involved dismantling Oreos, eating the filling, and spelling out the team name in cookies. Naturally, the team with the shortest name won. "The Ches" didn't have to take in as many calories for their team as "The Bunkerville Bunch" did.

Another event had us passing blueberries with chopsticks in order to fill our empty cups first. If we dropped a berry along the way, we had to start over! Ugh.

The Earl butt is almost as famous as J-Lo's. One contest had the grandkids shaking what their mama gave 'em. We strapped tissue boxes filled with ping pong balls to their backsides. They had to shake their way out. Bootylicious!

With so many English majors in the family, we were bound to have a literary-type contest. One event had us pouring over magazines in order to create a unique, "ransome note" styled poem.

We're not just about the brains. We've got brawn too. The final challenge involved holding 2 liter bottles from a string at shoulder height. The last one to drop was the winner.

 

 There was some unsportsmanlike cheating though.

Who won, you ask? Hahaha - I don't remember! We all did I guess (awwwww).

  I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!

Our Trek West: Earl Sunday Dinner

Sunday 7/3

Aunt Evie held a Sunday BBQ at her beautiful Riverton home.

It's amazing how small a good-sized house can feel when the Earls descend upon it. Most of us claimed spots in the backyard or on the deck.

The little kids took over Evie's unfinished basement.

We gabbed, we ate, we gabbed, we ate, we gabbed, we ate...you get the point.

Then it was a time for a change of venue. The kids prepared to move the party to a nearby park.

How someone got all these kids to sit still for a picture, I'll never know.

The park was in walking distance. Only a few kids were lost along the way, although one baby cousin arrived topless.

You've gotta love those long summer evenings in Utah when the sunlight sticks around until 10:00.

Sisters

And here we have 2 of the 4 Colyar grandboys (for now). Someone is expecting!

Many of the grown-ups sat on top of the berm to watch the kids running around the field below.

Lazy loafers! I'm so glad my kids are big now.

Uncle Darren brought some sort of launching device that he made. He shot bead necklaces into the air for the kids to catch.

It was a sort of Mardi Gras for Mormons.

It doesn't take much for us to make a good time. Food and space to run are the only ingredients necessary for a family reunion. Maybe a bathroom too.

Our Trek West: Colyar Family Photo Shoot

The Terry Colyar Family all stayed together in a McMansion for the Earl Family reunion. This gargantuan house sat high on a Draper hillside with a spectacular view of the valley. It included all the necessary amenities such as a steam shower with 7 different spray nozzles, a hot tub, a pool table, home theater, etc. We all fit just fine and had a great ol' time hanging out late into the night.

After churchin' on Sunday, we gathered outside for our Colyar family photo shoot. Magically, the weather cooperated with a nice overcast day, perfect for pictures.

The women folk did lots of shopping in order to outfit the family with complementary but non-matchy-matchy clothes. I absolutely love the colors we settled on!

It was next to impossible getting all the grand kids to cooperate for the pictures. There were many bribes and promises made that day.

Who cares that the baby boys are holding lollies in the picture? At least they aren't crying!

We invited ourselves over to neighboring houses to take advantage of their beautiful landscaping.

Have you ever seen so many photogenic kids in ONE family?!

Joel is just the right combination of his mommy and daddy. Don't you think so?

Yup. That's my superwoman of a sister.

Aunt Dusty was the official hairdresser for the day. Emma looks darling with her hair in loose curls. Notice the mascara as well. Oh my!

Dusty also snapped some pictures with her own camera, besides the ones the photographer took. I love the candids even better!

I've got some framing to do...